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Kuwait reopens doors to expatriate families and tourists with visit visa

Gulf kuwait.

New visa regulations set to boost Kuwait’s tourism and commercial growth

Dubai: The Ministry of Interior of Kuwait has announced it will resume the issuance of visit visas for family, commercial and tourism purposes under new regulations starting Wednesday.

The decision comes in line with the directives of Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Defence, and acting Minister of Interior Sheikh Fahd Yusuf Al Sabah.

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It aims to boost the commercial, economic, and tourism sectors in Kuwait, while also considering the social needs of expatriates residing in the country.

Applicants looking to obtain a visit visa must schedule an appointment through the Matta platform, as the residency affairs departments across various governorates are set to welcome them.

Family visit visa conditions:  

The visa can be issued to parents, spouses, and children of expatriate workers earning a minimum of KD400 (Dh4,770), and to other relatives for those earning at least KD800.

Applicants must adhere to specific terms and conditions, including:

Provision of round-trip tickets from national carriers.

A commitment not to seek residency conversion for the visitor.

Adherence to the visit’s duration.

Agreement that medical treatment for visitors will be undertaken at private hospitals and health centers, excluding government hospitals.

In case of overstaying, both the visitor and the sponsor will be registered in the security control system for legal actions as per the Foreigners Residency Law.

Commercial Visa:

Issued to individuals with university or technical qualifications, upon request by a Kuwaiti company, aligning with the company’s activities and work nature.

Tourist Visa:

Directly available at the port of entry or via an electronic visa on the Ministry’s website (www.moi.gov.kw) for citizens of 53 specified countries.

For GCC residents, tourism visas are issued to individuals in professions listed in Ministerial Resolution number 2030/2008 and its amendments, adhering to specified rules.

Through hotels and companies linked automatically with the system of the Residence Affairs General Department, under current regulations.

Here's the list of 53 countries eligible for a visa upon arrival:

Andorra, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Bhutan, Brunei, Bulgaria, Cambodia, Canada, China, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Georgia, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Laos, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malaysia, Malta, Monaco, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, San Marino, Serbia, Singapore, Slovakia, Slovenia, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Hong Kong, Turkey, Ukraine, United Kingdom and United States

Additionally, Vatican City is also included, making its citizens eligible to obtain a visit visa either directly upon arrival in Kuwait or through the electronic visa system, as per the updated regulations.

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KUWAIT: The ministry of interior is considering stricter regulations for visit visas, the issuance of which is likely to resume from the beginning of next year. “A security team from the interior ministry discussed with the Public Authority of Manpower and Kuwait Chamber of Commerce and Industry salaries and specializations in preparation to issue new regulations for visit visas, including medical insurance of KD 1,500 to KD 2,000,” sources told Kuwait Times.

“Visit visas will be issued for a duration of only a month. Overstaying will result in the sponsor paying a fine of up to KD 5,000 and will be banned from sponsoring anyone in the future. Moreover, the sponsor will pay for the overstayer’s air ticket as well,” said the sources of the new rules that are yet to be officially confirmed.

Meanwhile, a visit visa cannot be transferred to a work permit. Work permits will be issued according to required specializations and based on requests submitted by private companies in advance, the sources explained. They said the minimum salary of expats requesting visit visas for parents should be KD 700-800, and a salary of at least KD 500 for visit visas for dependents, while siblings and other relatives are not eligible for visit visas. Visit visa fees will be increased to match the prices in neighboring countries in the Gulf, the sources added.

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Kuwait visit visa rules and regulations.

A visa is required by all visitors to Kuwait , except GCC nationals, who have the right to enter and live in Kuwait without having to go through any particular formalities.

Nationals from several other countries, including Canada, Australia, US and the EU are eligible to apply for a Kuwait Visa online (eVisa). The online application process is quite simple and quick, as the applicants just have to answer a series of basic questions. Also, all expatriates residing in GCC countries, irrespective of their citizenship, can apply for eVisa Kuwait.

Prior to the introduction of eVisa system in Kuwait (before 2016), visitors had to visit an embassy or consulate, or line up at the border points to obtain a visa. With the eVisa now made available, this process is easier. However, other types of Kuwait Visa procedures are still available.

Upon submitting the Visa application form online, a copy of the visa will be sent to the applicant by email. For entering Kuwait, the visitor can show a copy of this visa along with their passport to the concerned authorities at the Kuwaiti border.

It should be noted that visitors who enter Kuwait are not allowed to work. If you wish to work in Kuwait, you should obtain a residence visa and a work permit.

Visa-on-arrival

Among the non-GCC countries, nationals of the below said countries will be granted visa on arrival in Kuwait, or they may take an e-visa prior to their arrival in Kuwait.

Such countries include All European Union nations, Andorra, Australia, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Brunei, Cambodia, Canada, Georgia, Hong Kong, Iceland, India, Japan, Laos, Liechtenstein, Malaysia, Monaco, New Zealand, Norway, Pakistan, San Marino, Serbia, Singapore, South Korea, Swaziland, Switzerland, Turkey, United States, Vatican City and Vietnam.

Kuwait Tourist Visa (e-visa)

This Kuwait online visa or eVisa enables you to visit Kuwait and travel around for touristic purpose.  All foreign nationals and residents in GCC countries, irrespective of their nationalities are eligible to apply for a Kuwait eVisa .  Those seeking a Kuwait Online Visa will have to complete an online application with their biographical information and valid travel document, passport information.

The processing time may be between one day and three business days. Once approved, the visitor will be sent an email of the eVisa, thereby saving him the hassle of going to an embassy or consulate to submit a visa application. The Kuwait Online Visa has a validity of 90 days and is a single-entry visa .

