The latest developments from the Israel-Hamas war.
ADVERTISEMENTUS Secretary of State Antony Blinken spoke on Wednesday to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas about reforming his government, as Blinken sought to rally the region behind postwar plans for Gaza that include concrete steps toward a Palestinian state.
In their meeting in the West Bank city of Ramallah, Blinken told Abbas that the US supports “tangible steps” toward a Palestinian state, according to State Department spokesman Matthew Miller.
He said the two discussed administrative reform.
The vision outlined by Blinken faces serious obstacles. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government has so far rejected Palestinian Authority control in Gaza and adamantly opposes the creation of a Palestinian state alongside Israel.
While the US Secretary of State and the Palestinian leader discussed the future, outside a peaceful demonstration against Blinken's visit ended in clashes with the police.
Palestinian man shot by Israeli forces after alleged stabbing
The Israeli military says its forces shot and killed a Palestinian man following an alleged stabbing attack in the West Bank, as violence surges across the occupied territory.
An army statement says the Palestinian was shot Tuesday after attempting to stab a soldier near the city of Ramallah. The Palestinian Health Ministry says the 31-year-old man was killed in the nearby village of Ein Sinya.
Israeli strike kills elite Hezbollah commander
The funeral for Wissam al-Tawil, an elite commander of the Lebanese militia Hezbollah, was attended by thousands of mourners on Tuesday, a day after he was killed by an Israel drone strike.
Al-Tawil’s coffin, draped in Hezbollah’s yellow flag, was carried through the streets of the southern Lebanese village of Khirbet Selm to the cemetery where he was laid to rest.
The strike that killed Al-Tawil is the latest in a series of escalatory attacks that have raised fears that fighting in Gaza could spill over into the region.
He was a veteran of the Iranian-backed Lebanese force which took part in the 2006 cross-border kidnapping of two Israeli soldiers that triggered the last war between Israel and Hezbollah, an official in the group said.
Al-Tawil is the most senior Hezbollah militant killed since Hamas’ 7 October attack in southern Israel triggered all-out war in Gaza.
Hezbollah and Israel have engaged in clashes along the border almost every day since war broke out. Fighting has, however, escalated since an Israeli strike killed a senior Hamas leader last week in the Lebanese capital, Beirut.
Dr Bashir Saade, a lecturer in politics and religion at the University of Stirling, previously told Euronews that it was not in Hezbollah's interest to "escalate things" in Lebanon, fearing a regional war and a kickback from the Lebanese public.
However, he said Israel may have an interest in "provoking" opposing groups to "convince the US to "escalate regionally".
Saade doubted the effectiveness of targeted strikes in undermining Hezbollah.
"Resistance groups’ leaders have been targeted for decades and it hasn’t affected the ability of Hezbollah or others to operate," he told Euronews in January.
ADVERTISEMENT'Sickening scenes' in Gaza hospitals
Medics, patients, and displaced people fled from central Gaza's main hospital as fighting drew closer, witnesses said on Monday.
Losing the facility would be another major blow to the enclave's health system shattered by three months of war.
Doctors Without Borders and other aid groups withdrew from Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir al-Balah, saying it was too dangerous amid Israeli bombardment, drone strikes, and sniper fire.
That spread panic among people sheltering there. Thousands left, joining the hundreds of thousands who have fled further south, said a hospital staff member, Omar al-Darawi.
Tens of thousands of people have sought shelter in Gaza’s hospitals, which are struggling to treat the continuous flow of wounded from Israeli strikes. Only 13 of Gaza’s 36 hospitals are even partially functional, according to the UN humanitarian organisation.
ADVERTISEMENTThe Al-Aqsa hospital was struck multiple times in recent days, al-Darawi said.
World Health Organization staff who visited on Sunday said they saw “sickening scenes of people of all ages being treated on blood-streaked floors and in chaotic corridors”.
WHO chief, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, said “the bloodbath in Gaza must end”.