US Secretary of State Antony Blinken is set to visit Israel next week amid hostage deal talks, The New York Times reported on Friday citing an Israeli official.
Israel’s KAN News reported the same day that Blinken will arrive in Israel on Tuesday.
The Secretary of State will be in the country to discuss with officials about Israel’s planned Rafah incursion as well as talks for a hostage release deal, the Times reported, while also stating that “tensions have risen between Israel and the United States over the treatment of civilians in the war.”
The Israeli official who spoke with the Times On Blinken’s visit he spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not clear about speaking about the visit publicly.
Consequences of a Rafah operation
Blinken had previously said that an invasion into Rafah would pose severe risk to the city’s displaced population, and that the Biden administration would not endorse such an operation unless guaranteed there was a plan put into place that would protect civilians. The same day the Times report came out, he also defended the protests at US universities over Israel’s war in Gaza as a “hallmark of American democracy,” but criticized what he called the “silence” about Palestinian terrorist group Hamas.
The terrorist organization said on Saturday that it received Israel’s official response to its latest ceasefire proposal and will study it before submitting its response.
A Biden administration official, also speaking on condition of anonymity, told reporters Thursday that Hamas was to blame for blocking a six-week ceasefire deal that would release 40 of the most vulnerable hostages, which would also see the release of hundreds of Palestinians held in Israeli prisons.
