Top US diplomat Blinken arrives in Israel to press for pauses in Gaza war

The US' top diplomat Antony Blinken landed in Tel Aviv on Friday to push for humanitarian pauses in the Gaza war as Israel said it had surrounded the Palestinian enclave's biggest city and the focus of its drive to annihilate Hamas.

Blinken, on his second trip to Israel in a month, is due to discuss with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other Israeli leaders concrete steps to minimise harm to civilians in besieged Gaza, where food, fuel, water and medicine are scarce.

The White House, meanwhile, said any pauses in fighting should be temporary and localised, and insisted they would not stop Israel defending itself.

"When I see a Palestinian child – a boy, a girl – pulled from the rubble of a collapsed building, that hits me in the gut as much as seeing a child from Israel or anywhere else," Blinken told reporters before leaving for Israel. "So this is something that we have an obligation to respond to, and we will."

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Newly appointed US ambassador to Israel Jacob Lew travelled with Blinken to Tel Aviv.

Gaza health authorities say at least 9,061 people have been killed in Gaza since Israel launched its assault on the enclave of 2.3 million people in retaliation for deadly attacks by Hamas militants on southern Israel.

Israel says Hamas killed 1,400 people, mostly civilians, and took more than 240 hostages in the attacks on October 7.

• Israel says it has encircled Gaza City