Blinken returns to Israel as Gaza war grinds on
SMA NEWS – GAZA
The Israeli army bombed Gaza and battled Hamas fighters on Tuesday as US top diplomat Antony Blinken was back in Israel on a regional tour aimed at stopping the war from escalating across the Middle East.
An AFP correspondent reported intense bombing overnight in Khan Yunis and Rafah, the biggest cities in the south of the besieged Palestinian territory which are crowded with internally displaced people.
The army said its forces had killed 40 fighters over the past 24 hours in “expanded ground operations including air strikes” in Khan Yunis, and that troops had seized AK-47 assault rifles, rocket launchers and other weapons.
Since the war broke out with the Hamas resistance campaign of October 7, fears have grown of an escalating conflict between Israel and its other regional enemies, a loose alliance of Iran-backed armed groups in Lebanon, Syria, Iraq and Yemen.
Israel has traded cross-border fire with Hezbollah for three months and more recently killed senior operatives of the Shia Muslim armed group as well as of Hamas on Lebanese soil, sparking anger and threats of retaliation.
Hezbollah said on Tuesday it had launched a drone attack on Israel’s “northern command centre” in the city of Safed as part of its response to the killings of Hamas deputy leader Saleh al-Aruri and Hezbollah field commander Wissam Tawil.
The Israeli army also said on Monday it had killed a “central” Hamas figure in Syria, Hassan Akasha, who had led “terrorist cells which fired rockets… toward Israeli territory.”
The US secretary of state — on his fourth Middle East tour since the war broke out — was back in Israel on Tuesday to meet Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and members of his war cabinet, including opposition figure Benny Gantz.
Blinken pointed at “the incredibly challenging times for Israel,” the fate of hostages remaining in Gaza and “the relentless efforts to bring everyone home,” after talks with President Isaac Herzog.
He also voiced hope that, after the war, Israel could push on with its efforts toward regional integration, following its US-brokered normalisation deals with the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and other states.
Israel has responded to the resistance in its history with relentless bombardment, a siege and then a ground invasion of Gaza that have killed at least 23,210 people, mostly women and children, according to the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry.
