United States Secretary of State Antony Blinken flew to Egypt and Jordan yesterday on a diplomatic mission aimed at shoring up a ceasefire that ended an 11-day war between Israel and the Gaza Strip’s ruling Hamas militant group.

He landed in Cairo a day after holding intensive talks with Israeli and Palestinian leaders. In Egypt, he met President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi and other senior officials, and later travelled to Jordan to meet King Abdullah II.

Mr Blinken has vowed to “rally international support” to rebuild hard-hit Gaza while promising to make sure that none of the aid reaches Hamas. He is instead trying to bolster Hamas’s rival, the internationally recognised Palestinian Authority.

He has set modest goals for his first official visit to the Middle East as secretary of state. His main targets have been to help rebuild Gaza and lower the tensions in contested Jerusalem that fuelled the war.

But he has made it clear the US has no immediate plans to pursue peace talks between the sides and has done little to address the underlying causes of the decades-long conflict, though he expressed hope for creating a “better environment” that might lead to negotiations.

In Cairo, Mr Blinken met Mr el-Sisi for nearly two hours. Talking with American diplomatic staff afterwards, he described Egypt as a “real and effective partner” that helped end the Gaza war and is helping “build something positive”. Mr el-Sisi spoke to US President Joe Biden last week before and after the ceasefire was announced.

“I think we both believe strongly that Palestinians and Israelis deserve equally to live in safety and security, to enjoy equal measures of freedom, opportunity and dignity. And we’re working on that together,” Mr Blinken said before departing to Jordan.

Mr el-Sisi issued a statement saying the latest round of violence illustrated the need to urgently resume direct negotiations. He called for “active American engagement” to bring Israel and the Palestinians back to the negotiating table.

Egypt and Jordan are key US allies that have peace agreements with Israel and frequently serve as mediators between Israel and the Palestinians.

Egypt maintains ties with Hamas, but also enforces a tight blockade on Gaza, along with Israel, with a shared goal of preventing the Islamic group from arming.

The stop in Cairo, along with Mr Biden’s phone talks with Mr el-Sisi, signal a closer relationship between the countries after a cooler beginning, when the US expressed concern over Mr el-Sisi’s human rights record.

The Gaza reconstruction effort will be an important test. The 11-day war led to the killings of more than 250 people, mostly Palestinians, and caused heavy destruction in the coastal territory. Preliminary estimates have put the damage in the hundreds of millions of euro.