The Israel Defense Forces said Sunday it had "reached the seashore in the southern part of the city of Gaza and encircled the city of Gaza," calling the encirclement a "significant step" in the fight against Hamas.

"We will continue to attack strongly and continue to intensify our ground operation in the northern Gaza Strip and Greater Gaza City," the IDF said.

The IDF is still urging residents in northern Gaza to move south.

"We are intensifying our attack and this is already happening tonight significantly," the IDF warned.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Sunday at the Ramon Air Force Base in Israel that "there will be no cease-fire without the return of the hostages."

Israeli officials say 241 people have been taken hostage.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken traveled to Iraq to meet with Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani on Sunday following the secretary's visits to Israel, Jordan and the West Bank.

Blinken told reporters that his meeting with the Iraqi prime minister was productive and said he emphasized the need to prevent spillover from the conflict in Gaza.

"I made very clear that the attacks, the threats coming from militia that are aligned with Iran are totally unacceptable," Blinken said. "We're not looking for conflict with Iran. We've made that very clear. But we'll do what's necessary to protect our personnel."

"We're working very hard to make sure that the conflict in Gaza does not escalate, does not spread to other places, whether it's here, whether it's elsewhere in the region," he said.

Blinken was asked about Arab leaders' instance that nothing short of a total cease-fire would be acceptable.

"I think everyone would welcome humanitarian pauses -- there's no doubt about that," Blinken responded.

He said pauses "advance things that we're all trying to accomplish," including getting more humanitarian aid into Gaza, getting people out of Gaza and getting hostages home.

On his meeting with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, Blinken said the PA was "playing a very important role right now in the West Bank in trying to keep stability there."

-ABC News' Shannon Crawford

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken visited the West Bank on Sunday, meeting Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas in an unannounced stop, the State Department said.

The two "discussed efforts to restore calm and stability in the West Bank, including the need to stop extremist violence against Palestinians and hold those accountable responsible," spokesperson Matthew Miller said in a statement.

During brief remarks in New Delhi Friday morning, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken swiftly acknowledged the Biden administration’s “appreciation” of Israel’s commitment to four-hour pauses with three-hour notice in specific areas and corridors of Gaza “that will allow people to move more safely, freely to get out of harm's way and also to access assistance.”

“At the same time, much more needs to be done to protect civilians and to make sure that humanitarian assistance reaches them," he continued. "Far too many Palestinians have been killed. Far too many have suffered these past weeks, and we want to do everything possible to prevent harm to them, and to maximize the assistance that gets to them.”

The secretary said they have established basic principles to guide the effort for lasting peace and security in the region: no use of Gaza as a platform for launching attacks against Israel, no diminution in the territory of Gaza and a commitment to Palestinian-led governance.

Blinken reaffirmed that the administration had “long been committed” to a two-state solution, and the terror attacks of Oct. 7, he said, only redouble American commitment to the peace process.

“But now we've had the events of October 7 -- the almost, beyond the human imagination -- horror of October 7. And I think that only reinforces us in our conviction and our commitment to durable and lasting peace which again, we see through two states,” he said.

On humanitarian assistance, Blinken said that “more than plans, we have a concrete way forward,” including ensuring that there are adequate supplies of fuel for the trucks coming in and that hospitals and desalination plants “have what they need.”

“It's always a process and moving from an understanding, moving from an agreement to implementation is what we're working on right now,” he said.