It's the US Secretary of State's eighth trip to the region since the war between Israel and Hamas began last October.

The visit comes as the United States asked the UN Security Council to vote on a draft resolution calling for an immediate ceasefire between Israel and Hamas.

It's also Blinken told reporters in Cairo that Egypt has been speaking with Hamas as recently as today.

The only party that has not accepted, the only party that's not saying yes is Hamas.

That's who everyone's waiting on.

That's who the Palestinians in Gaza are waiting on.

It's who the Israelis are waiting on.

It's who the hostages and the hostage families are waiting on.

Does Hamas want to end this conflict, end this war that it started or not?

We'll find out.

But it's clear that virtually the entire world has come together in support of the proposal.

And the only open question is, will Hamas say yes?

Mr Blinken's visit comes as the director of the UN World Food Program says her organisation has paused distribution of humanitarian aid into Gaza via a US-built pier, citing safety concerns.

Cindy McCain said that following Israel's military operation on Saturday to staff injured.

Gaza's health ministry says more than 270 Palestinians were killed in the operation.

Mr Blinken's visit also comes amid growing turmoil inside Israel with the resignation of Benny Gantz, one of the most senior members of the Israeli war cabinet, which was set up after the Hamas attack last October.

He had threatened to stand down unless he felt there was a post-war plan for Gaza, with a deadline set of yesterday.

Mr Gantz told reporters he wasn't satisfied.

This is the moment he confirmed he was standing down.

Unfortunately, Netanyahu is preventing us from approaching true victory, which is the justification for the painful ongoing price.

And this is why we quit the national unity government today with a heavy heart.

Yet we feel that it is the right decision.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has called on Mr Gantz to stay in the war cabinet.

He posted this message on X.

Israel is in an existential war on multiple fronts.

Benny, this is not the time to abandon the campaign.

This is the time to join forces.

We can speak now to Bennem Ben Taleiblou, who is a senior fellow at the Foundation for Defence of Democracy in Washington.

Hello to you.

As I was just saying, it's a very interesting time, isn't it, in terms of the political situation in Israel with Benny Gantz's and Netanyahu, and is he going to be even more influenced, I suppose, by the right?

Well, it's a pleasure to be with you.

Right now it's very much an open question.

The resignation of Benny Gantz, as you know, was really foreshadowed or telegraphed with the warnings he had issued ever since there was a unity government in the aftermath of the October 7 terror attack.

But in general, this did seem to be a matter of when and not if, based on the way the war at home in Israel was going between different factions that had constituted that unity government.

At the heart of your question right now, it is very much an open question as to will Bibi, the current prime minister, be more beholden to that hard right, an ultra-Orthodox faction, to make up the seats with the loss of Gantz and Eisenkatt, or will he try to move to the centre or centre-right?

I mean, we were just hearing from Anthony Hamas.

But we are also hearing from our correspondent earlier, Hugo Bocega, was saying that there are members of the Cabinet who are saying that they would not be supportive, they would resign if he was to say yes to this ceasefire deal.

We'll have to really wait and see and test that out.

I don't think the US would have embarked prematurely on its eighth trip in the region and now pushing to move a political understanding or agreement into the text of a UN Security Council revolution if the agreement did not have some kind of tacit support or ability of Netanyahu to at least deliver, let alone other factions.

But you did mention the Secretary and his trip, and it's worth noting at least based on what's reported that he will be visiting not just with the Cabinet but also with those ministers who had resigned, or those former ministers who had resigned.

Yeah, that is interesting, isn't it?

And Benny Gantz was calling for Netanyahu to set a date for election.

Is there any chance of that?

In my view, it's still very unclear, very fast-moving.

OK.

Well, it's certainly a very interesting time, isn't it, in terms of what could be achieved?

I suppose in terms of the US and its ability to put even more pressure on, there is still a long way that it could go, isn't it?

Do you expect to see the US get any stronger in terms of it putting pressure on?

I think right now it's anyone's guess.

I would wait to see how a lot of the Arab capitals react, both to the messaging in the lead-up to Blinken's trip, the point about Hamas being the only one to not agree to the ceasefire proposal or the ceasefire resolution idea was echoed before Blinken went on his trip by National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan, as well as many other White House officials who had actually left Washington for France for commemorations.

Yeah.

OK.

Well, thanks very much for talking to us, Ben.

I'm Ben Talalou, a senior fellow at the Foundation for Defence of Democracy in Washington.

Thank you for joining us.

Just seeing a bit of a readout from the meeting between Blinken and Prime Minister Netanyahu saying he reiterated that the proposal on the table would unlock the possibility of calm along Israel's northern border and further integration within the region.