US not involved in Hamas chief's killing, says Blinken

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Wednesday that the United States was "not aware of or involved in" the killing of Hamas's political leader Ismail Haniyeh in Iran.

"This is something we were not aware of or involved in," Blinken said, according to a transcript shared by his staff from an interview with Channel News Asia in Singapore.

Earlier, Blinken said that a ceasefire in Gaza was "imperative" after the killing of Hamas's political leader Ismail Haniyeh in Iran.

Blinken refused to comment directly on the killing of Haniyeh but said at a forum in Singapore that reaching a ceasefire in Gaza "is the enduring imperative".

"We've been working from day one not only to try to get to a better place in Gaza but also to prevent the conflict from spreading, whether it's the north with Lebanon and Hezbollah, whether it's the Red Sea with the Houthis, whether it's Iran, Syria, Iraq, you name it," Blinken said.

"A big key to trying to make sure that that doesn't happen, and that we can move to a better place, is getting the ceasefire."

Haniyeh was attending the inauguration of Iran's new president when he was killed by an Israeli air strike, Hamas said Wednesday.

Israeli Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu has vowed to destroy Hamas in retaliation for its October 7 attacks on Israel, which sparked the war in Gaza.

Hamas blamed Israel and vowed the "cowardly" killing of their veteran leader "will not go unanswered".

The October 7 attacks resulted in the deaths of 1,197 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures.

Militants also seized 251 hostages, 111 of whom are still held captive in Gaza, including 39 the military says are dead.

Israel's retaliatory campaign against Hamas has killed at least 39,400 people in Gaza, according to the Hamas-run territory's health ministry, which does not provide details on civilian and militant deaths.

Blinken said achieving a ceasefire was "manifestly in the interests of the hostages and bringing them home, it's manifestly in the interests of Palestinians who are suffering terribly every single day, children, women, men in Gaza".

"... it's profoundly in the interest of trying to put things on a better path not only in Gaza, but actually throughout the region, because so much is tied to what's happening in Gaza right now," he said.

Wider Middle East war 'not inevitable', says Austin

US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin has just reiterated that he doesn’t think a wider conflict in the Middle East is inevitable. "I don't think war is inevitable. I maintain that. I think there's always room and opportunities for diplomacy," Austin told media during the last day of a trip to the Philippines.

Austin does not comment on reports of Ismail Haniyeh's death, saying only that he didn’t have "any additional information to provide" on the matter.

And when asked about how Washington might support Israel in the event of an expanding regional conflict, Austin says that the goal was still to de-escalate tensions and "take the temperature down".

“But definitely Washington will defend Israel in case of any attack.”