The concerns of a wider war are likely to be high on the agenda as US Secretary of State Antony Blinken sets off late on Thursday to visit Israel and other countries around the region.
The killing of Saleh al-Arouri prompted warnings of retaliation from Hamas’ ally, the Lebanese Hezbollah militia. But there was no immediate escalation in the daily exchanges of rocket fire and shells between Hezbollah and the Israeli military over the two countries’ border.
Regional tensions climbed as a US air strike killed an Iranian-backed militia leader in Iraq and as Yemen’s Houthi rebels continued attacks on ships in key Red Sea shipping lanes.
At the same time, Israel has stepped up warnings of tougher military action against Hezbollah unless it pulls its fighters out of the border region, as called for under a UN-brokered 2006 ceasefire. Israel says that is the only way tens of thousands of Israelis who evacuated from communities in the north can return.
Meeting on Thursday with Amos Hochstein, a senior adviser to US President Joe Biden, Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant said there was a “short window of time” for diplomacy with Hezbollah. But he said Israel was determined to bring about “a new reality in the northern arena, which will enable the secure return of our citizens.”
Israel launches deadly Gaza strikes as Middle East tensions rise
Israel launches deadly Gaza strikes as Middle East tensions rise
In Gaza, nearly three months of Israeli bombardment and ground assault have killed more than 22,400 people, more than two-thirds of them women and children, according to the Health Ministry in the Hamas-run territory. The ministry count does not differentiate between civilians and combatants.
The campaign has driven more than 85 per cent of Gaza’s 2.3 million people from their homes. Israel’s assault levelled much of northern Gaza, and ground assaults in the south have pushed most of the population into smaller slivers of the territory. With strikes continuing to hit throughout Gaza, Palestinians say nowhere is safe.
On Thursday, a strike hit a house in Mawasi, a small rural strip on Gaza’s southern coastline where Israel’s military has said Palestinians should flee to escape the combat zone. The blast killed a man and his wife, seven of their children and three other children ranging in age from 5 to 14, according to a list of the dead who arrived at Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis.
There was no immediate response from Israel’s military.
Israeli troops pushed into Khan Younis in early December and have been battling Hamas militants there for weeks. The military said on Thursday that its troops uncovered a large tunnel hundreds of metres long with an entrance in a field next to a mosque.
Footage released by the military showed it blasting into rubble buildings where fighters who reportedly fired on troops had hidden or that held Hamas infrastructure. Military officials did not elaborate.
Israel blames Hamas for the high civilian death toll, saying it operates within residential areas and has an extensive tunnel network beneath civilian sites.
Gallant said Israel is seeking a “clear victory” over Hamas, which has ruled the territory since 2007. The October 7 attack from Gaza into southern Israel killed around 1,200 people, and some 240 others were taken hostage.
Israel appears far from achieving its goals of crushing Hamas and returning the estimated 129 hostages still held by the group. Gallant said several thousand Hamas fighters remain in northern Gaza, where Israeli troops have been battling militants for over two months and where entire neighbourhoods have been levelled.
Blinken to travel to Israel, West Bank in Gaza diplomacy push
Blinken to travel to Israel, West Bank in Gaza diplomacy push
UN associate spokeswoman Florencia Soto Nino said officials from the UN’s humanitarian office and the World Health Organization on Thursday visited the Al Amal hospital in Khan Younis, which was reportedly hit by a deadly strike, and witnessed extensive damage.
The UN and its humanitarian partners have been unable to deliver aid to northern Gaza for three days, Soto Niño said.
The humanitarian office has warned that Gaza “is a public health disaster in the making”, she said.
Since October 7, more than 400,000 cases of infectious diseases have been reported, Soto Niño said, including some 180,000 people with upper respiratory infections and more than 136,000 cases of diarrhoea – half in children under the age of five.