US Secretary of State Antony Blinken is in Israel for meetings with Israeli leaders and told the country’s ceremonial president that “the time is now” for a ceasefire deal in the war in Gaza.

It is his seventh visit since the war between Israel and Hamas broke out last October.

He is trying to advance a truce that would free hostages held by Hamas militants in exchange for a halt to the fighting.

Palestinian prisoners are also expected to be released as part of the deal.

On Tuesday, Mr Blinken said Israel plans to open a major humanitarian aid crossing into hard-hit northern Gaza.

Israel’s war against Hamas has flattened huge swathes of Gaza’s north, and famine is imminent for the hundreds of thousands of civilians who remain there.

Mr Blinken returned to the Middle East this week to advance ceasefire negotiations as the talks appear to be gaining momentum.

Nearly seven months of Israeli bombardment and ground offensives in Gaza have killed more than 34,000 Palestinians, according to local health officials, and sparked a humanitarian catastrophe.

The war was sparked by Hamas’s unprecedented October 7 raid into southern Israel in which militants killed around 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducted around 250 hostages.

Israel says the militants are still holding around 100 hostages and the remains of more than 30 others.

Mr Blinken has blamed Hamas for any delay is getting a ceasefire deal off the ground.

“We are determined to get a ceasefire that brings the hostages home and to get it now, and the only reason that that wouldn’t be achieved is because of Hamas,” he said.

Mr Blinken visited key regional leaders in Saudi Arabia and Jordan before arriving in Israel.

He met Israeli President Isaac Herzog and was set to meet Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu later.

According to the State Department, he will meet also families of the hostages as well as visit an Israeli port where aid is entering for shipment to Gaza.

The emerging deal between Israel and Hamas appears to be gaining steam but a key sticking point remains over whether the war will end as part of the agreement, a demand Hamas has stuck to and which Israel rejects.