• U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken landed in Egypt as the Biden administration pushes for a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas.
• The conflict between Israel and Lebanon’s Iran-backed Hezbollah has been escalating over months of fighting triggered by the Gaza war.
• Blinken will discuss the need to reach a ceasefire agreement that secures the release of all hostages.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken landed in Egypt on Monday at a critical time as Washington seeks to increase pressure on Hamas and Israel to reach a ceasefire in Gaza and ensure the war does not expand into Lebanon.

Blinken met with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi in Cairo and is scheduled to travel to Israel later on Monday, where he will meet with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant.

In his eighth visit to the region since Hamas militants attacked Israel on Oct. 7, triggering the bloodiest episode in the decades-long Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the top U.S. diplomat is also set to travel to Jordan and Qatar this week.

BIDEN ADMIN SLAMMED FOR ‘DOUBLING DOWN’ ON ALLEGED GAZA REFUGEE PLANS

The visit comes after U.S. President Joe Biden on May 31 outlined a three-phase ceasefire proposal from Israel that envisions a permanent end to hostilities, the release of Israeli hostages and Palestinian prisoners, and the reconstruction of Gaza.

The Hamas attack killed 1,200 people and took some 250 others hostage, according to Israeli tallies. In response, Israel launched an assault on the Gaza Strip that has killed more than 37,000 Palestinians, the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory said in its Sunday update, and reduced the enclave to a wasteland.

Israeli forces rescued four hostages held by Hamas since October in a raid in Gaza on Saturday, during which 274 Palestinians were killed, according to Gaza’s health ministry.

Blinken’s trip comes after Israeli minister Benny Gantz announced his resignation from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s emergency government on Sunday, withdrawing the only centrist power in the embattled leader’s otherwise far-right coalition during the war in Gaza.

Blinken is expected to meet with Gantz on Tuesday, a senior State Department official said.

The departure of Gantz’s centrist party will not pose an immediate threat to the government. But it could have a serious impact nonetheless, leaving Netanyahu reliant on hardliners, with no end in sight to the war and a possible escalation in fighting with Lebanese Hezbollah.

Blinken has previously met with Gantz in visits to Israel.

The conflict between Israel and Lebanon’s Hezbollah is dangerously poised after more than eight months of fighting triggered by the Gaza war, with hostilities escalating and both sides signaling a readiness for a bigger confrontation.

Blinken during this week’s trip will discuss with partners the need to reach a ceasefire agreement that secures the release of all hostages, as well as the need to prevent the conflict from escalating further, State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said in a statement on Friday.

He will emphasize the importance of Hamas accepting the proposal on the table, Miller added.

Ceasefire talks have intensified since Biden’s speech and CIA director William Burns met senior officials from mediators Qatar and Egypt on Wednesday in Doha to discuss the plan.

Biden has repeatedly declared that ceasefires were close over the past several months, but there has been only one, week-long truce, in November.

Mustafa Nayyem announces resignation a day before an international conference focused on rebuilding Ukraine.

A senior Ukrainian reconstruction official has resigned, citing budget cuts and bureaucratic delays, as Kyiv seeks crucial international investment to rebuild after Russia’s invasion.

Mustafa Nayyem, head of the State Agency for Restoration and Infrastructure Development, announced his resignation a day before an international conference in Berlin dedicated to mobilising international support for Ukraine’s reconstruction.

“I made the decision on my own due to systemic obstacles that do not allow me to continue to effectively exercise my powers,” Nayyem said on the Telegram messaging application on Monday.

“Starting from November last year, the Agency’s team began to face constant opposition, resistance and the creation of artificial obstacles,” he said, adding that there were also delays in payment for defence fortifications.

The prominent former lawmaker also criticised a government decision to prevent him from travelling to the event in Berlin and the dismissal last month of the deputy prime minister for infrastructure, another critical wartime official.

Oleksandr Kubrakov said his dismissal was not discussed with him in advance and he did not get a chance to defend his tenure in a presentation to parliament.

Both Kubrakov and Nayyem, who was appointed in January 2023, had helped anticorruption authorities uncover suspected graft during sting operations last year.

I’ve made the decision to resign from my position as Head of the @RestoreUA. I reached this decision independently due to systemic obstacles that prevent me from effectively carrying out my duties. Thank you all for your support and work! https://t.co/YQpz0HCQ7x

— Mustafa Nayyem (@mefimus) June 10, 2024

“I do not exclude that in time there will be attempts to persecute and discredit our work in the public domain,” Nayyem wrote.

“In fact, this has already been happening for a long time,” Nayyem said, adding that his team “did not always fit in” to the current government and its style of management.

In his resignation announcement, the 42-year-old hailed his agency’s work on restoring roads and bridges in recaptured areas, building a water pipeline after the destruction of the Kakhovka Dam in June last year and protecting Ukraine’s energy infrastructure against Russian air strikes.

Nayyem became well known in Ukraine in 2013 when he called for rallies against the decision by Ukraine’s then-president to stall integration talks with the European Union.

The protests eventually led to the removal of President Viktor Yanukovych and precipitated hostilities with Kremlin-backed separatists in the east that simmered until Russia’s invasion in February 2022.