Battles rage in Rafah
US warns Israel over Lebanon
Fighting raged yesterday between Israeli troops and gunmen in Gaza’s southern city of Rafah, witnesses said, as fears grow of a wider regional war drawing in Hezbollah.
Israel’s bombardment of the Gaza Strip however appeared to ease days after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu suggested the “intense phase” of the war was nearing its end, and as Defence Minister Yoav Gallant visited Washington for crisis talks.
As the war in Gaza nears its 10th month, Israel’s top ally the United States warned it of the risk of a major conflict against Hezbollah in Lebanon.
“Another war between Israel and Hezbollah could easily become a regional war, with terrible consequences,” said US Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin.
“Diplomacy is by far the best way to prevent more escalation.”
Top Israeli officials including
Netanyahu have suggested they were open to a diplomatic resolution of the border tensions, though Gallant said Israel should be ready for “every possible scenario”.
Israel’s military said last week plans for an offensive in Lebanon were “approved and validated”, prompting fresh threats from Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah.
In Beirut on Tuesday, German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock warned that any “miscalculation” could trigger allout war and urged “extreme restraint”.
Canada’s Foreign Minister Melanie Joly told her country’s citizens in Lebanon to leave “while they can”.
On the ground in Rafah, on Gaza’s border with Egypt, witnesses reported clashes during the night, and the Israeli military said its air force struck a rocket launch site.
UN agencies said 10 Gazan children a day are losing one or both legs and half a million Palestinians in the besieged territory suffer “catastrophic” hunger.
The civil defence agency in Gaza and hospital medics said at least four people, including three children, were killed in a strike early yesterday targeting a house in Beit Lahia, in the north.
Aside from that strike, agency spokesman Mahmud Basal said “there have been almost no attacks” and “the rest of the areas in the Gaza Strip are calm compared to yesterday”.
An air raid on Tuesday killed Fadi al-Wadiya, an employee of medical charity Doctors Without Borders (MSF) who the Israeli military said was a “significant operative” for Islamic Jihad, which has fought alongside Hamas.
MSF said on X that it was “outraged” by Wadiya’s killing in a strike in Gaza City.
“The attack killed Fadi, along with five other people including three children while he was cycling to work near the MSF clinic where he was providing care,” the charity said.
The military said the slain man had “developed and advanced the terrorist organisation’s rocket array”.
“He is just another case of terrorists in Gaza exploiting the civilian population as human shields,” it said in response to MSF’s post.
UN and humanitarian agencies have repeatedly warned that aid workers are not safe in Gaza, impeding their desperately needed efforts delivering aid for Gaza’s 2.4 million people.
Earlier in the war, Israel accused about a dozen workers of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, of links to “terrorist” activity and of involvement in the Oct 7 attack.
The Israeli claims have led several major donors to suspend funding for UNRWA, which has been key to humanitarian efforts, though most have since resumed it. An independent review said Israel failed to provide evidence to support its accusations.
UNRWA chief Philippe Lazzarini warned of the war’s dire impact on children.
“We have every day 10 children who are losing one leg or two legs on average,” Lazzarini told reporters, with amputations often taking place “in quite horrible conditions” and sometimes without anaesthesia.
“Ten per day, that means around 2,000 children after the more than 260 days of this brutal war.”
The Integrated Food Security Phase Classification partnership said its March warning of imminent famine in north Gaza had not materialised, but around 495,000 people still face “catastrophic levels of acute food insecurity”.