U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken hopes to advance efforts to achieve a ceasefire deal in Gaza as well as strengthen bilateral ties with Cairo when he visits Egypt on Wednesday amid concern about escalating Middle East tensions. The top U.S. diplomat’s visit comes as the region remains on high alert due to risk of Gaza war expanding, particularly after Lebanese group Hezbollah promised to retaliate against Israel, accusing it of detonating pagers across Lebanon on Tuesday. The incident killed at least nine people and wounded nearly 3,000 others. Israel has declined to respond to questions…