Dubai/Cairo | US Secretary of State Antony Blinken will step up efforts to secure a truce in Gaza during meetings in the Middle East on Monday, in what could be a final chance to persuade Israel to call off an attack on Rafah.

The White House said on Sunday (Monday AEST) that Israel had agreed to hear out its concerns. Israel had “assured us that they won’t go into Rafah until we’ve had a chance to really share our perspectives and our concerns with them”, John Kirby, spokesman for the White House’s National Security Council, told ABC News. “So we’ll see where that goes.”

Bloomberg