An Israeli air strike on an apartment in southern Gaza killed six people on Tuesday, Palestinian health officials said, as the top US diplomat arrived in Egypt to pursue a quest for a truce deal in the shattering four-month-old war.

Israel said its forces had killed dozens of Palestinian gunmen throughout Gaza in the past 24 hours with fighting focused on Khan Younis in the south and a threatened assault looming on a nearby town teeming with displaced people.

US secretary of state Antony Blinken headed for meetings in Cairo after a stop on Monday in Saudi Arabia during his latest trouble-shooting West Asian swing Palestinians hope will clinch a truce before Israeli forces storm Gaza’s southern fringes where over a million of Gaza’s people are sheltering.

It was Blinken’s fifth trip to the region since Hamas militants’ lightning attack on Israel from Gaza on October 7 triggered the war, and his first visit since Washington brokered an offer, with Israeli input, for the first extended ceasefire of the conflict, which Hamas says it is still weighing.

State department spokesperson Matthew Miller said Blinken and Saudi Arabia’s ruling crown prince discussed regional steps to achieve an enduring end to the war, tackling the humanitarian disaster in Gaza and limiting regional spillovers of the crisis.

Blinken departed Riyadh just after sunrise for a marathon day of talks in Egypt and Qatar before he flew on to Israel. Washington seeks a deal to secure the release of remaining hostages among those Hamas kidnapped in its October 7 assault as key to making headway on broader challenges such as the governance of post-war Gaza.

The ceasefire offer, delivered to Hamas last week by Qatari and Egyptian mediators, awaits a reply from militants who say they want more guarantees it will stop Israel’s blitz on Gaza, against Israeli vows to keep fighting until Hamas is wiped out.