Israel says tank fire ‘accidentally’ hit Egyptian post; Netanyahu warns Hezbollah to stay out of war

Egyptian media said the Israeli strike would not disrupt the passage of aid to Gaza, citing witnesses, as an aid convoy carrying desperately needed fuel entered the enclave on Sunday.

With fears of a wider conflagration mounting, Iran said the region could spiral “out of control” and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned Lebanon’s Hezbollah that an intervention would be “the mistake of its life”.

“If Hezbollah decides to enter the war, it will long for the second Lebanon war,” Netanyahu said on Sunday during a visit to troops on the border with Lebanon. He was referring to Israel’s war with Lebanon in 2006, saying it would be “the mistake of their lives.”

“We will hit it with a severity it cannot imagine, and the meaning for [Hezbollah] and the country of Lebanon will be devastating,” Netanyahu said. However, he said he could not yet say whether Hezbollah had decided to “fully enter the war.”

To the soldiers, Netanyahu said: “I know you have lost friends, and this is a very hard thing, but we are in the fight of our lives, a fight for our homeland.” This, he said, was not an exaggeration. “It is live or die and they must die.”

Israel issues ‘terrorist accomplice’ warning to besieged Gaza residents

Attacks from Lebanon have intensified since the war began. On Sunday, Hezbollah engaged in further fighting with Israel’s army in the border region. There is concern that Iran-backed Hezbollah could intensify its attacks on Israel. Hezbollah is considered far more powerful than Hamas.

Western leaders have warned Hezbollah against intervening in the conflict, but the group’s number two has said it is ready to step up involvement.

Iran’s Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian on Sunday said if the US and Israel “do not immediately stop the crime against humanity and genocide in Gaza, anything is possible at any moment and the region will go out of control”.

US Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin said on Saturday that he had increased US military readiness in the Middle East.

The Pentagon said the move aimed to defend US ally Israel amid what it called “escalations by Iran” and its proxies across the region.

It also said it was notifying additional troops to “prepare to deploy orders” without specifying how many or when they could be dispatched.

The State Department on Sunday ordered non-emergency staff and eligible family members to leave the US embassy in Baghdad, Iraq, and consulate in Erbil in the Kurdistan region “due to increased security threats against US personnel and interests.”

03:28

Over 100 trucks at Egypt’s Rafah crossing wait to deliver aid into besieged Gaza Strip

Over 100 trucks at Egypt’s Rafah crossing wait to deliver aid into besieged Gaza Strip

Sunday’s 17-truck aid delivery through Gaza’s Rafah border crossing with Egypt was the second such operation in two days, after 20 lorries arrived on Saturday following negotiations and US pressure.

An Agence France-Presse journalist saw six trucks enter from stores in the crossing. A Palestinian official at the crossing confirmed the trucks were carrying fuel.

Israel worries that Hamas could use fuel brought into Gaza to manufacture weapons and explosives.

The United Nations (UN) estimates that about 100 trucks per day are required to meet the needs of 2.4 million Gazans given the “catastrophic” humanitarian situation.

The head of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNWRA) warned fuel supplies would run out in three days.

“Without fuel, there will be no humanitarian assistance,” Philippe Lazzarini said.

Malaysia expects West backlash for backing Palestinian cause in Israel-Gaza war

Israel increased its attacks overnight and killed “dozens of terrorists” in and around Gaza City, including the deputy commander of the Hamas rocket network, military spokesman Daniel Hagari said on Sunday.

Hamas said overnight raids on the Gaza Strip killed at least 80 people and destroyed more than 30 homes.

In central Gaza’s Deir al-Balah, an Agence France-Presse journalist saw the bodies of children lie on the bloodied floor of a morgue.

A man clutched his dead toddler and people wept as they identified the bodies of their relatives.

The scale of the bombing has left basic systems unable to function, with the UN reporting that dozens of unidentified bodies were buried in a mass grave in Gaza City because cold storage had run out.

Israel has warned more than one million residents in northern Gaza to move south for their safety, and the UN says more than half of the territory’s population is now internally displaced.

Hundreds of thousands of civilians are believed to remain in and around Gaza City in the North, unwilling or unable to leave.

Israel has evacuated dozens of northern communities, and nearly 4,000 people in Lebanon have fled border areas for the southern city of Tyre.

Malaysia expects West backlash for backing Palestinian cause in Israel-Gaza war

A ground invasion poses myriad challenges for Israeli troops, who are likely to face Hamas booby traps and tunnels.

Israel must also weigh the safety of the 212 hostages it says were abducted by the militants.

After a Cairo peace summit involving regional and Western leaders finished without a joint statement, Pope Francis pleaded for the bloodshed to end during his weekly Angelus prayer in Rome on Sunday.

“War is always a defeat, it is a destruction of human fraternity. Brothers, stop!”

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Opinion | Apocalypse now: hell on Earth for Palestinians trapped in Gaza

Opinion | Apocalypse now: hell on Earth for Palestinians trapped in Gaza

In Israel’s Kibbutz Be’eri, where Hamas militants killed 10 per cent of the population, funerals were being held on Sunday.

The conflict has sparked fresh violence in the West Bank, where Israeli raids and settler attacks have killed dozens of Palestinians, according to the UN.

Israel’s military said on Sunday it killed “terror operatives” in an air strike on a mosque in the West Bank city of Jenin.

The Palestinian health ministry said two men were killed in the strike.

Additional reporting by dpa