GAZA/JERUSALEM
Israel bombarded Gaza with air
strikes early on Monday and its aircraft struck southern Lebanon overnight, as
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu convened a meeting of his top
generals and his war cabinet to assess the escalating conflict.A picture taken from Israel's southern city of Sderot shows smoke billowing during a Israeli strike on Gaza on October 22, 2023, amid ongoing battles between Israel and the Palestinian group Hamas.
Israel’s attacks concentrated
on the Gaza Strip’s center and north, Palestinian media reported. A strike on a
house near the Jabalia refugee camp, in northern Gaza, killed several
Palestinians and wounded others, according to media reports.
Health authorities in Gaza
said at least 4,600 people were killed in Israel’s two-week bombardment that
began after a Hamas Oct. 7 rampage on southern Israeli communities in which
1,400 people were killed and 212 were taken into Gaza as hostages.
Palestinian Hamas leader
Ismail Haniyeh and Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian discussed
in a call late on Sunday the means of stopping Israel’s “brutal crimes” in
Gaza, Hamas said in a statement.
Israel has amassed tanks and
troops near the fenced border around Gaza for a planned ground invasion aiming
to annihilate Hamas.
Fears that the Israel-Hamas
war could mushroom into a wider Middle East conflict rose over the weekend with
Washington warning of a significant risk to US interests in the region and
announcing a new deployment of advanced air defenses.
The Pentagon has already
dispatched a significant amount of naval power to the Middle East, including
two aircraft carriers, support ships and about 2,000 Marines, to help deter
attacks by Iran-affiliated forces.
“What we’re seeing ... is the
prospect of a significant escalation of attacks on our troops and our people
throughout the region,” US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin told ABC’s “This
Week” program on Sunday.
Iranian security officials told Reuters Iran’s strategy was for Middle East
proxies like Hezbollah to pursue limited strikes on Israeli and US targets but
to avoid a major escalation that would draw in Tehran, a high-wire act for the
Islamic Republic.A mourner carries the body of a child, during the funeral of Palestinians from al-Astal family, who were killed in Israeli strikes, in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip October 22, 2023.
In neighboring Syria, where
Hamas’ main regional backer Iran has a military presence, Israeli missiles hit
Damascus and Aleppo international airports early on Sunday, putting both out of
service and killing two workers, Syrian state media said.
Along Israel’s northern border
with Lebanon, the Iran-backed Hezbollah group has clashed with Israeli forces
in support of Hamas in the deadliest escalation of frontier violence since an
Israel-Hezbollah war in 2006.
Early on Monday, Israeli
aircraft struck two Hezbollah cells in Lebanon that were planning to launch
anti-tank missiles and rockets toward Israel, its military said. Israel’s
military also said it struck other Hezbollah targets, including a compound and
an observation post.
With violence around its
heavily guarded borders increasing, Israel on Sunday added 14 communities close
to Lebanon and Syria to its evacuation contingency plan in the north of the
country.
Hezbollah announced the deaths
of six more fighters late on Sunday, raising to 26 the number of its members
killed since Oct. 7.
Palestinian Prime Minister
Mohammad Shtayyeh called on the international community to create “a united
front” to stop Israel’s attacks in Gaza and allow desperately needed aid which
has only begun to trickle in.
A second convoy of 14 aid trucks entered the Rafah crossing to the besieged Gaza Strip on Sunday night, and US President Joe Biden and Netanyahu affirmed in a call “there will now be continued flow of this critical assistance into Gaza,” the White House said.
The UN humanitarian office
said the volume of aid entering so far was just 4 percent of the daily average
before the hostilities and a fraction of what was needed with food, water,
medicines and fuel stocks running out.
Biden also ramped up his
diplomacy, convening calls on Sunday with Netanyahu and Pope Francis and
speaking with the leaders of Canada, France, Britain, Germany, Italy and
Britain about getting aid into Gaza and preventing the conflict from spreading.
In a joint statement, the
leaders voiced support for Israel’s right to defend itself. They also called
for adherence to international humanitarian law, including the protection of
civilians.
Netanyahu also held a phone
call with the leaders of France, Spain and the Netherlands late on Sunday, the
Israeli leader’s office said.
Dutch Prime Minister Mark
Rutte will visit Israel on Monday and French President Emmanuel Macron will
visit Tuesday.
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