US State Secretary Antony Blinken is due to fly to Egypt as part of a Middle East crisis tour seeking a new truce and “an enduring end” to the Israel’s incursion in Gaza, AFP reports.
In Cairo, Blinken is scheduled to met Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi, the day after he held talks in Riyadh with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.
The trip, Blinken’s fifth to the region in the nearly four-month-long conflict, will later include stops in Israel and Qatar.
Blinken’s diplomatic push has been given fresh urgency with Israeli forces pressing further south towards Rafah, a Palestinian city on the southern border with Egypt where more than half the population of the Gaza Strip has taken shelter.