Israel launches deadly Gaza strikes as Mideast tensions rise

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken was due to head to the Middle East, a US official said on condition of anonymity, the top diplomat's fourth trip to the region since the bloodiest ever Gaza war.

The Israeli military, in its campaign to destroy Hamas has reported more strikes in and around Gaza City, now a largely devastated urban combat zone, and Khan Yunis, the biggest urban centre in the besieged territory's south.

The Gaza health ministry reported "dozens of martyrs and more than 100 wounded in the continued barbaric aerial and artillery bombardment of citizens' homes in the Gaza Strip".

Fires sparked by bombing raged in Gaza's central Deir Al Balah area and the Al Maghazi refugee camp.

"People were safe in their homes, the house was full of children," resident Ibrahim Al Ghimri told AFP. "There were around 30 people. All of a sudden their houses fell on them... What have these children done?"

Tensions have also surged with Israel's northern neighbour Lebanon, where a strike in Beirut on Tuesday, widely assumed to have been carried out by Israel, killed Hamas deputy leader Saleh Al Aruri.

Aruri was killed in the south Beirut stronghold of the powerful Iran-backed Hizbollah movement, which has traded tit-for-tat fire across the border with Israel for months, while both sides have avoided full-scale war.

Hizbollah has vowed that the killing of Aruri and six other Hamas operatives on its home turf will not go unpunished, labelling it “a serious assault on Lebanon... and a dangerous development”.

Hizbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah warned Israel against all-out conflict, after Israeli forces chief Herzi Halevi, in a visit to the Lebanese border, said troops were “in very high readiness”.

Nasrallah said that “for now, we are fighting on the frontline following meticulous calculations” but warned that, “if the enemy thinks of waging a war on Lebanon, we will fight without restraint, without rules, without limits and without restrictions”.

The Lebanese Shiite Muslim group said on Thursday another four of its fighters were killed overnight, raising its death toll to 129 since the outbreak of border hostilities. 

‘Hit in their sleep’ 

The United Nations estimates 1.9 million Gazans are displaced, and the World Health Organisation has warned of the risk of famine and disease, with only a minimal amount of aid entering the territory.

A strike in Gaza’s south killed displaced Palestinians living in tents, said bereaved residents who were mourning the dead, wrapped in shrouds at a hospital in Khan Yunis.

Baha Abu Hatab said his nephews were killed.

They had been living in “a tent to protect them from the cold weather, but Israeli air strikes hit them in their sleep”, he added.

“Why?” he asked. “Because they threaten Israel and the United States?”

As the Hamas-Israel war has raged, another regional flashpoint has seen Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi rebels fire at merchant vessels in the Red Sea, disrupting a key global shipping lane, in attacks the rebels say are in solidarity with Hamas.

The United States and 11 of its allies jointly warned the Houthis of unspecified consequences unless they immediately halt the attacks.

US President Joe Biden’s administration described the statement — joined notably by Britain, Germany and Japan — as a final warning as he weighs possible military strikes if attacks persist.

“I would not anticipate another warning,” a senior US official said, calling the message “very clear”.

On Sunday, the US military said it had sunk three Houthi boats following attacks on a container ship of Danish shipping giant Maersk. The rebels said 10 of their fighters were killed.