“After the horrific events of October 7 by Hamas in Israel’s south, Hezbollah from Lebanon joined in and started firing rockets at Israel,” Blinken told the “Today” show on NBC.

“People who lived in northern Israel had to evacuate their homes. Villages were destroyed, homes were destroyed and 70,000 Israelis were forced from their homes, and Israel started firing back.”

He added that “there was a tit for tat going back and forth, people in southern Lebanon had to leave their homes too. And what everyone wants is a secure environment in which people can simply return to their homes, and kids can go back to school. That’s what Israel is after.”

He said, however, that escalation was not the best way to achieve that, and that the ideal way forward was “through a diplomatic agreement. While there is a very legitimate issue here, we don’t think war is the solution.”