The Qatari prime minister, right, with the foreign minister of Turkey, at a news conference in Doha, Qatar, this week.

Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken arriving in Cairo on Thursday to discuss the war in Gaza with Mideast leaders.

Antony J. Blinken, the U.S. secretary of state, arriving in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, on Wednesday.

In Tel Aviv this month, people held photos of a hostage believed to have been taken during the Hamas-led attacks on Israel on Oct. 7. Some Israelis say their government is not doing enough to secure the captives’ release.

Pictures of Israeli hostages held in Gaza since Oct. 7 on display in Tel Aviv on Thursday.

The rubble of destroyed houses in Khan Younis in southern Gaza on Wednesday.

Parachutes carrying aid dropped by Jordanian aircraft fell along the Gaza coast on Tuesday.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel in Jerusalem this month.

Brett McGurk at the U.S. Capitol in 2019.

Antonio Guterres, the Secretary-General of the U.N., spoke at the organization’s conference on Afghanistan. But the Taliban boycotted the event.

An Israeli strike on Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip, on Tuesday.

People in Tel Aviv walking past posters showing hostages held by Hamas in the Gaza Strip. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is under pressure to secure their release.

Smoke from an Israeli airstrike this past week in Khan Younis, in the southern Gaza Strip.

A Palestinian man checking the damage inside a building heavily damaged by Israeli bombardment in Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip, on Thursday.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel in Tel Aviv, in December.

Senator Robert Menendez, Democrat of New Jersey, is accused of using his position to benefit Egypt and Qatar.

Armed men standing on the beach as the commercial ship Galaxy Leader, which was seized by the Houthis last month, was anchored off the coast of Yemen this month.

The C.I.A. director, William J. Burns, on Capitol Hill in Washington in September.

Palestinians fleeing Khan Younis toward Rafah passing a crater caused by strikes on Sunday.

Hamas fighters in 2021 in Gaza City.

Armed fighters accompanied two newly released hostages before handing them over to the Red Cross in Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip, on Tuesday.

William J. Burns, the C.I.A. director, arrived in Doha, Qatar, on Tuesday, his second visit to the country this month in pursuit of securing the release of more hostages from Gaza.

International Red Cross vehicles at the Gaza border with Egypt on Friday, said to be carrying hostages freed by Hamas.

Han Kwang-song of North Korea, center, playing in a 2026 World Cup qualifier in Yangon, Myanmar, this week.

The relatives of children kidnapped on Oct. 7, along with families and supporters of hostages, protesting on Monday in Tel Aviv.

Friends and relatives of people being held by Hamas took part in a “March for the Hostages” from Tel Aviv to the Israeli prime minister’s office in Jerusalem last week.

An image released by the American government shows the freed American hostages Judith Raanan, right, and her daughter Natalie Raanan, speaking by phone to President Biden on Friday.

Photographs of Israelis believed to have been kidnapped by Hamas on display near the Kirya, which houses the Israeli Ministry of Defense, in Tel Aviv on Sunday.

A demonstration in support of the safe return of children taken from Ukraine during the war, in Brussels in February.

In his first stop of a sweep through the Middle East, Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken told Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel, “We will always be there by your side.”

Wally Adeyemo, the deputy Treasury secretary, told House Democrats that Iran would no longer have access to $6 billion in funds that had been negotiated as part of a prisoner release deal last month.

Wally Adeyemo, the United States deputy Treasury secretary, told House Democrats that Iran would no longer have access to $6 billion in funds that had been negotiated as part of a prisoner release deal last month.