Administrator of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) Samantha Power will visit Israel, the West Bank and Jordan this week, CNN said, citing sources.

A USAID spokesperson told the TV channel that Power will meet with Israeli, Palestinian Authority and Jordanian government officials, as well as international humanitarian aid organizations, "to discuss the urgent need for expanded access to facilitate the delivery of humanitarian and commercial supplies to civilians in Gaza."

Earlier, Russian Permanent Representative to the United Nations Vasily Nebenzya said that the US has no real levers of pressure on the Israeli authorities and Washington's diplomatic efforts toward the settlement of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict are all for naught.

Tensions flared up again in the Middle East on October 7, 2023, when militants from the Gaza-based Palestinian radical group Hamas staged a surprise incursion into Israeli territory from the Gaza Strip. Hamas described its attack as a response to the aggressive actions of Israeli authorities against the Al-Aqsa Mosque on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem’s Old City. In response, Israel has declared a state of war readiness; announced a total blockade of the Gaza Strip, home to 2.3 million Palestinians; and began delivering air strikes on the enclave and certain parts of Lebanon and Syria. Clashes are underway in the West Bank as well.