US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Thursday said the war in Gaza “is not escalating” as he wrapped up a Middle East tour aimed at preventing the fighting between Israel and Hamas – now in its fourth month – from spiralling into a wider regional conflict. “I don’t think the conflict is escalating. There are lots of danger points. We’re trying to deal with each of them,” he told reporters before leaving Cairo, the final stop in his tour of the region. He said he had come away with a “number of concrete steps forward.” “First, an agreement by Israel to have the United Nations send an assessm…