 "Israel-Hamas war, Israel-Palestine, Palestine, Israeli airstrike, refugee camp, Gaza Strip")
Iran’s foreign minister called on Israel to stop its attacks on Gaza, warning that the war might expand to other parts of the West Asia if Hezbollah joins the battle, and that would make Israel suffer “a huge earthquake,” The Times of Israel reported.
Meanehile, the US is ratcheting up efforts to prevent the war from engulfing the wider region, acting on concerns that Israel’s arch-enemy Iran is poised to escalate the conflict.
The US has held back-channel talks with Iran in recent days to warn the country against escalation, White House National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan said Sunday on CBS. Sullivan said the US couldn’t rule out Iran intervening either directly or via Hezbollah, the Lebanon-based militia group that it sponsors.
The US has asked Qatar to relay a warning to Hezbollah not to open up a second front to the war in the country’s north.
Hossein Amirabdollahian in Beirut said that Lebanon’s Hezbollah terror group has taken all war scenarios into consideration and Israel should stop its attacks on Gaza as soon as possible. While Israel’s defence minister said that Israel has no interest in waging war on its northern front and that if the Lebanese group Hezbollah restrains itself then Israel will keep the situation along the border as it is.
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Meanwhile, the Axios reported that Tehran has sent Jerusalem a message through the UN that it will intervene if the campaign in Gaza continues, and particularly if it launches a ground offensive. The report cited two diplomatic sources.
The report said Amirabdollahian made the comments when he met Saturday with UN Middle East envoy Tor Wennesland in Beirut, a meeting that led to intense criticism from Israel.
Later on Saturday, Amirabdollahian met in Qatar with Hamas politburo chief Ismail Haniyeh.
The Israeli military declared a zone within 4 kilometres of the Lebanese border off-limits to public access on Sunday and said it was deliberately disrupting GPS services there and on the southern front with Gaza as part of its operations.
The GPS disruptions could affect the functions of apps, chief military spokesperson Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari posted on X (formerly Twitter).
Meanwhile, the Israeli army is awaiting a “political decision” on the timing of a major ground offensive on the Gaza Strip, military spokesmen said on Sunday as Israel’s Energy Minister said that a decision to renew water supplies to parts of southern Gaza was agreed on between Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and US President Joe Biden.
Energy Minister Israel Katz said that the decision to partially renew water supplies was in line with Israeli policy, which is to tighten a blockade on the Hamas-ruled territory.
Rockets were fired at Tel Aviv and southern Israel overnight, and the Israel Defense Forces attacked targets in and around the northern part of Gaza. It was not immediately clear how much damage, if any, was caused in the rocket attacks. Hezbollah claimed a strike from Lebanon that killed one Israeli and wounded three.
Israel also acknowledged for the first time that it had intelligence of something happening in Gaza two hours before the attack on October 7.
The Israeli military said on Sunday its fighter jets killed a top Hamas commander, responsible for the Kibbutz Nirim massacre in Israel. In a statement, the military said this occurred Saturday night during operations that also took out Hamas rocket launchers. He was commander of the Nukhba forces in Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip. Nukhba are the elite Hamas military unit that Israel says trained and led the October 7 attack.
The US has also sent a second aircraft carrier group to the eastern Mediterranean in support of Israel, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said. The USS Eisenhower carrier strike group will join the USS Gerald Ford, sent shortly after the Hamas attacks.
