Afghan Voice Agency (AVA): According to Reuters news agency, Blinken entered Ben-Gurion Square in Tel Aviv on Sunday evening (28 Asad). According to Blinken's delegation, the high-ranking US diplomat, on his ninth visit to the region, will first meet with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Defense Minister Yoav Galant and President Yitzhak Herzog on Monday. He will then leave for Egypt on Tuesday, August 20.
According to Vedant Patel, the spokesperson of the US State Department, Blinken will meet with Egyptian government officials in Cairo. Negotiations on the ceasefire and the release of the hostages, which broke down in Doha on Friday, August 16, are expected to resume later this week in Cairo, the Egyptian capital.
The United States, Egypt, and Qatar have been mediating for months between Israel and the Hamas group, whose unprecedented large-scale attack on Israel on October 7 started the war in the Gaza Strip.
According to Reuters, a high-ranking member of the delegation, Anthony Blinken, said that the ceasefire negotiations and the release of the Israeli hostages are at a turning point. The US Secretary of State intends to make it clear to all parties that an agreement must be reached.
Israel's negotiating team in the Gaza ceasefire talks in Doha after returning to this country expressed their "relative optimism" about the progress of the talks.
In this regard, Netanyahu's office announced that the Israeli delegation, after returning from Doha, expressed optimism that an agreement would be reached based on the recent plan and proposal presented by the United States.
In this regard, it was announced: "It is hoped that the heavy pressure of the United States and also the negotiating teams on Hamas will cause this group to stop standing and oppose the US proposal and a successful step will be taken towards the fruitfulness of the negotiations."
This was Israel's first official position after holding two-day talks in Qatar on the way to a cease-fire agreement in Gaza and the release of hostages.