WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden said he’s sending Secretary of State Antony Blinken to Israel as part of efforts to end the war with Hamas following the death of its leader Yahya Sinwar.

Biden spoke to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to congratulate Israel a day after Sinwar was killed by Israeli forces. He said he wants to work on freeing the hostages captured by Hamas in last year’s Oct. 7 attack and start planning for Gaza’s future.

“Now is the time to move on,” Biden told reporters after landing in Berlin, Germany. “Move on, move toward to a cease-fire in Gaza, make sure that we move in a direction that we’re going to be in a position to make things better for the whole world. It’s time for this war to end and bring these hostages home.”

He said Blinken would head to the region in four or five days, in what will be his 11th trip to the region since the Oct. 7 attack by Hamas, which is labeled a terrorist organization by the U.S. and the European Union. Israel’s campaign in retaliation has killed more than 42,000 Palestinians, and it’s also opened up a conflict against another Iran-backed group, Hezbollah, in Lebanon.

Netanyahu issued a fresh statement around the time Biden spoke, saying that while Sinwar’s death doesn’t mark the end of the war in Gaza, “it’s the beginning of the end.”

“To the people of Gaza, I have a simple message: This war can end tomorrow,” the statement said. “It can end if Hamas lays down its arms and returns our hostages.”

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