Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told a Cabinet meeting on Sunday that Israel is already in a “multi-front war” with Iran and its allies. This came as the US and its allies got ready to defend Israel from an expected counterstrike and stop a bigger, more destructive conflict in the region.
A senior Hezbollah commander was killed last week in Lebanon, and Hamas’s top political leader was killed in Iran. This comes after almost 10 months of war in Gaza.
Iran and its allies have said they will attack Israel and blamed them. Hamas says that talks have begun about picking a new leader.
Netanyahu said that Israel was all set for anything. As part of diplomatic efforts, Jordan’s foreign minister made a rare trip to Iran. At the same time, the Pentagon has sent a lot of equipment to the area.
White House deputy national security adviser Jon Finer told ABC, “We are doing everything we can to make sure this doesn’t get out of hand.”
Some Israelis built bomb shelters and remembered Iran’s first direct military attack in April, which happened after what was thought to be an Israeli strike killed two Iranian generals. Israel said that most of the drones, ballistic missiles, and cruise missiles were stopped.
A woman in her 70s and an 80-year-old man were killed by stabbings near Tel Aviv on Sunday, according to Israel’s Magen David Adom rescue service and a nearby hospital. Two other men were also hurt. In a statement, the police said the attack was done by a Palestinian militant who was killed.
It said it hit Hamas command centres at two schools in Gaza City, Al-Nasr and Hassan Salamah. the strikes happened inside of Gaza. One of the doctors at al-Ahli Hospital, Fadel Naeem, told the AP that they had received eight bodies. Other bodies had been taken to the Sheikh Radwan clinic.
At least 18 people were killed earlier by Israeli strikes. Gaza’s Health Ministry said that one hit a tent camp for thousands of displaced Palestinians in the courtyard of Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital and killed four people, including a woman. Other people were hurt. A reporter for the Associated Press filmed men rushing to the scene to get bodies while the fire was being put out.
The Israeli military said the strike was aimed at a Palestinian militant and caused secondary explosions that “showed the presence of weapons in the area.”
Many hospitals in Gaza have stopped working, so the hospital in Deir al-Balah is the only one left that works in central Gaza. The hospital says that a separate attack on a house near Deir al-Balah killed a girl and her parents.
At least eight people were killed when another strike destroyed a house in northern Gaza. The Health Ministry says that the dead included three children, their parents, and their grandmother.
Civil Defence first responders who work for the government run by Hamas say that another three people were killed in a strike on a vehicle in Gaza City.
The military said that Palestinian militants in Gaza fired at least five projectiles at Israeli communities close to the border, but no one was hurt or anything was damaged. After that, the military told people in some parts of the city of Khan Younis in southern Gaza to leave.
The Health Ministry said on Sunday that an Israeli attack on a school that had been turned into a shelter in Gaza City on Saturday killed at least 16 people and hurt 21 more. Israel’s military said it hit a Hamas command centre. They often say that Palestinian militants hide in civilian areas.
Hamas attacked Israel on October 7 and killed about 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and held about 250 people hostage. This started the war in Gaza.
In response, Israel launched a huge offensive that killed at least 39,580 Palestinians, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, which doesn’t make a distinction between combatants and civilians. Heavy airstrikes and operations on the ground have destroyed a lot of property and forced most of Gaza’s 2.3 million people to move, often more than once.
Since the war started, Israel and the militant group Hezbollah have been firing at each other along the border with Lebanon. In recent months, the fighting has gotten worse. A house in Beit Lef was hit by an Israeli attack, according to the Lebanese Health Ministry and the state-run National News Agency. Two people were critically hurt.
Hezbollah says it wants to ease the pressure on Hamas, which is also backed by Iran. After the death of a senior commander last week, more and more countries, including the U.S., are telling their citizens to leave Lebanon.
