Top US diplomat Antony Blinken will begin a new Middle East trip this week, a spokesperson announced Tuesday, as President Joe Biden seeks 'urgent mechanisms' to reduce regional tensions over the Israel-Hamas war.
Relatives react during the funeral of an Israeli soldier on November 1, 2023, in a military cemetery in Jerusalem amid the ongoing battles between Israel and the Palestinian group Hamas. Thousands of civilians, both Palestinians and Israelis, have died since October 7, 2023, after Palestinian Hamas militants based in the Gaza Strip entered southern Israel in an unprecedented attack triggering a war declared by Israel on Hamas with retaliatory bombings on Gaza.
Biden and King Abdullah II “discussed urgent mechanisms to stem violence, calm rhetoric, and reduce regional tensions,” a White House statement said. Israel’s retaliatory bombardment has killed more than 8,500 people, according to the Gaza health ministry, sparking widespread anger in the region and stoking fears that Gazan refugees may spill across the border into Egypt as refugees.