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Smoke floods the horizon in Rafah, southern Gaza, after Israeli bombardment on Wednesday. (Said Khatib/AFP/Getty Images)

Middle East conflict live updates Blinken meets with Egypt’s Sisi, is set to stop in Israel on regional tour

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Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Thursday visited Egypt, where he met with President Abdel Fatah El-Sisi as part of his regional trip for talks to halt the fighting in Gaza. Blinken is set to visit Israel on Friday, as negotiations for a cease-fire and hostage release deal in Doha, Qatar, appear to falter. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu approved a delegation of Israeli officials led by David Barnea, head of Israel’s Mossad intelligence service, to travel to Qatar on Friday to work on the cease-fire negotiations, Netanyahu’s office said.

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The Israeli delegation to Doha is set to meet with CIA Director William J. Burns, Qatari Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdel Thani and Egyptian Intelligence Minister Abbas Kamal. Blinken told reporters Thursday that the gap between Israel and Hamas on negotiations was “narrowing.”
The Israeli military said Thursday that its raid of al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City was ongoing and that 140 militants were killed. Civilians in the area have said they were trapped in dire conditions. Israel’s chief of the general staff said from the hospital that the goal was striking Hamas and “putting pressure on the negotiations.”
Some 35 percent of all buildings in Gaza, more than 88,000 structures, have been damaged in the conflict, according to a U.N. assessment based on satellite imagery. Of them, more than 30,000 have been destroyed.
Canada will maintain a pause on arms exports to Israel unless it is certain that their use would not breach legal controls on permitted exports, said Mélanie Joly, Canada’s foreign minister. There have been no new export permits of that type to Israel approved since Jan. 8, she said.
At least 31,923 people have been killed and 74,096 injured in Gaza since the war began, according to the Gaza Health Ministry, which does not distinguish between civilians and combatants. Israel estimates that about 1,200 people were killed in Hamas’s Oct. 7 attack and says 251 soldiers have been killed since the start of its military operation in Gaza.
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The Israeli delegation to Doha is set to meet with CIA Director William J. Burns, Qatari Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdel Thani and Egyptian Intelligence Minister Abbas Kamal. Blinken told reporters Thursday that the gap between Israel and Hamas on negotiations was “narrowing.”
The Israeli military said Thursday that its raid of al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City was ongoing and that 140 militants were killed. Civilians in the area have said they were trapped in dire conditions. Israel’s chief of the general staff said from the hospital that the goal was striking Hamas and “putting pressure on the negotiations.”
Some 35 percent of all buildings in Gaza, more than 88,000 structures, have been damaged in the conflict, according to a U.N. assessment based on satellite imagery. Of them, more than 30,000 have been destroyed.
Canada will maintain a pause on arms exports to Israel unless it is certain that their use would not breach legal controls on permitted exports, said Mélanie Joly, Canada’s foreign minister. There have been no new export permits of that type to Israel approved since Jan. 8, she said.
At least 31,923 people have been killed and 74,096 injured in Gaza since the war began, according to the Gaza Health Ministry, which does not distinguish between civilians and combatants. Israel estimates that about 1,200 people were killed in Hamas’s Oct. 7 attack and says 251 soldiers have been killed since the start of its military operation in Gaza.
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Israel-Gaza war

Israel-Gaza war: Secretary of State Antony Blinken is set to make a quick stop in Israel as tensions are rising between the United States and Israel over Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s plans to invade Rafah. The Israeli military said Wednesday that it was continuing its raid on al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City, where people said they were trapped in dire conditions.

Middle East conflict: Tensions in the region continue to rise. As Israeli troops aim to take control of the Gaza-Egypt border crossing, officials in Cairo warn that the move would undermine the 1979 peace treaty. Meanwhile, there’s a diplomatic scramble to avert full-scale war between Israel and Lebanon.

U.S. involvement: U.S. airstrikes in Iraq and Syria killed dozens of Iranian-linked militants, according to Iraqi officials. The strikes were the first round of retaliatory action by the Biden administration for an attack in Jordan that killed three U.S. service members.