For online application, visit https://evisa.moi.gov.kw/evisa/home_e.do

Types of visit visa

There are two basic types of visas that can be classified as Visit Visa and a Residence Visa.

As for Visit Visa, there are several types of visit visas. The Kuwaiti embassies may issue a three-month visa, a six-month visa and multiple-entry visas, based on their applications.

A Visit Visa with validity period of 1 month, a Business Visa (validity of 6 months), Transit visa (validity of 1 week) and Tourist visa (valid for 3 months) and Residence visa (valid for 10 years, but, civil ID needs to be renewed annually).

Toursit Visit Visa

A Kuwait Tourist visit visa is issued for a limited time period of leisure travel, and no business activities are allowed during this period.

The Visit Visa can be sponsored by a relative or sponsor who is a resident foreigner staying in the country. Prior to travel to Kuwait, the visitor will have his visa processed and passport stamped at the nearest Kuwait Embassy. The sponsor in Kuwait can use the faxed copy of visitor’s passport to obtain the visit visa in Kuwait. A copy of the so-obtained visa can be faxed to the visitor to enable his or her travel to Kuwait.

Upon arrival, the sponsor can meet the visitor at the airport with the original visa upon entering the country. The original visa paper can be deposited by the sponsor at the special counter in the arrival hall, and the original documents can picked up by the visitor at a special counter in the immigration area. The original documents are necessary for completing the entry formalities.

On the whole, it may take two working days to obtain a Kuwait Visit Visa. The hotels can also arrange such a visa for business purpose, but, this may take about seven days.

Family Visit Visa

Immediate family members and other relatives residing in the country can visit family members who currently live in Kuwait. No eligibility or criteria is required for this.  Proof of relationship alone is sufficient, and you can visit with your Kuwait Visit Visa.

Documents required:

• Proof of relationship
• Copy of visitor's valid passport
• Copy of civil ID of the sponsor
• Latest salary certificate of the sponsor

Procedure for family visit visa:

• Go to Kuwait embassy in your country and submit the necessary documents for family visit visa.
• Fill in the application form
• Pay the fees due. The family visit visa application costs at a fee of 3KD.

At least KD450 per month if the sponsor works for the government,  and minimum of KD650 if sponsor works in private sector.

Business Visit Visa

In case you are visiting for a business purpose, you need to have a sponsor, or the hotel where you are staying can act as sponsor.

• Valid passport (an additional copy) with 6 months validity remaining
• Kuwait visit visa application with security form filled out by sponsor
• Kuwait sponsor or company
• Copy of visitor's passport
• Copy of sponsor's signature as registered for business purposes
• Copy of sponsor's letter of invitation for the business, stating purpose of the visit

Multiple Entry Visa

Those who obtain this visa can enter Kuwait multiple times during a period of one year. This type of visa comes in handy for those on business visit. However, the sponsor will have to be the Ministry of Defense. Americans are eligible to obtain multiple entry visit visa with a validity of 10 years and unlimited number of entries.

Vaccination

In most cases, vaccination certificates are not required to be granted entry into Kuwait. But, they are mandatory, in case the visitor comes from an area that is infected by viral disease like yellow fever or cholera. The certificates indicate that the visitor is healthy and won’t be transmitting any diseases. In case the visitor is from one of the infected countries, they might also be subjected to medical examination within a few days after their arrival. The visitor will also have to confirm the last country visited.

Validity of Kuwait Visit Visa

The Kuwait Visit Visas are valid for three months (90 days). Visitors can stay in Kuwait for upto 30 days after their entry.

Kuwait Visit Visa cost

The Kuwait Visit Visa costs KD3.00. Entry permits are however free.

Kuwait Visit Visa extension

With a visit visa, you are allowed to stay only up to a maximum of 30 days in the country. In case you extend your stay beyond the validity period of visit visa, you will have to pay a fine of KD10.00 per day after the expiry of the visa.

You will not be allowed to leave the country until you pay total fine. The fines are to be paid in the immigration department in Shuwaikh. The office is open during government work hours. You can also pay the fines in advance if you anticipate your stay extension.

For extending visit visa for a month or two, an expat can submit application to the Immigration Department prior to the expiry of Kuwait visit visa. Another solution for extending Kuwait visit visa is to obtain a second visit visa in the country. You can schedule a day-long travel to Bahrain. You can leave Kuwait in the morning and return in the evening. The flight duration from Kuwait to Bahrain is 40 minutes. This costs about KD45.00. Then seek a second visit visa.

Kindly note: Visa rules are subject to sudden change without warning. Kindly contact the embassy in your country or the relevant authority in Kuwait, as that is the only source of information that can be relied upon. The validity period of a free visit visa on arrival is also subjected to change often.

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Kuwait reopens family visas with new conditions

The Ministry of Interior has announced the reopening of Family visa applications with new conditions, starting from Sunday, 28th January. This decision comes as per the instructions of Sheikh Fahd Yousef Saud Al-Sabah, the Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Defense, and Acting Minister of Interior.

The announcement follows the issuance of Ministerial Resolution No. 56 of 2024, which establishes new conditions and controls for issuing entry visas to join family members. Under the new resolution, individuals seeking to bring their family members to Kuwait must meet certain requirements. The salary requirement has been raised to 800 KD, and the person must possess university qualifications. Additionally, the applicant’s profession in the country will be taken into consideration.

