Dominic Raab in Jerusalem for meetings to shore up cease fire

His visit started as a trip by US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, focused on very similar messages, drew to a close. 

The ceasefire between Israel and Gaza militants, which started on Friday, held during Mr Blinken’s time in Jerusalem, allaying fears that fringe groups would try to shake the fragile security situation. 

He is now on the way to Cairo, where he will meet President Abdel Fattah Al Sisi and Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry. Their discussion will focus primarily on the ceasefire which the Egyptians helped to mediate, and ideas for stabilising it and making it long-lasting. 

Before he left Israel, Mr Blinken met this morning with Israeli President Reuven Rivlin, who called for an international push to designate Hamas as guilty of war crimes. The president also called for an international push to designate Hamas as a war criminal. 

“It is inconceivable that Hamas is not designated around the world as a war criminal, and it is vitally important to apply this designation,” he told Mr Blinken. “When IDF soldiers, our children, are facing the International Criminal Court, the world should understand that the real war criminals are hiding in Gaza, behind civilian populations.”

The Secretary of State expressed hope that his visit will help to bring quiet between Israel and Gaza, and also between Jewish and Arabs communities in Israel. He told Mr Rivlin that he was sent to the Middle East by US President Joe Biden to “underscore our commitment to our relations and to the work that we need to do together to continue to try to bring peace, to bring communities together and to deal with the challenges that you have so eloquently alluded to.”

He then turned his attention to eruptions of antisemitism internationally and said: “We have seen eruptions of antisemitism just recently in my own country, incidents that President Biden immediately denounced as despicable, that we stand strongly against. 

“We know that when we see the reemergence of antisemitic incidents it is the ‘canary in the coal-mine' because it almost always suggests that more will come, directed against other communities as well.”

He paid tribute to the leadership of Mr Rivlin, who is due to leave office in July. “It is an honour to be together with you today,” he said. “Your own remarkable leadership and statesmanship is expressed in bringing communities together and also in being such a powerful voice around the world for Israel’s story.”

Mr Blinken did not invite Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to the White House but did invite Mr Rivlin — who accepted.