On Wednesday, Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Galant informed US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken that his country's army is committed to the return of its detained citizens in the Gaza Strip and is ready to carry out any operational missions in Rafah, south of the Strip.

This came during a meeting held by the two parties at the Kerem Shalom crossing on the border between the Gaza Strip, Egypt and Israel, according to the Hebrew newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth.

On Tuesday evening, Blinken began a visit to Tel Aviv coming from Jordan and Saudi Arabia, on his seventh tour in the region since the outbreak of the Israeli war on Gaza on October 7, 2023.

Blinken met with Israeli President Isaac Herzog, as well as Netanyahu, opposition leader Yair Lapid, and representatives of the families of Israeli prisoners in Gaza, and will hold more meetings on Wednesday.

Galant and Blinken toured Kibbutz Nir Oz adjacent to the Gaza Strip, and inspected the homes that were damaged as a result of the Hamas attack (on October 7), and also inspected the Kerem Shalom goods crossing, according to the same source.

At the end of the meeting, which was attended by Israeli Chief of Staff Herzi Halevy and Director of the Ministry of Defense Eyal Zamir, Gallant said: “I have now completed a visit to the Kerem Shalom crossing with the US Secretary of State, and we discussed the issue of how to expand humanitarian aid to Gaza, which also allows for the expansion of the operational effort.”

He added: "We are committed to taking any action to return the kidnapped people to their homes, and this is morally and ethically correct, and this is a declared war goal."

He continued: "At the same time, the Israeli army, in accordance with the instructions I gave to the General Staff and the Chief of Staff, is ready to carry out any operational mission in the Rafah area."

For its part, the Hebrew "Wala" website said that "Israeli professionals", whom it did not identify, reviewed before Blinken and his team "the efforts made to deliver humanitarian aid to the civilian population in Gaza."

They also discussed "the measures taken by the Israeli army's Southern Command to prevent accidental shooting after the incident that resulted in the death of 7 relief workers working within the World Central Kitchen organization in the Gaza Strip in early April."

Earlier Wednesday, the US Secretary of State informed Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that Washington “currently” opposes any “large-scale” military operation in the city of Rafah, according to the official Hebrew Broadcasting Corporation.

Regarding the humanitarian conditions in the besieged Palestinian Strip for the past 18 years, Blinken said, “Although there has been an improvement in the delivery of aid to Gaza, Israel needs to make more efforts.”

As a result of the war and Israeli restrictions that violate international laws, the Gaza Strip, especially the Gaza and North governorates, is in the grips of a famine that has claimed the lives of Palestinians, with severe scarcity of food, water and medicine supplies.