Image source, Reuters

As Antony Blinken lands in Israel, the UK Foreign Secretary Lord Cameron is visiting Australia for ministerial talks, but raising concerns about Gaza is also on the agenda.

Cameron and Defence Secretary Grant Shapps met their Australian counterparts, Penny Wong and Richard Marles, in Adelaide.

In a joint statement, they "expressed the urgency of an immediate cessation of fighting in Gaza to allow aid to flow and hostages to be released as a crucial step toward a permanent, sustainable ceasefire".

The statement also called on Israel to allow "immediate, safe, unimpeded and increased humanitarian relief" to reach Gaza.

"All parties must act within international humanitarian law."

Yolande Knell
Middle East correspondent, in Jerusalem

Image source, Reuters

This week Israeli troops returned to al-Shifa - Gaza’s biggest hospital - with the Israeli military saying it had "concrete intelligence" of Hamas operatives having regrouped there.

Israeli military said it had killed "over 140 terrorists" in ongoing fighting at al-Shifa and to have made some 600 arrests, including dozens of top Hamas commanders as well as some from Islamic Jihad.

Israeli reports suggest that in recent weeks the army found that senior Hamas figures had resumed operations at al-Shifa and that some even took their families to the hospital. The IDF says it uncovered arms caches and a large quantity of cash at the site.

Hamas has denied that its fighters were based there and claims that those killed were wounded patients and displaced people.

Four months ago, the same hospital was stormed by soldiers, who said it was being used as cover for a Hamas command and control centre.

While Hamas has undoubtedly been severely weakened by the war, there have been signs that it has been trying to restore its governing capability. There’s worry too from the US that Israel does not have an adequate strategy to dismantle the organisation.

On top of that, there has long been talk of a military operation in Rafah, in the far-south of the country, which Israel insists it must carry out to win the war with Hamas.

The thought of such an offensive is something that has caused international concern, particularly over the impact it could have on the millions of Gazans now displaced there.

• You can read more about the latest raid on al-Shifa, and what it shows about Hamas’s capabilities here.

Image source, Reuters

Earlier this week, Antony Blinken warned that the entire population of Gaza was experiencing "severe levels of acute food insecurity".

"That's the first time an entire population has been so classified," he said, in some of his strongest comments yet in setting out the scale of the humanitarian crisis in Gaza.

Acute food insecurity is when a person's inability to consume adequate food puts their life or livelihood in immediate danger. If unaddressed, it leads to starvation.

Blinken called on Hamas to lay down arms, but said Israel needed to prioritise helping those in need. Meanwhile Volker Turk, UN human rights chief, said the catastrophic hunger in Gaza was "human-made and... entirely preventable", laying blame on Israel's" extensive restrictions on the entry and distribution of humanitarian aid”.

Israel's diplomatic mission to the UN in Geneva said Turk was seeking to blame it for the situation in Gaza, and “completely absolve the responsibility of the UN and Hamas”.

"Israel is doing everything it can to flood Gaza with aid, including by land air and sea," it insisted.

• You can read more about Blinken’s food insecurity warning here.

Blinken's main focus getting Netanyahu to listen to US concernspublished at 09:08 Greenwich Mean Time 22 March

09:08 GMT 22 March

Tom Bateman
Travelling with the US Secretary of State Antony Blinken

Image source, Reuters

After the short flight from Cairo, we hit the tarmac in Tel Aviv in a US Air Force C-17.

The welcome flags were out for Antony Blinken but like the hulking grey military plane we arrived in, the day is likely to be stripped of the usual fuss and niceties.

He’s now heading to the Ministry of Defence where he’ll meet with Prime Minister Netanyahu and the Israeli war cabinet.

They’ll talk about progress towards the ceasefire-for-hostage-release deal on the table with Hamas.

Blinken says the gap is narrowing but still no breakthrough seems imminent. That work’s being done in Doha.

The main thing Blinken will want to leave Tel Aviv with is a sense the US can actually get Netanyahu to listen.

The US-Israel relationship is now under significant stress. Washington wants aid poured into Gaza amid UN warnings of an imminent famine. And they don’t want a ground assault on Rafah. But they face an Israeli leader who so far has been prepared to publicly defy their requests, saying his prioity is acting for Israelis.

