Blinken lands in Saudi Arabia for Gaza talks, to visit Israel on Friday

JEDDAH (AFP) - US Secretary of State Antony Blinken landed in Saudi Arabia on Wednesday to discuss efforts to secure a ceasefire in Gaza and ramp up aid deliveries to the Palestinian territory.

The US top diplomat touched down in Jeddah where he was to meet Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, said an AFP journalist on board, the first stop on Blinken's sixth Middle East tour since the Israel-Hamas war started on October 7. Blinken on Thursday is due to travel on to Egypt, which neighbours Gaza and whose envoys have been involved in previous mediation efforts. 

In Jeddah and Cairo, Blinken will discuss efforts to reach an "immediate ceasefire agreement that secures the release of all remaining hostages", State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said on Tuesday. Blinken will also discuss "post-conflict planning for Gaza", with Saudi and Egyptian officials, Miller said.

He will discuss "a political path for the Palestinian people with security assurances with Israel, and an architecture for lasting peace and security in the region", the spokesperson added. Nearly six months into the war, Israel's key backer the United States has repeatedly called on its ally to allow more humanitarian aid into besieged Gaza.

Meanwhile, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken will visit Israel on Friday, a State Department spokesperson said as the top diplomat landed in Saudi Arabia to kick off a Middle East tour.

Blinken will make the previously unscheduled visit to discuss "the ongoing negotiations to secure the release of all hostages" and efforts to boost aid deliveries to Gaza, Matthew Miller told journalists travelling with Blinken.

On Tuesday, Blinken said everyone in Gaza was now suffering "severe levels of acute food insecurity". "That's the first time an entire population has been so classified," he said during a visit to the Philippines. Another major area of concern for the US, the United Nations and aid groups has been the fate of Rafah in the far south of the Gaza Strip.

Since the war erupted, the tiny area's population has surged to around 1.5 million with the arrival of hundreds of thousands displaced from elsewhere in the territory. US President Joe Biden has put pressure on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to pull back from a threatened full-scale ground operation.

The United States is also striving to broker an eventual normalisation agreement between Saudi Arabia and Israel, which would entail American security guarantees for the kingdom, according to its entourage.