Blinken Meets With Netanyahu in the Latest U.S. Push for a Cease-fire in Gaza

Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken met with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel on Tuesday to discuss hopes for a cease-fire in Gaza in the wake of the killing of the Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar last week, even as the prospects for any truce appeared remote and the region tensely awaited an Israeli counterstrike on Iran.

Mr. Blinken arrived in Israel on Tuesday for his eighth visit since the Hamas-led attacks that triggered the war last year, and spent two and a half hours with Mr. Netanyahu, discussing the future of Gaza, Israel’s campaign in Lebanon, and the conflict with Iran. Mr. Blinken met later with Yoav Gallant, the Israeli defense minister, and Isaac Herzog, the country’s president.

Mr. Gallant told Mr. Blinken that Israeli strikes against Hezbollah would continue even after the ground invasion of Lebanon ended and “until it is possible to ensure the safe return of Israel’s northern communities to their homes, and the withdrawal of Hezbollah forces from southern Lebanon,” the minister’s office said in a statement.

With the prime minister, Mr. Blinken discussed “the need to capitalize” on Mr. Sinwar’s death “by securing the release of all hostages and ending the conflict in Gaza,” Matt Miller, the State Department spokesman, said in a statement. Mr. Netanyahu similarly said Mr. Sinwar’s death “may positively impact” those goals.

The leader of Hamas, Mr. Sinwar was killed last week by Israeli forces during a chance encounter in Rafah. He had been Israel’s No. 1 target after he plotted the attack last October that killed roughly 1,200 people in Israel, captured some 250 hostages and ignited the war in Gaza. After that, he had steered Hamas’s hard-line stance in truce talks.

Since Mr. Sinwar’s killing, Israeli officials and mediators have been tossing around new ideas for a proposal that would pause fighting with Hamas, free at least some of the dozens of hostages remaining in Gaza and bring home the bodies of captives who are presumed dead by the Israeli authorities.