Image source, Getty Images

Let's turn our attention to what's happening on the ground in Gaza, and a Unicef worker says "The devastation in Gaza is unlike anything most people have ever seen".

Speaking on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, James Elder, from the UN children's agency, says it’s imperative to implement an immediate ceasefire and allow more aid into the country. He says Gaza is teeming with people living on the streets desperate for food, including children, describing it as a "malnutrition crisis".

Elder says more land crossings for aid deliveries need to be opened but a ceasefire would be the "gamechanger", adding that it’s "almost Gaza’s last hope".

Speaking from the southern city of Rafah, he adds that it’s "now a city of children and the idea that there will be no ceasefire and a military offensive here, it will be just catastrophic for children, for civilians here".

It’s not just the war in Gaza that’s been on Antony Blinken’s agenda on his visit to the Middle East.

A visit to Saudi Arabia on Wednesday made “very good progress” towards normalising relations between Israel and Saudi Arabia, he said, something that has been delayed by the war.

The top US diplomat said he could not "put a time frame on it", but that discussions were "getting close to a point where we'll have agreements".

Saudi Arabia - which positions itself as a leader in the Middle East and the Islamic world - never formally recognised Israel after its creation in 1948, and a deal normalising ties would represent a major breakthrough.

The US is a close ally of both countries, and before the outbreak of war, talks were “getting closer”.

Image source, Reuters

Yesterday Antony Blinken was in Cairo for, what he called, “productive” talks with ministers from a number of Arab countries.

Speaking at a press conference, he said the gaps were “narrowing" in ongoing talks aimed at reaching a ceasefire in Gaza, alongside the release of hostages being held by Hamas.

“There’s still difficult work to get there, but I continue to believe it‘s possible,” Blinken said, adding that the US was in agreement with its Arab allies for the need for a ceasefire.

A planned major military operation by Israel in the Gazan city of Rafah would be "a mistake", Blinken said, calling it "unnecessary".

America’s top diplomat also called on Israel “to do more" to allow more humanitarian aid into Gaza, where he said the entire population faced severe levels of food insecurity.

Image source, Reuters

The US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has arrived in Israel from Egypt as he continues his efforts to secure a truce in Gaza linked to the release of hostages held by Hamas.

He'll meet Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, at a time of strained relations between the US and Israel.

Nada Tawfik
Reporting from New York

The US draft resolution, which the UN Security Council will vote on later today, is carefully worded.

Rather than a direct call for a ceasefire, the text expresses support for the US/Egyptian and Qatari efforts to reach a hostage deal and links that to the imperative for an immediate and sustained ceasefire.

The US mission at the UN said that the resolution was an opportunity for the council to support diplomacy happening on the ground and pressure Hamas to accept the deal on the table.

Another vote could take place later in the day on a draft resolution put forward by the elected ten members of the Security Council.

Using stronger language than the US draft, it demands an immediate humanitarian ceasefire for the Muslim holy month of Ramadan leading to a permanent sustainable ceasefire. It also calls for the release of all hostages and expanded humanitarian access.

France’s UN Ambassador said every time there was a crisis, the Security Council called for a ceasefire and then talks, and Gaza should not be an exception.

On Thursday the US ambassador to the United Nations indicated she hoped to bring a resolution supporting calls for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza and the release of hostages held by Hamas to the Security Council as soon as possible.

Linda Thomas-Greenfield said changes to the US proposal had been made in consultation with other countries, including Arab nations.

The move has already been supported by Antony Blinken, who said the move would send a "strong message".

Speaking at a news conference in Cairo yesterday Blinken said the gaps were “narrowing" in talks towards an agreement on the release of hostages and a ceasefire.

Nadia Ragozhina
Live reporter

Image source, Reuters

Hello and welcome to our live page covering the visit of US Secretary of State Antony Blinken to the Middle East.

It’s his sixth trip to the region since Hamas attacked Israel on 7 October, and Israel’s military began its war in Gaza in response.

Blinken arrived in Saudi Arabia on Wednesday and also met officials in Egypt yesterday before he turns his attention to Israel today.

His talks in the region are focussing on what the US calls "an architecture for lasting peace".

Stay with us as we bring you developments as they happen.