As Israel strikes Gaza’s Rafah, what can US diplomacy achieve?

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken visited the Middle East this week for the fifth time since October 7. There were hopes he could seal a truce for Gaza. But by the end of his trip, Israel had stepped up attacks on Palestinians in southern Gaza, and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed no end to the war without ‘victory.’ So what progress has the US made? In this episode: Ali Harb ( @Harbpeace ), Al Jazeera Senior Producer Kimberly Halkett ( @KimberlyHalkett ), Al Jazeera White House Correspondent Episode credits: This episode was produced by Sarí el-Khalili and Miranda Lin with our host, Malika Bilal. Khaled Soltan and Sonia Bhagat fact-checked this episode. Our sound designer is Alex Roldan. Our lead of audience development and engagement is Aya Elmileik and Adam Abou-Gad is our engagement producer. Alexandra Locke is The Take’s executive producer. Ney Alvarez is Al Jazeera's head of audio. Connect with us: @AJEPodcasts on Twitter , Instagram, Facebook , Threads and YouTube