Terrorist Israel continues deadliest strikes on Gaza, martyrs' toll at 23,210
GAZA, Palestine (AFP) - The Israeli army bombed Gaza and battled Hamas fighters on Tuesday as US top diplomat Antony Blinken was in Tel Aviv on a regional tour aimed at stopping the war from escalating across the Middle East.
The health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza said Tuesday at least 23,210 people have been martyred in the Palestinian territory since the war with Israel erupted on October 7. The ministry said in a statement that it had recorded 126 deaths in the past 24 hours, while a total of 59,167 people had been wounded in the Gaza Strip during more than three months of fighting.
An AFP correspondent reported intense strikes overnight in Khan Yunis and Rafah, the biggest cities in the south of the besieged Palestinian territory which are crowded with internally displaced people. The army said its forces had killed 40 militants over the past 24 hours in "expanded ground operations including air strikes" in Khan Yunis, and that troops had seized AK-47 assault rifles, rocket launchers and other weapons.
Since the war broke out with the Hamas attack of October 7, fears have grown of an escalating conflict between Israel and its other regional enemies, a loose alliance of Iran-backed armed groups in Lebanon, Syria, Iraq and Yemen. Hezbollah said Tuesday it had launched a drone attack on Israel's "northern command centre" in the city of Safed as part of its response to the killings of Hamas deputy leader Saleh al-Aruri and Hezbollah field commander Wissam Tawil.
The Israeli army confirmed that a "hostile aircraft" had come down at one of its bases in the north and said that "no injuries or damage were reported". The US secretary of state -- on his fourth Middle East tour since the war broke out -- was back in Israel where he held talks with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Blinken earlier pointed at "the incredibly challenging times for Israel", the fate of hostages remaining in Gaza and "the relentless efforts to bring everyone home", after talks with President Isaac Herzog. He also voiced hope that, after the war, Israel could push on with its efforts towards regional integration, following its US-brokered normalisation deals with the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and other states.
"I think there actually are real opportunities there but we have to get through this very challenging moment," Blinken said after meeting Foreign Minister Israel Katz on the latest leg of a tour that has already taken him to Qatar and Saudi Arabia.