This decision to reopen family visas comes as a relief for many expatriate workers in Kuwait who have been eagerly waiting to reunite with their loved ones. The new regulations aim to ensure that individuals applying for family visas meet certain financial and educational criteria, thereby strengthening the country’s economic stability. It is important to note that the Ministry of Interior will begin accepting applications in various residency affairs departments across the country, in accordance with the new controls and conditions outlined in the ministerial resolution.

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Kuwait to Begin Issuing Family and Visit Visas to 53 Countries

The Ministry of Interior and Public Authority of Manpower announced the issuance of all sorts of visas in Kuwait.

The said development applies for vaccinated expatriates who are approved by the government in compliance with standards set by the health authorities, as the country enters the fifth phase of its return to normalcy.

Gov’t Set To Begin Issuing Family And Visit Visas To 53 Countries

According to Arab Times Online , the new conditions for obtaining family, tourist, commercial, and government visas are as follows. According to the decision, visas will be provided to immunized individuals who have received any of the following vaccines:

• AstraZeneca/Oxford vaccine “two doses”
• Johnson & Johnson vaccine “single dose”
• Moderna vaccine “two doses”
• Pfizer Piontech Vaccine “two doses”

A document verifying receipt of approved vaccines must be produced before a visa can be issued. A QR code must be included on the certificate, which will be validated by relevant departments.

Family Visa

It is permissible to provide visas to spouses and children under the age of 16 who will be granted a visit or dependant visa. The salary conditions (KD 500) must be included on the employment permit.

Commercial visit visa

Commercial visits for all activities are permitted at the discretion of the department’s director.

Government visit visa

Government visits are permitted to all ministries and government entities.

Electronic visa

Electronic visas may be issued for the following purposes:

• Kuwaiti embassies across the world
• Citizens of 53 countries, as per the approved list
• Residents of GCC nations who work in specific occupations
• Hotel facilities and related businesses are registered in the automated system in accordance with the Special Services Department’s procedures.

READ NEXT: Arrival and Departure Guidelines for Residents of Kuwait

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Kuwait Emir visits Egypt, meets with leaders over Rafah concerns

S heikh Meshaal Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah, the Emir of Kuwait, visited Cairo on Tuesday to meet with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi to discuss their concerns about Israel’s pending invasion of Rafah and the Houthi threat to Red Sea shipping.

Egypt and Kuwait have positive ties and relations and an estimated 700,000 Egyptians live in the tiny oil-rich kingdom, the UAE-based Al-Ain media reports. Around 20,000 Kuwaitis study and live in Egypt.

Egypt and Kuwait are both worried about the consequences of a potential Israeli offensive into the Hamas-controlled southern Gaza city on the Egyptian border.

Kuwait generally has more hostile views of Israel than other Gulf states, whereas Egypt has a peace treaty with the Jewish state. The two countries say they are worried about the “dire humanitarian consequences if Israel launches an attack on the city of Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip,” Al-Ain’s report says.

Concern over humanitarian situation in Gaza

On Al-Sabah’s first official visit to Egypt as emir, the two countries issued a call for a ceasefire. These kinds of calls are pro forma, a ritual in these kinds of state visits. The call for a ceasefire included calls for “facilitating safe, adequate and sustainable access for humanitarian aid to the Palestinian people in the occupied territory and implementing relevant Security Council resolutions.”

The countries discussed other issues as well. “In the final statement, the two sides stressed the necessity of establishing an international mechanism within the Gaza Strip to facilitate the entry of humanitarian aid into the Strip, stressing their rejection of Israel’s continuation of its military operations,”  the report said.

Humanitarian aid to Gaza is increasing via numerous new channels:  air drops, aid from Jordan and Egypt, support from the Gulf, France and other countries via El-Arish in Egypt and also via Jordan. There is a new maritime corridor from Cyprus to Ashdod, a new northern entrance to the Gaza strip, and the US is building a floating pier off the coast of Gaza. Hundreds of trucks cross into Gaza daily.

However, there is concern that an IDF operation in Rafah might disrupt some of this aid and also cause many Gazans to flee Rafah, an area they fled to from the north after Israel responded to the Hamas massacre on October 7.

Egypt and Kuwait said they were concerned that an operation in Rafah might expand the conflict and risk stability in the region. “The two sides appreciated the close coordination on regional and international issues of common interest, and stressed the need to give priority to the culture of peace, dialogue, and diplomatic settlement of disputes and differences in the Middle East region, in order to achieve development and peaceful coexistence among its countries, in a manner consistent with the values of tolerance, respect for the sovereignty of states over their territories, and non-interference in their affairs,” Al-Ain reported. Once again, this is a boilerplate statement and very common for these types of meetings.

Reference to Houthi attacks

MORE SIGNIFICANTLY, the two sides “stressed the importance of the security and stability of navigation in the region’s waterways in accordance with the provisions of international law and international conventions, including the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea of 1982, in order to guarantee the freedom and smoothness of navigation and provide security and stability therein.”

This is a clear reference to the Iran-backed Houthi attacks on ships in the Red Sea and Indian Ocean, attacks that specifically harm Egypt’s economy by reducing passage of ships though the Suez Canal.

Egypt appears to be upping its rhetoric in this regard. Kuwait knows well the importance of free navigation of the seas because Iran,its large neighbor, has threatened Gulf shipping.

During the Iran-Iraq war in the 1980s tankers had to be re-flagged during the so-called “Tanker war” when Iran and Iraq attacked commercial vessels.

The US intervened then to protect Kuwaiti tankers in 1986 and  carried out operations against Iran. Later, Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait, drawing the US into the Gulf war. That war set the scene for the modern Middle East as we know it.

