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Hello and welcome to News Hour.
It's coming to you live from the BBC World Service studios in central London.
I'm Tim Franks and we begin by what is by my possibly dodgy counting the US Secretary of State's eighth visit this year to the Middle East.
He's certainly made a lot of visits anyway.
Sometimes they've taken place with Antony Blinken borne aloft by a fair bit of positive spin.
Work briefings that there's tangible process towards a ceasefire in Gaza, a ceasefire which has nonetheless continued to fail to materialise.
Today, though, Mr.
Blinken touched down in Tel Aviv to a much more downbeat accompaniment.
There's little talk of an end to the fighting, a release of the hostages, an end to the misery for the Gazans, trapped, fearful and hungry.
So what can he hope to achieve?
The picture has changed after all, now that the Hamas leader Yahya Sinwa has been killed by the Israelis.
We'll hear in a moment from our State Department correspondent Tom Bateman, who's travelling with the Secretary of State.