U.S.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken arrives in Tel Aviv, Israel, on Friday. Evelyn Hockstein/AP hide caption U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken arrives in Tel Aviv, Israel, on Friday. TEL AVIV, Israel — U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken met with
Israeli Prime Minister
Benjamin Netanyahu and his war cabinet Friday morning as part of the intensive U.S. diplomatic efforts to reach a cease-fire in Gaza. This latest stop is Blinken's sixth time in the region since the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks on Israel that triggered the more than four-month-long Israeli
MILITARY campaign in the
Gaza Strip. It comes as Netanyahu mulls further military operations in Rafah and cease-fire and hostage release talks between Israeli and Hamas authorities continue in Doha, Qatar. The visit coincides with a
United Nations Security Council vote Friday morning that resulted in a failed new resolution on the Israel-Hamas war. The U.S. proposed language calling for an immediate and sustained cease-fire tied to a hostage release — the first time the U.S. proposed such language.
Russia and
China exercised their veto power to reject the resolution that came to a vote of 11 in favor, three against and one abstention. The U.S. has vetoed previous resolutions on the Israel-Hamas war in the Gaza Strip and rejected calls for an immediate cease-fire. Before stopping in Israel, Blinken made appearances elsewhere in the
Middle East including in
Egypt where he met with President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi for talks on a potential cease-fire in Gaza. Of those talks, Blinken said, "There's still difficult work to get there, but I continue to believe it's possible."