For instance, the Scud missile threat to Israel led to the deployment of Patriot missiles in Israel. Palestinians, who backed Saddam’s invasion, were expelled from Kuwait after it was liberated.

Osama Bin Laden claimed to be enraged about US forces stationed in Saudi Arabia and put him on the road to 9/11.

Egypt under then president Hosni Mubarak had attempted to mediate the Gulf crisis in 1990 prior to Saddam’s invasion but after a meeting in Jeddah in which Egypt sought to broker peace via the Arab League, Egypt joined the coalition to expel Saddam who betrayed him.

 “Relations between Kuwait and Egypt go back to before Kuwait’s independence in 1961, as the two countries used to coordinate their positions at the international and regional levels,” Al-Ain media noted. The report also noted that Kuwait sent a third of its army to support Egypt and Syria in the 1973 war against Israel. 

Middle East Crisis Israel Appears to Soften Stance in Cease-Fire Talks

• Share full article
• Destroyed buildings in Rafah on Monday. Associated Press
• Relatives and supporters of Israeli hostages protest in Tel Aviv on Monday. Ohad Zwigenberg/Associated Press
• Palestinians flee after a strike in Nuseirat in central Gaza. Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
• Mourning relatives killed overnight in Rafah. Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
• Looking at a damaged building in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip on Monday. Hatem Khaled/Reuters
• Posters of kidnapped Israeli hostages in Tel Aviv. Shannon Stapleton/Reuters
• A Palm Sunday service at a Greek Orthodox church in Gaza City. Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
• Children at a makeshift movie theater set up among the tents in Rafah on Sunday. Haitham Imad/EPA, via Shutterstock
• Israeli soldiers resting outside the border with southern Gaza. Amir Cohen/Reuters

Israel is open to a truce involving an initial release of 33 hostages, officials say.

Israel’s latest offer would accept fewer hostages to be freed during the first phase of a new truce in Gaza, according to three Israeli officials, offering a hint of hope for cease-fire negotiations that could restart as soon as Tuesday.

For months, Israel had demanded that Hamas release at least 40 hostages — women, older people and those who are seriously ill — in order to secure a new truce. Now the Israeli government is prepared to settle for only 33, according to the officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity in order to discuss the sensitive matter.

The change was prompted partly by the fact that Israel now believes that some of the 40 have died in captivity , according to one of the officials.

Antony J. Blinken, the U.S. secretary of state, said at the World Economic Forum in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, on Monday that Israel had made an “extraordinarily generous” offer and that Hamas alone stood in the way of a deal. David Cameron, the British foreign minister, said at the same conference that the offer included a sustained 40-day cease-fire and the release of potentially thousands of Palestinian prisoners in exchange for the Israeli hostages.

Sameh Shoukry, Egypt’s foreign minister, said at the conference that he was “hopeful” about the latest cease-fire proposal, but did not say what it involved or who had proposed it.

“The proposal has taken into account the positions of both sides,” Mr. Shoukry said, adding that “we are waiting to have a final decision.”

The shift has raised expectations that Hamas and Israel might be edging closer to sealing their first truce since a weeklong cease-fire in November, when Hamas released 105 captives in exchange for 240 Palestinian prisoners. A senior Hamas official, Izzat al-Rishq, said on social media on Monday that Hamas was studying a new Israeli proposal, but did not say what the proposal was.

Hamas and its allies captured roughly 240 Israelis and foreigners in their attack on Oct. 7, which prompted Israel to go to war in Gaza. More than 130 hostages are believed to still be held in Gaza, but some are thought to have died.

Negotiations over a new pause, mediated by Egypt and Qatar, have stalled for months over disagreements about the number of hostages and prisoners who should be exchanged in a future deal. Another obstacle has been whether Israel would allow civilians from northern Gaza who fled the Israeli invasion to return to their homes, and how many would be permitted to do so.

The length of a cease-fire has also been a key stumbling block. Hamas wants it to be permanent, while Israel wants another temporary pause so that it could still send troops into Rafah, the last major Gazan city under Hamas control, though one where more than a million displaced Palestinians have sought shelter. Far-right members of Israel’s governing coalition have threatened to bring down Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government if the war ends without Hamas’s total defeat.

A mid-ranking Israeli delegation is planning to fly to Cairo on Tuesday to restart talks mediated by Egypt, but only if Hamas also agrees to attend, according to two of the Israeli officials. A senior Hamas official said that a delegation was already in Cairo on Monday.

At the economic forum in Saudi Arabia, Mr. Cameron, the British foreign secretary, said something else must happen for the conflict to end: “The people responsible for Oct. 7, the Hamas leadership, would have to leave Gaza.”

Vivian Nereim and Edward Wong contributed reporting from Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

— Patrick Kingsley and Adam Rasgon reporting from Jerusalem

Biden speaks to the leaders of Egypt and Qatar to press for Hamas’s agreement on a new cease-fire.

President Biden spoke on Monday with the leaders of Egypt and Qatar as he sought to increase pressure on Hamas to accept a deal that would result in a temporary cease-fire in the war in Gaza and the release of some of the hostages held there.

According to a statement from the office of President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi of Egypt, he and Mr. Biden discussed the negotiations and Egypt’s efforts to broker a cease-fire. They also reiterated their support for a two-state solution, discussed the importance of containing the conflict to the region and emphasized their opposition to a military escalation in the city of Rafah in southern Gaza, which Israel seems poised to invade.

Mr. Biden also spoke on Monday with Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani, the emir of Qatar. According to the White House, Mr. Biden urged the Qatari leader “to exert all efforts to secure the release of hostages held by Hamas,” saying that “this is now the only obstacle” to an immediate cease-fire.

