Sri Lanka, Feb. 6 -- U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken met Egypt's president on Tuesday as part of a 48-hour, four-nation flurry of shuttle diplomacy in search of a ceasefire in Gaza's war, while Israel pressed its onslaught in the south of the enclave.

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, with a threatened assault looming on a nearby border town teeming with displaced people.

Blinken arrived in Egypt after a stop in Saudi Arabia, and then departed for Qatar, for meetings with the main countries acting as mediators in the Gaza war. Palestinians hope the U.S. top diplomat's Middle East swing will nail down a ceasefire be...