Israel strikes Gaza, West Bank, Syria as war threatens to spread

RAFAH (GAZA STRIP): Israeli warplanes struck targets across Gaza overnight and into Sunday, as well as two airports in Syria and a mosque in the occupied West Bank allegedly used by militants, as the two-week-old war with Hamas threatened to spiral into a broader conflict.

In a sign of how precarious any movement of aid remains, two Egyptian officials said Israeli shells hit close to the Egyptian side of the crossing on Sunday, wounding nine Egyptian border guards. The Israeli military said a tank had accidentally fired and hit an Egyptian post, and the incident was being investigated. It apologised for the incident.

In the Israeli-occupied West Bank, 91 Palestinians have been killed — including six Sunday — in clashes with Israeli troops, arrest raids and attacks by Jewish settlers since the Hamas attacks, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry.

Among the dead were two killed in an airstrike on a mosque in the town of Jenin, which has seen heavy gun battles over the past year.

The Israeli military said the mosque compound belonged to Hamas and Islamic Jihad militants who had carried out several attacks in recent months and were planning another one.

In Lebanon, Hezbollah said six fighters were killed on Saturday, and the group’s deputy leader, Sheikh Naim Kassem, warned that Israel would pay a high price if it invades Gaza. Israel struck Hezbollah targets Sunday in response to rocket fire, the military said.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told troops in northern Israel that if Hezbollah launches war, “it will make the mistake of its life. We will cripple it with a force it cannot even imagine and the consequences for it and the Lebanese state will be devastating”. Meanwhile, Syrian state media reported that Israeli airstrikes hit the international airports in the capital, Damascus, and the northern city of Aleppo, killing one person and putting the runways out of service.

Israel has carried out several strikes in Syria since the war began. Israel rarely acknowledges individual strikes, but says it acts to prevent Hezbollah and other militants from bringing in arms from Iran, which also supports Hamas.

Israel ups airstrikes ahead of ground offensive

With an Israeli ground offensive in Gaza looming large, Israel has said it will step up its aerial strikes in the besieged Palestinian territory to create the “best conditions” for troops to move in.

Indicating Israel’s preparations for the second stage of its declared three-phase operation to change the security regime in Gaza, Israel Defence Forces (IDF) spokesperson Daniel Hagari said, “We have to enter the next phase of the war in the best conditions, not according to what anyone tells us.”

“From today, we are increasing the strikes and minimizing the danger,” Hagari told reporters on Saturday, in a clear signal towards an imminent ground incursion.

In another clear indicator that Israel was preparing for the second stage of its three-phase operation to change the “security regime” in Gaza, IDF’s Chief of Staff Herzi Halevi told commanders of the elite Golani infantry brigade earlier on Saturday that they should expect surprises prepared by terror groups when they enter the Gaza Strip.

“We will enter the Gaza Strip. We will begin an operational and professional mission to destroy the Hamas operatives, the Hamas infrastructure, and we will also keep in our minds the images, the scenes and the fallen from Shabbat (Saturday) two weeks ago,” Halevi told the commanders.

He was referring to the latest conflict, triggered by the unprecedented attacks against Israel by Hamas militants on October 7, which killed around 1,400 people. Israel has launched a massive counter-offensive against the Islamic militant group that has ruled Gaza since 2007.“Gaza is complex, Gaza is dense, the enemy is preparing a lot of things there, but we are preparing things for them as well,” the IDF chief said.

The U.S. will send a Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) system and additional Patriot air defense missile system battalions to the Middle East, the Pentagon said on Saturday, in response to recent attacks on U.S. troops in the region. The United States has sent a significant amount of naval power to the Middle East in recent weeks, including two aircraft carriers, their support ships and about 2,000 Marines. Washington is on heightened alert for activity by Iran-backed groups as regional tensions soar during the Israel-Hamas war. “These steps will bolster regional deterrence efforts, increase force protection for U.S. forces in the region, and assist in the defense of Israel,” Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said in a statement.

A top official with Hezbollah vowed that Israel will pay a high price whenever it starts a ground offensive in the Gaza Strip and said Saturday that his militant group based in Lebanon already is “in the heart of the battle.” The comments by Hezbollah’s deputy leader, Sheikh Naim Kassem, came as Israel shelled and made drone strikes in southern Lebanon and Hezbollah fired rockets and missiles toward Israel. For Hezbollah, heating up the Lebanon-Israel border has a clear purpose, Kassem said: “We are trying to weaken the Israeli enemy and let them know that we are ready.” Hamas officials have said that if Israel starts a ground offensive in Gaza, Hezbollah will join the fighting.

An assessment by French military intelligence indicates the most likely cause of the deadly explosion at Gaza City’s al-Ahli hospital was a Palestinian rocket that carried an explosive charge of about 5 kilograms and possibly misfired, a senior French military official said. Several rockets in the arsenal of the Palestinian militant group Hamas carry explosive charges of about that weight, including an Iranian-made rocket and another that is Palestinian-made, the intelligence official said. None of their intelligence pointed to an Israeli strike, the official said. The official spoke on condition of anonymity, but was cleared to discuss the assessment by President Emmanuel Macron in what was described as an attempt to be transparent about the French intelligence findings.