US: HOSTAGES ARE AT HEART OF ALL WE DO

US's Blinken in vow to Israelis

- CHRIS HUGHES

THE US Secretary of State yesterday promised Israeli protesters and the families of hostages he was doing all he could "to bring your loved ones home".

Antony Blinken, on his seventh visit to the Middle East amid the war in Gaza, told them: "Bringing your loved ones home is at the heart of everything we are doing here."

He also reopened the Erez crossing, which Israel has allowed after US pressure, to let more aid into northern Gaza.

Meeting Israeli president Isaac Herzog in Tel Aviv, Blinken told him: "We are determined to get a ceasefire that brings the hostages home and to get it now."