Blinken arrives in Saudi Arabia for new Mideast crisis tour

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken arrived Monday in Riyadh at the start of a new crisis tour aimed at pushing an elusive Israel-Hamas ceasefire and increasing humanitarian aid into the Gaza Strip.

1. A senior Hamas official said the Palestinian militant group will deliver its response to Israel's latest counter-proposal for a Gaza ceasefire at talks in Egypt on Monday.
2. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken will visit Israel and Jordan on a trip through Wednesday, the State Department announced, after the US and Israeli leaders discussed hostage-release talks by telephone.
3. US President Joe Bidenspoke Sunday with Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and reiterated his "clear position" on Israeli plans to invade Gaza's southernmost city of Rafah, the White House said.
4. At least 34,454 Palestinians have been killed and an estimated 77,575 have been injured in Israel's military offensive in Gaza, according to the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory. Some 1,170 people were killed in the Hamas-led October 7 attacks that sparked the war and 250 people were taken hostage, according to Israeli figures, with 132 still missing.

9:30am: Israel kills at least 20 Palestinians in Gaza's Rafah

Israeli airstrikes on three houses in the southern Gaza city of Rafah killed at least 20 Palestinians and wounded many others, medics said on Monday.

In Gaza City, in the north of the Gaza Strip, Israeli warplanes struck two houses, killing at least four people and wounding several people, health officials said.

The strikes on Rafah, where more than one million people are seeking refuge from months of Israeli bombardment, took place hours before Egypt was expected to host leaders of the Islamist group Hamas to discuss prospects for a ceasefire agreement with Israel.

The Israeli military said it was checking the report

9:28am: Talks on Gaza ceasefire progressing but we remain prudent, says French FM

Talks on a ceasefire in Gaza are progressing, French Foreign Minister Stephane Sejourne said on Monday in Riyadh, where he was due to meet other ministers of Arab and Western countries as well as Palestinian Authority president Mahmoud Abbas

"Things are moving forward but you always have to be careful in these discussions and negotiations. The situation in Gaza is catastrophic and we need a ceasefire," he told Reuters.

8:31am: Hamas delegation to arrive in Egypt for Gaza truce talks

A Hamas delegation is due Monday in Egypt, where it will respond to Israel's latest proposal for a long-sought truce in Gaza and hostage release after almost seven months of war.15:27

Egypt, Qatar and the United States have been trying to mediate an agreement between Israel and Hamas for months, but a flurry of diplomacy in recent days appeared to suggest a new push towards halting the fighting.

A senior Hamas official said Sunday that the Palestinian group had no "major issues" with the most recent truce plan. "The atmosphere is positive unless there are new Israeli obstacles," the official told AFP, requesting anonymity to discuss the negotiations

While Israel has pledged to go after Hamas battalions in Rafah despite mounting global concern for Palestinian civilians sheltering in the southern Gaza Strip city, Foreign Minister Israel Katz said the government may "suspend" the invasion if an agreement is reached.

6:00am: Blinken arrives in Saudi Arabia on new Mideast crisis tour

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken arrived Monday in Riyadh at the start of a new crisis tour aimed at pushing an elusive Israel-Hamas ceasefire and increasing humanitarian aid into the Gaza Strip.

Blinken, who will later visit Jordan and Israel, will meet in the Saudi capital with visiting Gulf Arab and European foreign ministers on "day-after" plans for reconstruction of post-war Gaza, a State Department official said.

5:00am: US senator questions whether State Department properly assessing Israel's conduct

A Democratic senator on Sunday questioned whether the Biden administration was properly assessing whether Israel was complying with international law, following a Reuters report that some senior US officials did not find that country's assurances credible.

"This reporting casts serious doubt on the integrity of the process in the Biden administration for reviewing whether the Netanyahu government is complying with international law in Gaza," Senator Chris Van Hollen said in a statement.

Some senior US officials have advised Secretary of State Antony Blinken that they do not find "credible or reliable" Israel's assurances that it is using US-supplied weapons in accordance with international humanitarian law, according to a leaked internal State Department memo

French Foreign Minister Stéphane Séjourné arrived in Lebanon on Sunday as part of diplomatic attempts to broker a de-escalation in the conflict between Israel and the Iran-allied group Hezbollah.

Two senior Israeli ministers have publicly opposed a Gaza truce deal, saying Benjamin Netanyahu's government has no right to exist if it failed to invade Rafah.