US Secretary of State Antony Blinken will leave today on his fourth crisis trip to the Middle East, an official said, as fears mount that the Israel-Hamas conflict will spiral into a regional war, AFP reports.

The top US diplomat will leave in the evening from Washington on a trip that will include Israel, the US official said on Wednesday on condition of anonymity. The official did not offer any further detail but Blinken on previous trips has visited a number of Arab countries.

It will mark Blinken’s fourth trip to the region and fifth to Israel — excluding a visit accompanying President Joe Biden — since Hamas carried out the deadliest-ever attack inside Israel on Oct 7, triggering massive retaliation.

“It is in no one’s interest — not in the interest of any country in the region, not in the interest of any country in the world — to see this conflict escalated any further than it already is,” State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said earlier Wednesday.