US Secretary of State Antony Blinken will hold talks with key Israeli opposition figures today, a day after he arrived in the country to push a ceasefire plan for the offensive in Gaza AFP reports.

It comes after the UN Security Council adopted a US-drafted resolution supporting a six-week ceasefire plan, under which Israel would withdraw from Gaza population centres and Hamas would free hostages taken during the October 7 attacks.

Blinken will today meet Benny Gantz, a centrist and former army chief who quit Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government on Sunday, in Tel Aviv, as well as opposition leader Yair Lapid.

Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas described the UNSC vote as a “step in the right direction”.

The United States has expressed hopes that Abbas’s Palestinian Authority, which is based in the West Bank and which has no authority over Gaza, will play a role in managing the territory in the future.