Israel-Hamas war 'could easily metastasize' beyond Gaza, Blinken warns

The Israel-Hamas war "could easily metastasize" as "profound tension" in the region raises the prospect of a wider conflict beyond Gaza, Antony Blinken said Sunday

The Israel-Hamas war currently concentrated in Gaza "could easily metastasize" beyond the Palestinian territory as "profound tension" in the region raises the prospect of a wider conflict, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Sunday during an ongoing trip to the Middle East.

Such fighting would "cause even more insecurity and suffering," Blinken told reporters in Doha, Qatar, alongside Qatari Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani.

Blinken is roughly halfway through a nine-stop tour around the Middle East, his fourth diplomatic mission since the war began after Hamas' Oct. 7 terror attack on Israel killed 1,200.

Blinken has more meetings with Arab leaders in the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia before heading to Israel and Egypt. De-escalation, he said, "is at the heart" of these discussions amid repeated altercations in the Red Sea, at the Israeli-Lebanese border and in Iraq and Syria.

U.S. officials have said militant groups like Hezbollah and the Houthis, in Lebanon and Yemen, as well as Iranian-backed proxy fighters, are behind some of the incidents.