Mr. al-Sisi and Mr. al-Thani have been prime intermediaries with Hamas through months of fitful negotiations to reach a deal to halt the hostilities, and Mr. Biden hopes they will prod the group’s leader, Yahya Sinwar, to accept the U.S.-brokered proposal on the table. On Sunday, Mr. Biden spoke with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel.

Karine Jean-Pierre, the White House press secretary, expressed a hopeful view of the prospects for an agreement. “In recent days, there has been progress in talks,” she told reporters at the White House.

Like other American officials, Ms. Jean-Pierre said that Hamas, not Israel, was the obstacle to an agreement.

“The onus is indeed on Hamas,” she said. “There is a deal on the table, and they need to take it.”

— Peter Baker reporting from Washington

Blinken meets with Arab officials to discuss Gaza and postwar plans.

Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken spoke with Arab officials on Monday in Saudi Arabia about the war between Israel and Hamas and the difficult issues it has created, from humanitarian aid to hostages. Mr. Blinken plans to travel to Jordan and Israel on Tuesday.

After landing in Riyadh, the Saudi capital, shortly after dawn, Mr. Blinken met with Prince Faisal bin Farhan, the foreign minister of Saudi Arabia, and then with foreign ministers and a top foreign policy adviser from five other Arab nations in the Persian Gulf that, along with Saudi Arabia, form the Gulf Cooperation Council. Prince Faisal was also part of that second meeting. On Monday night Mr. Blinken met with Saudi Arabia’s crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman.

The State Department listed the cease-fire and hostage issues first in the summary it released of Mr. Blinken’s one-on-one meeting with the prince. The two “discussed ongoing efforts to reach an immediate cease-fire in Gaza that would secure the release of hostages held by Hamas,” the department said.

The two diplomats also talked about greater regional integration and “a pathway to a Palestinian state with security guarantees for Israel,” the summary said. That was a reference to negotiations over a broad deal that would involve the United States, Saudi Arabia, Israel and Palestinian representatives agreeing to terms that would result in the creation of a Palestinian state and greater diplomatic recognition for Israel in the region.

Mr. Blinken planned to meet with Arab and European officials in a group later on Monday to talk about plans for rebuilding Gaza, even though Israel is still carrying out its war there and has not stepped back from its difficult — and perhaps impossible — goal of fully eradicating Hamas.

Saudi Arabia is hosting a three-day meeting of the World Economic Forum, and top Arab officials, including Mr. Blinken’s diplomatic counterparts, are attending the event in Riyadh. The gathering includes senior ministers from Qatar and Egypt, the two Arab mediators in multiple rounds of talks over a potential cease-fire between Israel and Hamas .

“The quickest way to bring this to an end is to get to a cease-fire and the release of hostages,” Mr. Blinken said in an onstage talk with Borge Brende, president of the World Economic Forum. “Hamas has before it a proposal that is extraordinarily generous on the part of Israel. And at the moment, the only thing standing between the people of Gaza and a cease-fire is Hamas.”

“I’m hopeful they will make the right decision and we can have a fundamental change in the dynamic,” he added.

Mr. Blinken and other top aides of President Biden have also been trying to push for a long-term political solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, which is where the broader deal comes in. In a call meant to pave the way for Mr. Blinken’s trip, his seventh to the region since the war began, Mr. Biden and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel spoke by phone on Sunday afternoon for nearly an hour.

The two leaders discussed “increases in the delivery of humanitarian assistance into Gaza,” according to a White House statement released after the call, and Mr. Biden repeated his warning against an Israeli ground assault on Rafah in southern Gaza. He also reviewed with Mr. Netanyahu the negotiations over a hostage release.

In their best-case scenario, the Biden administration envisions Saudi Arabia and perhaps a few other Arab nations agreeing to normalize diplomatic relations with Israel. In exchange, Saudi Arabia would receive advanced weapons and security guarantees, including a mutual defense treaty , from the United States and a commitment for U.S. cooperation on a civilian nuclear program in the kingdom .

For its part, Israel would have to commit to a concrete pathway to the founding of a Palestinian nation, with specific deadlines, U.S. and Saudi officials say.

“I think it’s clear that in the absence of a real political horizon for the Palestinians, it’s going to be much harder, if not impossible, to really have a coherent plan for Gaza itself,” Mr. Blinken said at the public talk on Monday.

Prince Faisal said Sunday that Saudi officials hoped to discuss concrete steps toward creating a Palestinian state during Mr. Blinken’s visit to Riyadh. Calling the war and humanitarian crisis in Gaza “a complete failing of the existing political system,” he told a news conference that the kingdom’s government believes that the only solution is “a credible, irreversible pathway to a Palestinian state.”

Before the war started last October, U.S. and Saudi officials were in intense discussions to reach an agreement on the terms of such a proposal. For those negotiators, a big question at the time was what Israel would agree to. Since the war began, the Americans and the Saudis have publicly insisted that Israel must agree to the existence of a Palestinian state.

But Israeli leaders and ordinary citizens have become even more resistant to that idea since the Oct. 7 attacks, in which the Israeli authorities say that Hamas and allied gunmen killed about 1,200 people and took about 240 people as hostages. Israel’s retaliatory military offensive has killed more than 34,000 Palestinians, most of them civilians, including thousands of children, say officials from the Gaza health ministry.

Vivian Nereim and Zolan Kanno-Youngs contributed reporting.

— Edward Wong traveling with Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken

Deadly Israeli strikes hit residential buildings in Rafah, Palestinian news media say.

