International Red Cross says it facilitated the release and transfer of hostages on Wednesday 

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has arrived in Israel as a truce between Israel and Hamas is poised to expire. 

Blinken has said he will be focused on extending the pause in fighting in Gaza “so that we continue to get more hostages out and more humanitarian assistance in.” 

“We'd like to see the pause extended because what it has enabled, first and foremost is hostages being released and being united with their families,” Blinken said. “It's also enabled us to surge humanitarian assistance into the people of Gaza who so desperately need it. So, its continuation, by definition means that more hostages would be coming home, more assistance would be getting in.”

The top US diplomat said he also believes that an extension of the pause is something Israel wants because "they're also intensely focused on bringing people home." He said he plans to discuss the issue in his meetings with Israeli officials in the coming days.

“We'll discuss with Israel how it can achieve its objective of ensuring that the terrorist attacks of October 7 never happen again, while sustaining and increasing humanitarian assistance and minimizing further suffering and casualties among Palestinian civilians,” Blinken said.

President Joe Biden also said at an event in Colorado that he spoke with members of his national security team about the next group of hostages set to be released by Hamas.

In addition to his stop in Israel, Blinken will travel to the West Bank and then on to Dubai for the COP28 climate summit.

CNN's Donald Judd and Priscilla Alvarez contributed reporting to this post.

This post was updated with Blinken's arrival in Israel.