Blinken to visit Israel on Friday, make other stops in region

(Reuters) - U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken will visit Israel on Friday for meetings with members of the government there and then make other stops in the region, the State Department said on Tuesday amid the Israel-Hamas conflict.

Palestinian health officials said earlier that at least 50 Palestinians were killed when Israeli airstrikes hit a refugee camp in northern Gaza on Tuesday, as Israeli ground forces battled Hamas gunmen based in a sprawling tunnel network.

"Secretary Blinken will travel to Israel on Friday for meetings with members of the Israeli government, and then will make other stops in the region," State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said.

Earlier this month, Blinken visited Israel, Jordan, Qatar, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Egypt. (This story has been refiled to fix a typo in the headline)

(Reporting by Humeyra Pamuk and Simon Lewis; Writing by Costas Pitas; Editing by Dan Whitcomb and Daniel Wallis)