The US Secretary of State is on his seventh visit to the Middle East since the beginning of the war in Gaza / Diena

He is expected to arrive in Jordan today and visit Israel on Wednesday.

The State Secretary’s trip takes place at a time when concerns about in Hamas and the spread of the Israeli conflict in the region. In addition, the ongoing hostilities in the Gaza Strip, in which, after in Hamas according to the data of the Ministry of Health of the controlled Gaza, more than 34 thousand Palestinians have already lost their lives, has stopped the improvement of relations between Israel and Saudi Arabia that was observed before. Israel refuses to support the creation of a Palestinian state, which Saudi Arabia sees as the main terms for normalizing relations with Israel.

The administration of US President Joe Biden has been working closely with Egypt and Qatar for months in an effort to reach an agreement between Israel and Hamas on the release of hostages taken in the October 7 invasion of Israel in exchange for a cessation of hostilities and the release of Palestinians imprisoned in Israeli prisons.

So far, however, no significant result has been achieved in these negotiations. The Americans are trying to get Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to abandon plans to launch a major military operation in the southern Gaza city of Rafah, home to more than a million Palestinians who have fled fighting in the northern Gaza Strip. B. Netanyahu has expressed the opinion that such a military operation is the only way to destroy the Hamas militants hiding in Rafah and in the tunnels under the city.

On Sunday, J. once again discussed these plans in a telephone conversation. Biden and B. Netanyahu. CNN reports that J. Biden has once again reiterated his “clear position” that the US opposes plans for a military operation in Rafah, as it believes that hostilities in the overpopulated city can further worsen the humanitarian situation. J. Biden also emphasized the need to achieve a more efficient delivery of humanitarian aid to Palestinian civilians in Gaza.

Now in Hamas about 130 hostages captured in Israel are still in captivity, including the remains of 30 hostages.