Blinken to push for more aid for Gaza in talks with Netanyahu

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken met Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at talks aimed at ensuring more aid flows into Gaza, amid increasingly tense relations between the two allies over the six-month-old war with Hamas.

Blinken, on his sixth trip to the Middle East since the war broke out on October 7, has been engaged in an intense round of diplomacy since arriving in the region on Wednesday, meeting Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in Saudi Arabia and foreign ministers and officials from Arab nations in Cairo on Thursday.

Parallel meetings are also taking place in Doha on Friday aimed at securing a ceasefire in the conflict.

The top US diplomat's latest visit to Israel comes at a time of strained ties between the two countries, with US President Joe Biden calling Israel's campaign in Gaza "over the top" and saying it has had too great a toll on civilian lives.

Blinken said he would address the growing gap between the two countries in his one-on-one conversation Netanyahu. He is also set to meet with the Israeli war cabinet.

Blinken will push Netanyahu to take urgent steps to allow more aid into the densely-populated enclave, where mass death from famine is imminent, according to the United Nations.



Reuters