Blinken returns to Middle East in ceasefire bid
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken visited Qatar on Tuesday on his latest Middle East crisis tour, seeking a new ceasefire and "an enduring end" to the Israel-Hamas war. The US top envoy was also bound for Israel, hoping to shore up support for a truce deal that was hashed out in Paris in January but has not yet been signed off on by either Hamas or Israel. Heavy strikes and fighting in Gaza killed at least 107 people in 24 hours, said the health ministry in the Hamas-ruled territory that has been under almost four months of bombardment. Fears grew for more than a million Palestinians crowded into the far southern Rafah area as the battlefront draws ever closer in Israel's campaign to eradicate Hamas over the October 7 attack. Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant warned on Monday that the military "will reach places where we have not yet fought... right up to the last Hamas bastion, which is Rafah", on the Egyptian border. Palestinian Raed al-Bardani, 32, who has been displaced multiple times and now lives in Rafah with his wife and four children, charged that "the goal is to destroy Rafah because it is the only area that the occupation has not yet destroyed". Blinken -- on his fifth regional tour since the bloodiest ever Gaza war broke out -- earlier met Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi in Cairo, a day after he held talks with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in Riyadh. Blinken and Sisi "discussed ongoing efforts to secure the release of all hostages held by Hamas," said State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller. The US envoy also "expressed appreciation for Egypt's leadership role in facilitating the delivery of humanitarian assistance to Palestinians in Gaza". And Blinken emphasised Washington's "rejection of any forced displacement of Palestinians from Gaza and commitment to establishing a Palestinian state that provides peace and security for Israelis and Palestinians alike", Miller said. Israeli troops, with air and naval support, have been engaged in heavy combat centred on Gaza's main southern city of Khan Yunis, the hometown of Hamas's Gaza chief, Yahya Sinwar, much of which has been reduced to rubble. Israel accuses Sinwar of masterminding the October 7 attack, which resulted in the deaths of about 1,160 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official figures. Militants also seized around 250 hostages. Israel says 132 remain in Gaza including 28 who are believed to have been killed. Israel's withering military campaign has killed at least 27,585 people in Gaza, mostly women and children, according to the health ministry. (AFP)