2023-10-23 01:20:00
15 days after the start of the bombings, violence spreads throughout the Middle East. (AFP Photo)
Israel heavily bombed the Gaza Strip, a West Bank mosque allegedly used by extremists and two Syrian airports on Saturday night and Sunday, amid growing fears that its confrontation with the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas could lead to an broader regional conflict and as humanitarian aid continued to enter the Palestinian enclave.
The United States, which has already sent two aircraft carriers off the Israeli coastannounced that it was strengthening its military presence in the Middle East with the deployment of anti-aircraft batteries to deter attacks on Israel or US interests “by Iran and its affiliated forces” and said that it will not hesitate to attack any “organization or country.”
The US State Department later revealed that last week it ordered the evacuation of non-essential staff from its embassy in Baghdad and its consulate in Erbil, Iraq, “due to increasing threats.” Multiple militias operating in Iraq respond to Iran.
Yemeni groups fired rockets at Israel, which also exchanged fire with the pro-Iranian Lebanese Islamist movement Hezbollah. as happens almost daily since the beginning of hostilities with Hamas, and launched two airstrikes in the Palestinian West Bank territories, where it clashed with militants in refugee camps.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visited soldiers on the border with Lebanon on Sunday and said that if Hezbollah decides to wage war against Israel, it will make “the mistake of its life,” hours after the Israeli Army said that the group Shiite Islam was dragging all of Lebanon into the conflict.
Photo: AFP
For its part, Israeli President Isaac Herzog said they located documentation held by Hamas with instructions to prepare an attack with cyanide, a chemical weapon, and to use it against Israeli civilians.
“It’s Al Qaeda material. Official Al Qaeda material,” Herzog said in an interview with the British channel Sky News.
In Iran, Foreign Minister Hossein Amir Abdolahian warned the United States and Israel that the situation could become “uncontrollable” in the Middle East if the Israeli Army does not stop its bombing in the Gaza Strip. in response to recent attacks by the Palestinian group Hamas in Israel.
In parallel, Netanyahu spoke by telephone this Sunday with the heads of the Executives of the United States, Spain, France and the Netherlands.
“The prime minister spoke with French President Emmanuel Macron, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez and Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte,” Netanyahu’s office said in a statement, in which they also confirmed that “Macron and Rutte will arrive in Israel on Monday and Tuesday”.
Meanwhile, Biden and Netanyahu agreed that there will now be a “continuous flow” of “critical aid to Gaza,” according to the White House.
Biden also spoke with the leaders of the United Kingdom, Canada, France, Germany and Italy, as well as Pope Francis.
A convoy of 17 trucks with humanitarian aid and fuel entered the Gaza Strip this Sunday from Egypt, through the southern Palestinian city of Rafah, according to an unidentified Egyptian official and sources from the UN agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) cited by the AFP news agency.
It is the second convoy to arrive in the Hamas-ruled coastal territory since Israel imposed a full siege two weeks ago, and after another 20 trucks entered on Saturday.
Photo: AFP
According to the UN, at least 100 trucks a day would be needed to meet the needs of Gaza’s 2.4 million inhabitants.
“No fuel enters Gaza; fuel is really critical now, we need it to sustain aid operations,” said UNRWA Gaza director Thomas White, in the organization’s account on the social network X.
In Gaza, hospitals are full and running out of supplies, forcing doctors to perform surgeries with sewing needles, using vinegar as a disinfectant and without anesthesia.
The Gaza Ministry of Health reported that the number of hospitals that stopped operating “increased to 10” and that the total of medical institutions of all types that stopped operating reached 29.
For its part, The WHO added that seven hospitals in northern Gaza closed due to damage caused by the attacks, lack of power or Israeli evacuation orders.
The organizations of The UN for children (UNICEF) and health (WHO) warned this Sunday that at least 130 premature babies are at “serious risk” due to a shortage of fuel for generators that power their incubators.
In addition, the enclave’s Health Ministry made “a call to gas station owners and all citizens” to donate fuel to save lives, the Sputnik news agency cited.
Israel called on all residents of northern Gaza to migrate to the south of the small 40-kilometer-long territory, as it prepares its ground incursion into the northern strip, where it claims Hamas has most of its positions.
A ground operation in this overcrowded enclave, riddled with traps and tunnels, represents multiple dangers for Israeli troops. Hamas fighters are holding at least 212 Israeli and foreign hostages captured in the attack in Israel.
A convoy of 17 trucks with humanitarian aid and fuel entered the Gaza Strip this Sunday
The Gaza Health Ministry said Sunday that the total death toll since the start of the Israeli bombings was now at least 4,651, including 1,973 children, and that more than 14,200 were injured.
More than 1,400 people, mostly civilians, were killed in Hamas attacks in Israel on the 7th of this month. More than 4,800 people were injured.
Since the day of the Hamas attacks, Palestinians in Gaza have fired more than 7,000 rockets at Israel.
In Syria, which borders northern Israel to the south, state media reported that Israeli airstrikes hit the international airports in Damascus and Aleppo.
The attacks killed two people and damaged the runways, rendering them out of service.
Hezbollah said Sunday that six of its fighters were killed in Israeli strikes on Saturday, and warned that Israel would pay a high price if it launches a ground offensive in Gaza.
Israel attacked Hezbollah targets on Sunday in response to rocket fire, the military said.
In the West Bank, the other Palestinian territories, 90 Palestinians have died in clashes with Israeli troops and attacks by Jewish settlers since the Hamas attacks in Israel, according to the Health Ministry.
Israel said it arrested more than 700 Palestinians since Sept. 7, including 480 suspected Hamas members, in the West Bank.
Two people were killed in an airstrike against a mosque in the city of Jenen, which – according to the Israeli Army – belonged to militants from Hamas and the Palestinian group Islamic Jihad.
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