Deadly Israeli airstrikes flattened concrete buildings overnight in the crowded southern Gaza city of Rafah, according to news agencies, which published video on Monday of rows of body bags containing what Palestinian officials said were victims of the strikes.

The Reuters news agency said the strikes in Rafah, which Israel seems poised to invade , killed 20 people. The Palestinian news media said the death toll was at least 24. The Gaza Ministry of Health said 34 people were killed in the Gaza Strip during the previous 24 hours, but it did not specify how many of them were killed by the strikes in Rafah.

Asked for comment on the strikes, the Israeli military issued a statement on Monday saying that its “fighter jets struck terror targets where terrorists were operating within a civilian area in southern Gaza.”

More than one million Gazans have been crowding into shelters and tents in Rafah to seek safety from almost seven months of Israel’s military offensive. Israeli officials have said they will soon send ground troops into Rafah, the last Gazan city Israel has not invaded, in order to eliminate Hamas battalions there, an operation that the Biden administration has warned against because of the risk to civilians.

Palestine TV — a channel backed by the Palestinian Authority, which administers parts of the Israeli-occupied West Bank — said the strikes had hit residential buildings in Rafah. One survivor, carrying a baby she said had been pulled from the rubble, spoke to a Reuters video journalist.

“The entire world is seeing what’s happening to us,” the woman, Umm Fayez Abu Taha, said. She said the child appeared to be uninjured, but that her parents had been killed.

“Look at us with some compassion, with some humanity,” Ms. Abu Taha continued. “This is all we ask for, we’re not asking for much just end the war, nothing more.”

— Liam Stack reporting from Jerusalem

Hamas fires a barrage of rockets into Israel from Lebanon.

Hamas’s military wing said on Monday that it had launched a salvo of rockets from Lebanon into northern Israel, an apparent attempt by the group to signal that it is still capable of striking within Israel’s borders even as it studies the latest proposal for a cease-fire in Gaza.

The Qassam Brigades, Hamas’s military wing, said in a statement that it had targeted an Israeli military position in Kiryat Shmona, the largest city in Israel’s far north, with a “concentrated rocket barrage” from southern Lebanon. The Israeli military said in a statement that most of the roughly 20 launches that crossed the border had been intercepted, and that it had responded by striking the source of fire. There were no injuries or damage, the military said.

Though Hamas is based in Gaza, many of its leaders are exiled in Lebanon , where the group has a sizable presence and operates largely out of Palestinian refugee camps. Since the Hamas-led terror attack on Oct. 7 prompted Israel to go to war in Gaza, Hamas has occasionally launched rocket attacks into northern Israel from within Lebanon’s borders, though its ally Hezbollah, the Lebanese militant group, has launched far more. Both groups are backed by Iran. Israel has also targeted Hamas figures in Lebanon in deadly strikes.

Walid al Kilani, Hamas’s spokesman in Lebanon, said the attack was “the minimum duty” given Israel’s continued attacks in Gaza. “We know that Hezbollah is doing its duty and more, but the battlefield requires everyone to participate,” Mr. Kilani said.

The launches on Monday, although muted in their impact, highlighted Hamas’s continuing ability to threaten Israel with rocket fire despite more than 200 days of a devastating Israeli air and ground offensive that has decimated the group’s military capabilities in Gaza.

Mohanad Hage Ali, a Beirut-based fellow with the Carnegie Middle East Center, said the attack was likely an attempt by Hamas to signal that it was “still part of the fight.” While it was largely symbolic, it could also be a means to apply pressure amid the Gaza cease-fire negotiations, he said.

Data compiled by the online website Rocket Alert — which tracks warnings of rocket launches using Israeli military figures — shows that there were just 37 alerts in April in response to detected rocket fire from Gaza, compared to around 7,300 in October at the onset of the war. More than six months into the conflict, the data shows a significant drop-off in the number of warnings of rockets from Gaza.

Alerts indicating rocket fire from Lebanon, however, have remained largely steady, the data shows. Most of those are launched by Hezbollah, but Hamas continues to launch attacks from Lebanon with Hezbollah’s blessing.

Amin Hoteit, a military analyst and former brigadier general in the Lebanese army, said the latest attack was a sign of the “integrated front of operations” among Hamas, Hezbollah and other Iran-backed groups in the region .

Hwaida Saad and Jonathan Rosen contributed reporting.

— Euan Ward reporting from Beirut, Lebanon

Israeli officials believe the International Criminal Court is preparing arrest warrants over the war.

Israeli officials increasingly believe that the International Criminal Court is preparing to issue arrest warrants for senior government officials on charges related to the conflict with Hamas, according to five Israeli and foreign officials.

The Israeli and foreign officials also believe the court is weighing arrest warrants for leaders from Hamas.

If the court proceeds, the Israeli officials could potentially be accused of preventing the delivery of humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip and pursuing an excessively harsh response to the Hamas-led Oct. 7 attacks on Israel, according to two of the five officials, all of whom spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to publicly discuss the matter.

The Israeli officials, who are worried about the potential fallout from such a case, said they believe that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is among those who might be named in a warrant. It is not clear who might be charged from Hamas or what crimes would be cited.

The Israeli officials did not disclose the nature of the information that led them to be concerned about potential I.C.C. action, and the court did not comment on the matter.

Arrest warrants from the court would probably be seen in much of the world as a humbling moral rebuke, particularly to Israel, which for months has faced international backlash over its conduct in Gaza, including from President Biden , who called it “over the top.”

It could also affect Israel’s policies as the country presses its military campaign against Hamas. One of the Israeli officials said that the possibility of the court issuing arrest warrants had informed Israeli decision-making in recent weeks.

