In his fourth visit to Israel since Hamas launched its surprise attacks there nearly a month ago, Secretary of State Antony Blinken reiterated Friday the United States’ support for Israel to defend itself and prevent such future assaults.

Speaking at a news conference in Tel Aviv, Blinken also said it’s critical that Israel works to minimize civilian casualties in the Gaza Strip and made the case for a pause in the war to allow more humanitarian aid to be delivered to Palestinians.

However, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who met earlier with Blinken, said Friday he has ruled out a temporary cease-fire in Gaza unless hostages held by Hamas are released. He said Israel was pressing ahead with its military offensive with “all of its power.”

Blinken said during his news conference that the proposed pause was an “important area of discussion” with Israeli leaders who raised “a number of legitimate questions … including how to use any period of pause to maximize the full humanitarian assistance, how to connect a pause to the release of hostages, how to ensure that Hamas doesn’t use these pauses or arrangements to its own advantage.”

“These are issues that we need to tackle urgently and we believe that can be solved,” Blinken said.

He added that the Israeli government is committed to enabling humanitarian aid to reach people in Gaza.

Blinken also repeated the United States’ warning that other nations and groups should not use the war between Israel and Hamas to open second or third fronts in the conflict and vowed to respond to attacks. He said the U.S. has backed up its words to date by deploying two aircraft carrier battle groups to the region, shooting down missiles heading from Yemen toward Israel, and launching strikes in response to attacks on American personnel in Iraq and Syria.

However, around the same time Blinken was speaking, Hassan Nasrallah, the leader of Lebanon’s Hezbollah, said in a televised address that his powerful militia is engaged in unprecedented cross-border fighting with Israel and threatened escalation.

Blinken said there needs to be a substantial and immediate increase of humanitarian help in Gaza. While the number of humanitarian trucks entering Gaza each day is now more than 100, “this is still not enough,” he said.

“I spoke to Israeli leaders about tangible steps that can be taken to increase the sustained delivery of food, water, medicine, fuel and other essential needs, while putting in place measures to prevent diversion by Hamas and other terrorist groups,” he said.

“We’ve identified mechanisms to enable fuel to reach hospitals and other needs in the south. Israel has raised appropriate concerns, concerns that we share about Hamas’ hording and siphoning of fuel in northern Gaza.”

He added, “Again, [Hamas’] cynicism knows no bounds, denying fuel itself that it has to hospitals and other places that desperately need it.”

The secretary of state said it’s also a top priority for the U.S. to evacuate its citizens and other foreign nationals from Gaza.

In addition, Blinken said any failure by Israel to protect Palestinian civilians could be damaging because it “plays into the hands of Hamas and other terror groups.”

“There will be no partners for peace if they’re consumed by humanitarian catastrophe and alienated by any perceived indifference to their plight,” the secretary of state said.

Looking beyond the conflict, Blinken restated that the U.S. believes a two-state solution is the only pathway to lasting peace in the region.

“That’s the only guarantor of a secure Jewish and democratic Israel, the only guarantor of Palestinians realizing their legitimate right to live in a state of their own, enjoying equal measures of security, freedom, opportunity and dignity, the only way to end a cycle of violence once and for all,” he said.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.