ISTANBUL (AP) — US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has kicked off his latest urgent Middle East diplomatic mission in Turkey, as fears mount that Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza may explode into a broader conflict.

Blinken’s fourth visit in three months comes amid worrying developments outside of Gaza, including in Lebanon, northern Israel, the Red Sea and Iraq, that have put intense strains on what had been a modestly successful US push to prevent a regional conflagration in the weeks after the war began, and growing international criticism of Israel’s military operation.

Blinken met Saturday with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan to discuss what Turkey and others can do to exert influence, particularly on Iran and its proxies, to ease soaring tensions, speed up humanitarian aid deliveries to Gaza and begin in earnest to plan for reconstruction and governance of postwar Gaza, much of which has been reduced to rubble by three months of intense Israeli strikes.

The war was sparked by the October 7 onslaught when some 3,000 Hamas-led terrorists burst into southern Israel, killing some 1,200 people and seizing an estimated 240 hostages, mostly civilians.

In response, Israel vowed to destroy Hamas and launched a wide-scale military campaign in Gaza aimed at destroying the group’s military and governance capabilities and returning the hostages.

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