The Israeli and foreign officials said they didn’t know what stage the process was in. Any warrants would require approval from a panel of judges and would not necessarily result in a trial or even the targets’ immediate arrest.

Karim Khan, the court’s chief prosecutor, has previously confirmed that his team is investigating incidents during the war, but his office declined to comment for this article, saying that it does not “respond to speculation in media reports.”

Mr. Netanyahu’s office also would not comment, but on Friday the prime minister said on social media that any intervention by the I.C.C. “would set a dangerous precedent that threatens the soldiers and officials of all democracies fighting savage terrorism and wanton aggression.”

Mr. Netanyahu did not explain what prompted his statement, though he may have been responding to speculation about the arrest warrants in the Israeli press.

He also said: “Under my leadership, Israel will never accept any attempt by the ICC to undermine its inherent right of self-defense. The threat to seize the soldiers and officials of the Middle East’s only democracy and the world’s only Jewish state is outrageous. We will not bow to it.”

Based in The Hague, the I.C.C. is the world’s only permanent international court with the power to prosecute individuals accused of war crimes, genocide and crimes against humanity. The court has no police force of its own. Instead, it relies on its 124 members , which include most European countries but not Israel or the United States, to arrest those named in warrants. It cannot try defendants in absentia .

But warrants from the court can pose obstacles to travel for officials named in them.

The Hamas-led raid last October led to the killing of roughly 1,200 people in Israel and the abductions of some 250 others, according to Israeli officials. The subsequent war in Gaza, including heavy Israeli bombardment, has killed more than 34,000 people, according to Gazan officials, caused widespread damage to housing and infrastructure, and brought the territory to the brink of famine.

The Israeli assault in Gaza has led the International Court of Justice, a separate court in The Hague, to hear accusations of genocide against the Israeli state and has spurred a wave of protests on college campuses in the United States.

If the I.C.C. does issue arrest warrants, they would come with deep stigmatization, placing those named in them in the same category as foreign leaders like Omar al-Bashir, the deposed president of Sudan, and Vladimir V. Putin, the Russian president, who was the subject of a warrant last year tied to his war against Ukraine.

The I.C.C.’s focus on individuals rather than states differentiates it from the International Court of Justice, which settles disputes between states.

The I.C.C. judges have ruled that the court has jurisdiction over Gaza and the West Bank because the Palestinians have joined the court as the State of Palestine.

Mr. Khan has said that his team will be investigating incidents that have occurred since Oct. 7 and that he will be “impartially looking at the evidence and vindicating the rights of victims whether they are in Israel or Palestine.”

Mr. Khan’s office has also been investigating allegations of war crimes committed during the 2014 war between Israel and Hamas; one of the officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity believes the new arrest warrants would be an extension of that investigation.

Hamas and the Israeli military did not respond to requests for comment. The office of Yoav Gallant, the Israeli defense minister, declined to comment.

In general, Israeli officials say that they fight according to the laws of war and that they take significant steps to protect civilians, accusing Hamas of hiding inside civilian areas and forcing Israel to pursue them there. Hamas has denied committing atrocities on Oct. 7, saying — despite video evidence to the contrary — that its fighters tried to avoid harming civilians.

Marlise Simons , Gabby Sobelman and Myra Noveck contributed reporting.

— Ronen Bergman and Patrick Kingsley The reporters spoke to Israeli and foreign officials.

World Central Kitchen plans to resume working in Gaza.

World Central Kitchen said on Sunday that it would resume operations in Gaza with a local team of Palestinian aid workers, nearly a month after the Israeli military killed seven of the organization’s workers in targeted drone strikes on their convoy.

Israeli military officials have said the attack was a “grave mistake” and cited a series of failures , including a breakdown in communication and violations of the military’s operating procedures.

The Washington-based aid group said that it was still calling for an independent, international investigation into the April 1 attack and that it had received “no concrete assurances” that the Israeli military’s operational procedures had changed. But the “humanitarian situation in Gaza remains dire,” the aid group’s chief operating officer, Erin Gore, said in a statement .

“We are restarting our operation with the same energy, dignity, and focus on feeding as many people as possible,” she said.

The aid group said it had distributed more than 43 million meals in Gaza so far and that it had trucks carrying the equivalent of nearly eight million meals waiting to enter the enclave through the Rafah crossing in the south. World Central Kitchen said it was also planning to send trucks to Gaza through Jordan and that it would open a kitchen in Al-Mawasi, a small seaside village that the Israeli military has designated as a “humanitarian zone” safe for civilians, though attacks there have continued.

Six of the seven workers killed on April 1 were from Western nations — three from Britain, one from Australia, one from Poland and one with dual citizenship of the United States and Canada. The seventh was Palestinian. They were killed in back-to-back Israeli drone strikes on their vehicles as they traveled toward Rafah after unloading food aid that had arrived by sea.

The attack prompted World Central Kitchen to immediately suspend its operations in Gaza and elicited outrage from some of Israel’s closest allies.

The World Central Kitchen convoy’s movements had been coordinated in advance with the Israeli military, but some officers had not reviewed the coordination documentation detailing which cars were part of the convoy, the military said.

Some 200 aid workers, most of them Palestinians, were killed in Gaza between Oct. 7 and the attack on the World Central Kitchen convoy, according to the United Nations. A visual investigation by The New York Times showed that, well before the World Central Kitchen attack, six aid groups in Gaza had come under Israeli fire despite sharing their locations with the Israeli military.

The episode forced World Central Kitchen to decide between ending its efforts in Gaza or continuing, “knowing that aid, aid workers and civilians are being intimidated and killed,” Ms. Gore said in the statement.

