U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken met with top officials in Israel on Tuesday during his fourth visit to the Middle East since the Oct. 7 terror attack.

Blinken met first with Israeli President Isaac Herzog and then with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Tel Aviv. He was also expected to sit in on an Israeli war cabinet meeting.

Speaking to reporters alongside the Israeli president on Tuesday morning, Blinken said he valued Herzog's leadership during these "incredibly challenging times" for Israel and other nations in the Middle East. The U.S. secretary said he would be sharing with Israeli officials what he had heard from leaders in regional countries.

Blinken's latest weeklong trip is aimed at calming tensions across the Middle East amid the ongoing war between Israel and the Palestinian militant group Hamas in the neighboring Gaza Strip. The current conflict was sparked by the Hamas-led attack on southern Israel on Oct. 7.

-ABC News' Lauren Minore, Joe Simonetti and Morgan Winsor

Just before he departed Saudi Arabia for Israel, Secretary of State Antony Blinken outlined what he hoped to accomplish during his time in the country.

Blinken said that while he was on the ground, he would have an opportunity to relate what he had heard in meetings during his several previous stops in the Arab world, as well as "talk to them about the future direction of their military campaign in Gaza."

"I will press on the absolute imperative to do more to protect civilians and to do more to make sure that humanitarian assistance is getting into the hands of those who need it," he said.

Summarizing his trip so far, he said that he found a united front among leaders in Turkey, Jordan, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia.

"Everywhere I went, I found leaders who are determined to prevent the conflict that we're facing now from spreading, doing everything possible to deter escalation -- to prevent a widening of the conflict," he said, adding they also agreed on the importance of Israel's security, and that the West Bank and Gaza should be united as one state led by Palestinian governance.

-ABC News' Shannon K. Crawford

A Hezbollah leader issued a threat to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu after his visit to the Lebanon border on Monday.

"If you want a large-scale war in which you attack our country, we will go to the end and we are not afraid of your threats, your bombing, or your aggression, and we have prepared for you what you never imagined," Muhammad Raad, head of the Hezbollah bloc of Lebanese parliament, said.

Israel said it hit military targets in southern Lebanon on Monday amid skirmishes that have been ongoing since October.

Netanyahu visited Kiryat Shmona, a city in northern Israel near the Lebanon border, on Monday, where he said Hezbollah got Israelis wrong in 2006 -- a reference to the 34-day war between the two countries. He also added that he hopes to return Israeli evacuees to the region.

"We will do everything to restore security to the north and allow your families, because many of you are local, to return home safely and know that we cannot be messed with," Netanyahu said. "We will do whatever it takes. Of course, we prefer that this be done without a wide campaign, but that will not stop us."

-ABC News' Jordana Miller and Nasser Atta

President Joe Biden's speech at the Mother Emanuel AME Church in South Carolina on Monday was interrupted by a handful of protesters who shouted, "Cease-fire now!"

Biden responded to the interruption by saying, “I understand their passion. And I've been quietly working … with [the] Israeli government to get them to reduce and significantly get out of Gaza, using all I can to do.”

-ABC News’ Gabriella Abdul-Hakim, Libby Cathey and Fritz Farrow

Israeli War Cabinet Minister Benny Gantz warned Wednesday that "Hamas will regain control" of the Gaza Strip if the Israeli military ceases combat operations there.

"We must go on. If we stop now, Hamas will regain control," Gantz, a retired army general who previously served as Israel's defense minister and alternate prime minister, said during a press conference in Tel Aviv. "In most areas, we have completed the phase of operational takeover and now, we are deep in the phase of dismantling the terrorist infrastructure, which will lead to the demilitarization of the strip."

However, Gantz noted that "the most urgent thing is the return of the abductees." More than 100 Israeli citizens are believed to still be held hostage by militants in Gaza after being taken captive during the Hamas-led Oct. 7 attack on southern Israel.

"This has precedence over every move in combat," he said.

Gantz also warned that the Israeli military "will act in southern Lebanon as we act in northern Gaza" if the neighboring country "continues to serve as an Iranian terrorist outpost." His remarks came as Israeli forces continue to exchange fire with Hezbollah, an Iran-backed Lebanese militant group, amid fears that regional tensions could escalate into a wider war in the Middle East.

"This is not a threat to Lebanon," Gantz added. "It is a promise to the residents of [northern Israel]."

Israel's war cabinet is expected to meet on Wednesday evening, followed by a meeting of the wider security cabinet.

-ABC News' Dana Savir and Morgan Winsor