Matthew Miller, State Department spokesperson, told reporters that Blinken and Arab ministers will hold talks on Friday in the British capital without specifying what country’s ministers will attend.
Blinken, who was in Saudi Arabia on Wednesday, has been visiting countries in the Middle East since Monday, discussing a peace deal for the Israel-Gaza war and the release of hostages, according to the State Department.
Palestinian Hamas militants launched a large-scale incursion into southern Israel on October 7, 2023, killing more than 1,170 people, according to Israeli figures. Israel responded with a massive ongoing offensive in Gaza, killing at least 42,227 people, mostly civilians, according to the Palestinian health ministry.
On Thursday, the Israeli military confirmed the death of Palestinian Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar, who it said was the mastermind behind last year’s attack.
Blinken told reporters on Wednesday in Tel Aviv that much of Hamas’ military capabilities have been dismantled and its senior leadership eliminated.
“[T]here are really two things left to do: get the hostages home and bring the war to an end with an understanding of what will follow,” he said, according to a State Department readout.
On Tuesday, Blinken met with Israeli President Isaac Herzog in Tel Aviv.
“They discussed efforts to promote a diplomatic resolution along the Blue Line that will allow civilians on both sides of the border to return to their homes,” stated a US readout of the meeting. Blinken also “reaffirmed the United States’ ironclad commitment to Israel’s security.”
Blinken stressed “the imperative to restore sustained humanitarian aid to Gaza” while reiterating the importance of ending the conflict.
After nearly a year of war in the Gaza Strip, Israel turned to its northern neighbor to remove pro-Iran Hezbollah fighters from southern Lebanon and allow tens of thousands of Israelis displaced from the north by the Lebanese group’s constant rocket and drone strikes to return safely to their homes.
Since the start of the conflict, Israeli bombardments have killed 2,464 people and injured 11,530 others in Lebanon, according to data compiled by the Lebanese health ministry last week. Nearly a quarter of the population, 1.2 million people, have been displaced, Lebanon's caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati said earlier this month.