“Ultimately, we decided that we must keep feeding, continuing our mission of showing up to provide food to people during the toughest of times,” she said.

At a memorial in Washington for the World Central Kitchen workers on Thursday, the group’s founder, the celebrity chef José Andrés, said that there were “many unanswered questions about what happened and why,” and that the aid group was still demanding an independent investigation into the Israeli military’s actions.

The seven aid workers had “risked everything to feed people they did not know and will never meet,” Mr. Andrés said. “They were the best of humanity.”

— Anushka Patil

Arab ministers suggest ways to ‘force peace’ amid Israel’s refusal to recognize a Palestinian state.

At a conference in Saudi Arabia’s capital on Monday, senior diplomats from around the world appeared to agree on one thing: The pathway to a durable peace between Israel and the Palestinians is the creation of a Palestinian state.

But with Israel’s refusal to recognize a Palestinian state, three Arab foreign ministers posited how best to proceed, with Ayman Safadi of Jordan presenting the bluntest proposal among them. The international community, he said, should find a way to “force peace” against the will of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel.

“If we come up with the best plan ever, and all of us in the international community agree that this is the plan to go forward, and then Netanyahu and his government say no, what happens then?” Mr. Safadi said during a World Economic Forum panel discussion in the Saudi capital, Riyadh, with the foreign ministers of Egypt and Saudi Arabia. “Will he face consequences?”

He added, “The party that is responsible for denying Palestinians, Israelis and the whole region peace must be held accountable.”

Israel’s foreign ministry declined to comment, and the prime minister’s office did not respond to a request for comment.

Both before and during this war in Gaza, which began after the Hamas-led attack on Israel on Oct. 7, Mr. Netanyahu has rebuffed calls for the creation of a Palestinian state.

Analysts say that the attack, in which about 1,200 people were killed and about 240 people taken captive, according to the Israeli authorities, has made it even more unlikely that the Israeli government would agree to such a path. Israeli officials have said that they are trying to eradicate Hamas.

“There is a contrary move, an attempt to force, ram down our throats, a Palestinian state, which will be another terror haven,” Mr. Netanyahu said this month.

Polling shows that a majority of Israelis oppose creating a Palestinian state.

In the Biden administration’s plan for resolving the underlying conflict — and end a war in which Israel’s military has killed more than 34,000 Palestinians, according to officials from the Gazan Health Ministry — it envisions Saudi Arabia agreeing to normalize diplomatic relations with Israel.

In exchange, Saudi Arabia would receive advanced weapons and security guarantees, including a mutual defense treaty from the United States and U.S. commitment for cooperation on a civilian nuclear program in the kingdom .

For its part, Israel would have to commit to the founding of a Palestinian nation, with specific deadlines, U.S. and Saudi officials say.

“In the absence of a real political horizon for the Palestinians, it’s going to be much harder, if not impossible, to really have a coherent plan for Gaza itself,” Antony J. Blinken, the U.S. secretary of state, said on Monday during the conference in Riyadh.

On Sunday at the same event, the Saudi foreign minister, Prince Faisal bin Farhan, said that the only solution was “a credible, irreversible pathway to a Palestinian state.”

He added, “We need to move from talk to action, to concrete steps, and it can’t be left up to the warring parties.”

Prince Faisal implied that diplomats could maneuver around an Israeli refusal, referring to “mechanisms within the toolbox of the international community that can overcome the resistance of any party.”

“If we make that decision, the pathway will unfold before us, even if there are those that will try to stop it,” he said. “There are levers clear, there are levers hidden, that can push us in that direction.”

Mr. Safadi, the Jordanian foreign minister, said that the challenge Arab states had faced while trying to resolve the conflict was that “we don’t have a partner in Israel now.”

“Do we allow Netanyahu to doom the future of the region to more conflict, war and destruction — or do we do what it takes to force peace?” he said.

Speaking on the same panel, Sameh Shoukry, Egypt’s foreign minister, said that if the international community made a “categorical” commitment to creating a Palestinian state, there were “points of leverage that can fulfill that requirement.”

“We have the mechanisms, but is there the political will to utilize it?” he asked.

— Vivian Nereim reporting from Riyadh, Saudi Arabia

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Kuwait’s revised overseas hiring excludes domestics

KUWAIT CITY, April 27: The Director of Public Relations and Media Department at the Public Authority for Manpower Aseel Al-Mazyed has said the recent decision to amend the recruitment process for workers hired from overseas is for private sector employees and does not include domestic workers, reports Al-Anba daily. Al-Mazyed, who is also the spokeswoman for PAM, added the decision allows the transfer of these private sector employees to another employer after three years or upon payment of 300 dinars transfer fee, contingent upon the original sponsor’s approval.

Al-Mazyed clarified the new mechanism replaces the previous system of recruitment which was based on activity categories. This decision will take effect from June 1 and will be in force for one year, subject to evaluation by the PAM Board of Directors. She further mentioned that business owners can submit applications for work permits to the authority ‘online’. Al-Mazyed also noted the Authority’s endeavor to integrate all its services into the Sahel application. She went on to say although there is no suspension of work permit issuance, there is ongoing consideration to regulate specific professions solely within the Kuwaiti labor market.

Additionally, it was disclosed that PAM will observe World Occupational Safety Day on Sunday under the theme ‘Towards a Safe Work Environment’. The celebration will include a workshop covering seven topics, with the participation of seven government agencies, each addressing its respective area of expertise, particularly focusing on occupational safety measures and inspection mechanisms.

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