The Joe Biden administration has sent Hady Amr, the deputy assistant secretary of state for Israel and Palestinian affairs, to the region in an effort to de-escalate what’s become the deadliest fighting between Hamas and Israel since the 2014 war. Here's what you should know about Amr, the most senior State Department official tasked with managing the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. 

His background. Amr brings to the table years of experience working on Israeli-Palestinian negotiations during the Barack Obama administration. From 2013 to 2017, he was deputy special envoy for the negotiations, with a focus on Gaza and economics. Before that, he served as the deputy assistant administrator in USAID’s Middle East bureau, where he worked on the US aid agency's response to the Arab Spring. 

In 2006, he joined the Brookings Institution and became the founding director of the think tank's Doha Center in Qatar. Born in Lebanon and raised in the United States, Amr has also advised international organizations like the World Bank and World Economic Forum. 

His significance. Biden's priorities so far have been on the US domestic front and in the Middle East, the focus has been Iran, not the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. Unlike some of his predecessors, Biden hasn't appointed a special envoy to quarterback the peace process. Biden also has yet to name a US ambassador to Israel, although White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said Wednesday to expect an announcement “over the coming weeks.”