US Secretary of State Antony Blinken is welcomed by the Second Secretary for Egypt's Ministry of Foreign Affairs protocol Sarah Henry (R) upon arrival at Cairo East Airport in Cairo on February 6, 2024. (Photo by Mark Schiefelbein / POOL / AFP)
Cairo, Egypt: US Secretary of State Antony Blinken was in Cairo on Tuesday for a meeting with Egyptian leaders that US officials said would concentrate mainly on the task of negotiating a cease-fire in the Israel's war on Gaza in exchange for the release of hostages held in Gaza.
Blinken's visit also comes amid growing concerns in Egypt about Israel's stated intentions to expand the combat in Gaza to areas on the Egyptian border that are crammed with displaced Palestinians.
Israel's defense minister has said Israel's offensive will eventually reach the town of Rafah, on the Egyptian border, where more than half of Gaza's 2.3 million people have sought refuge and live in increasingly miserable conditions.
UN humanitarian monitors said Tuesday that Israeli evacuation orders now cover two-thirds of Gaza's territory, driving thousands more people every day toward the border areas.
Egypt has warned that an Israeli deployment along the border would threaten the peace treaty the two countries signed over four decades ago. Egypt fears an expansion of combat to the Rafah area could push terrified Palestinian civilians across the border, a scenario Egypt has said it is determined to prevent.
Blinken, who was meeting Tuesday with Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi, has said repeatedly that Palestinians must not be forced out of Gaza.
During his latest trip, Blinken is seeking progress on a cease-fire deal, and on preventing an escalation of regional fighting.
Egypt - along with Qatar, where Blinken will be later Tuesday - have been trying to mediate an agreement between Israel and Hamas that would lead to the release of more hostages in return for a several-week-long pause in Israeli military operations.
US officials said Blinken is hoping to get an update on Hamas’ response to the proposal in both Cairo and Doha. Blinken will then travel to Israel to brief Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his War Cabinet on Wednesday about what he heard from the Arab leaders.
The Health Ministry in Gaza said the known Palestinian death toll is at 27,478 people after nearly four months of war. A quarter of Gaza's residents are now starving and 85% of the population has been driven from their homes, with hundreds of thousands crammed in makeshift tent camps.
