On Arab tour, Anthony Blinken asks Israel to avoid civilian deaths in Gaza

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken called on Israel Friday to limit Palestinian civilian deaths as he worked to set up safe areas in the Gaza Strip, seeking to keep calm in the Arab world following a major Hamas attack.

After a solidarity visit to Tel Aviv, Blinken, on a six-nation tour of Arab countries, again defended Israel's right to respond but also hardened his tone on protecting innocent Palestinians.

"We have urged the Israelis to use every possible precaution to avoid harm to civilians," Blinken told a news conference in Qatar.

"We recognise many Palestinian families in Gaza are suffering through no fault of their own and that Palestinian civilians have lost their lives," he said.

But Blinken said that Israel was within its rights after the "unconscionable" attacks by Hamas.

"What Israel is doing is not retaliation. What Israel is doing is defending the lives of its people," he said.

"Any country, faced with what Israel has suffered, would likely do the same thing."

Hamas militants on October 7 shocked Israel by breaching its southern border and killing more than 1,300 people, including children, the elderly and revellers at a music festival.

Even before an expected ground operation, Israel has killed at least 1,799 people in relentless strikes on the Gaza Strip since the Hamas attack and has cut off food, water and electricity.