Blinken tours Mideast in effort to keep Israel-Hamas war from spreading

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• Geoff Bennett:

  Secretary of State Antony Blinken is back in Israel for his fourth visit since the war with Hamas started three months ago. It's part of a long regional tour that has Blinken walking an increasingly narrow diplomatic line, as he tries to keep the conflict from spreading.

  William Brangham reports.

• William Brangham:

  When he arrived in Israel, the secretary of state bore a smile, but a sharper message: Leaders across the Middle East are demanding an end to the fighting in Gaza and a clearer focus on what comes next.

  Antony Blinken, U.S. Secretary of State: I have just come from, a number of countries in the region, Turkey, Greece, Jordan, Qatar, United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, and I want to be able to share some of what I heard from those leaders with the president, as well as with the prime minister and the Cabinet later today.

• William Brangham:

  But in Tel Aviv, Israeli leaders aren't ready to listen to that advice.

  Defense secretary Yoav Gallant told Blinken that while military strategies in the north of Gaza have shifted, operations in the south and center of the strip will intensify. Displaced Gazans in Khan Yunis, desperate to escape the fighting, sent a plea to Blinken for help.

• Enaam Ibrahim Hijazi, Displaced Palestinian (through interpreter):

  My message to the U.S. secretary of state, Antony Blinken, get us back home to Northern Gaza, even if to a tent. It's better than here.

• William Brangham:

  Blinken received promises from Middle Eastern leaders for help rebuilding Gaza, but only if an eventual Palestinian state can exist alongside Israel, something Prime Minister Netanyahu has said he will not allow.

• Antony Blinken:

  Israel must be — must stop taking steps that undercut Palestinians' ability to govern themselves effectively. Extremist settler violence carried out with impunity, settlement expansion, demolition, evictions all make it harder, not easier, for Israel to achieve lasting peace and security.

• William Brangham:

  Defending Israel to the global community has become an increasingly lonely position for the U.S. Today, the U.K.'s foreign secretary, David Cameron, said Israel might have committed war crimes in Gaza.

• David Cameron, British Foreign Secretary:

  If you're asking, am I worried that Israel has taken action that might be in breach of international law because this particular premises has been bombed or whatever, yes, of course, I'm worried about that. And that's why I consult the Foreign Office lawyers when giving this advice on arms exports.

• William Brangham:

  As Israel continues its assault on Southern and Central Gaza, Palestinians seeking shelter have nowhere left to go.

• Abu Youssef Abuel-Soud, Displaced Palestinian (through interpreter):

  This is the fourth time I have dismantled the tents and moved them. I am not ready to sacrifice my children and my grandchildren. We are leaving. We do not know what awaits us.

• William Brangham:

  As fuel supplies dwindle, donkey carts have become one of the only ways Gazans can transport their belongings or their dead.

  On a bench outside Central Gaza's Al-Aqsa Hospital, this aunt grieved the death of her 2-year-old nephew, Ahmad Issa Shahin (ph). The little boy was brought lifeless to the hospital. The rest of her family's fate is unknown.

• Suhad, Displaced Palestinian (through interpreter):

  I don't know if my sister, or her children or my if my father is coming. I'm waiting for them, but he was the only one they brought to the hospital.

  Dr.Jamaal Naim, Lost Family in Airstrike (through interpreter): We found only some skin from my daughter's head and some of her hair. We didn't find anything else. May God rest her soul. She was a top doctor.

• William Brangham:

  Dr. Jamaal Naim carried the remains of his dead daughter here. He's lost three children, three grandchildren, and his mother, all killed in their sleep when their home was bombed.

• Dr. Jamaal Naim (through interpreter):

  We have no one except Allah. On the day of judgment, we're going to hold the Israelis to account, the Arabs and all the Muslims in front of God, and all those who didn't stand for us.

• William Brangham:

  Nearby, another burial for another child. Dr. Mohammad Abu Jayyab's sister's home was bombed, killing her 3-year-old son.

• Mohammad Abu Jayyab, Displaced Palestinian (through interpreter):

  They say leave midtown and go to Deir. Then they bomb Deir. Go to Rafah and then they hit Rafah. People don't know where to go and what to do.

• William Brangham:

  "Hand him to me, I won't cry," his sister promised. But no amount of kisses are enough for a mother's final farewell.

  For the "PBS NewsHour," I'm William Brangham.