Israel warns Hezbollah against ‘unimaginable devastation’

Hamas said it was the deadliest day of aerial bombardment Gaza had yet seen, killing at least 704 Palestinians. This took the death toll to 5791 in Gaza since the Hamas terrorist incursion 18 days ago, with 16,297 wounded. In the Israel-occupied Palestinian West Bank, 96 Palestinians have been killed and 1650 injured in violence and Israeli raids.

The World Health Organisation said a dozen hospitals out of a total of 35 in Gaza were no longer able to operate, along with two-thirds of the territory’s 72 health care facilities. Hamas said the hospital system there was on the verge of collapse.

A fourth convoy of about 20 trucks carrying emergency aid was supposed to cross into Gaza from Egypt on Tuesday. Its status was unclear; but even if it did, fewer than 100 trucks have made it through since the Rafah crossing reopened at the weekend. Aid workers say Gaza is getting barely 5 per cent of what it needs.

Mr Macron said there should be a ceasefire to relieve food and medicine shortages for the 2.3 million people of Gaza, echoing European Union calls for a “humanitarian pause”.

But he also backed Israel’s actions, and called for the international coalition fighting the Islamic State group in Syria to extend its operations and target Hamas.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres also backed an immediate humanitarian ceasefire, saying the situation in the Middle East was “growing more dire by the hour”. He called on all sides to “to pull back from the brink before the violence claims even more lives and spreads even further”.

As the UN Security Council debated a resolution calling for a ceasefire, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the White House would use an ice-breaking visit to Washington by Chinese foreign affairs supremo Wang Yi this week to work together on containing the conflict – which threatens to ignite rapidly, if and when the IDF moves into Gaza.

Waiting for invasion

Although Israel has not launched a full ground offensive against Hamas in Gaza as quickly as expected, it continues to signal an intention to drive Hamas from its redoubts and underground tunnel network in the 365 square kilometre Gaza Strip.

Israel appears to be waiting for further movement in negotiations to release hostages, after two pairs were released within a couple of days. Egypt and Qatar are reportedly closely involved in the talks.

Mr Netanyahu and his colleagues are also receiving a stream of international visitors, with the Austrian and Czech leaders set to follow in Mr Macron’s footsteps. This may also be delaying the assault.

IDF spokesman Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari said the Israeli military was “ready and determined”, and awaiting the government’s orders. He predicted “long weeks of fighting ahead” but refused to be drawn on whether a ground invasion would begin anytime soon.

IDF chief of general staff Lieutenant General Herzi Halevi used a post on Telegram to echo those words, but also said the delay was giving his forces more time to optimise their preparations.

US military and security advisers are reportedly working with the IDF on their attack plans, to try to minimise civilian casualties and Israeli personnel losses, and to set conditions for a post-conflict peace.

Mr Hagari said Israel was learning from US experience in the region but “our war is on our borders, not thousands of miles from Israel”.

The northern front

Despite the pause on a Gaza invasion, Mr Netanyahu was bellicose towards Hezbollah, which has threatened to attack Israel from the north if the ground offensive goes ahead against Gaza.

He told a press conference that the militant group was longing for a “second Lebanon war”, and warned of “horrible consequences”. “The devastation against Hezbollah will be unimaginable,” he said.

The Lebanese leader Mr Mikati lamented that “the logic of force” had supplanted “the logic of righteousness according to the United Nations charter”. Accompanying him, Lebanese military chief General Joseph Aoun said his armed forces were “maintaining readiness at the southern border”.

Hezbollah deputy secretary-general Sheikh Naim Qassem said his group was “at the heart of the resistance battle to defend Gaza”. “Its hand is on the trigger to the extent that it deems necessary in the confrontation,” he said on the social media site X.

The two sides have exchanged rocket fire almost daily. Israel has evacuated many villages near the Lebanese border in anticipation of a potential war with Hezbollah, which boasts an arsenal estimated at 100,000 to 200,000 rockets and missiles.

Mr Macron said his government had made personal representations to Hezbollah, warning them off dragging Lebanon into the conflict. He also said he had told Israel that its fight “must be without mercy, but not without rules” because democracies “respect the rules of war”.

In a sign of widening regional tensions, the US has issued a warning to ships sailing through the Red Sea, after a drone and missile attack was launched from Yemen earlier this week. The US Maritime Administration warned vessels to “exercise caution when transiting this region”.

The missiles, which the US Navy shot down, were thought to have originated from Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi rebels.

World Bank president Ajay Banga told a business summit in Saudi Arabia that the Middle East conflict was stoking geopolitical tension and threatening the world economy.

“There is so much going on in the world and geopolitics, in the wars that you’re seeing, and what just happened recently in Israel and Gaza. At the end of the day, when you put all this together, I think the impact on economic development is even more serious,” he said.

Speaking at the same summit, JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon urged Saudi Arabia not to give up on normalising ties with Israel – a process that has been put on ice following the Hamas attacks and Israel’s response.

With wire services