INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
Israel bombarded Gaza with air strikes early on Monday and its aircraft struck southern Lebanon overnight, as Israeli Prime Minister
Benjamin Netanyahu convened a meeting of his top generals and his war cabinet to assess the escalating conflict.Israel&s attacks
concentrated on the Gaza Strip&s center and north, Palestinian media reported
A strike on a house near the Jabalia refugee camp, in northern Gaza, killed several Palestinians and wounded others, according to media
reports.In the Israeli-occupied West Bank, two Palestinians were killed at the Jalazone refugee camp near Ramallah, the Palestinian health
ministry said on Monday.Residents told Reuters that Israeli forces raided the camp and carried out widespread arrests, as they clashed with
gunmen and some youths who threw stones
The Israeli army has not issued a statement about the incident.Health authorities in Gaza said at least 4,600 people were killed in Israel&s
two-week bombardment that began after a Hamas Oct
7 rampage on southern Israeli communities in which 1,400 people were killed and 212 were taken into Gaza as hostages.Palestinian Hamas
leader Ismail Haniyeh and Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian discussed in a call late on Sunday the means of stopping Israel&s
&brutal crimes& in Gaza, Hamas said in a statement.Israel has amassed tanks and troops near the fenced border around Gaza for a planned
ground invasion aiming to annihilate Hamas.Fears that the Israel-Hamas war could mushroom into a wider Middle East conflict rose over the
weekend with Washington warning of a significant risk to United States interests in the region and announcing a new deployment of advanced
air defenses.The Pentagon has already dispatched a significant amount of naval power to the Middle East, including two aircraft carriers,
support ships and about 2,000 Marines, to help deter attacks by Iran-affiliated forces.What we&re seeing … is the prospect of a
significant escalation of attacks on our troops and our people throughout the region,& United States Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin told
ABC&s &This Week& program on Sunday.China&s Middle East special envoy Zhai Jun, who is visiting the region, warned that the risk of a
large-scale ground conflict was rising and that spillover conflicts in the region were &worrisome&, Chinese state media said on
Monday.Iranian security officials told Reuters Iran&s strategy was for Middle East proxies like Hezbollah to pursue limited strikes on
Israeli and United States targets but to avoid a major escalation that would draw in Tehran, a high-wire act for the Islamic Republic.In
neighboring Syria, where Hamas& main regional backer Iran has a military presence, Israeli missiles hit Damascus and Aleppo international
airports early on Sunday, putting both out of service and killing two workers, Syrian state media said.Along Israel&s northern border with
Lebanon, the Iran-backed Hezbollah group has clashed with Israeli forces in support of Hamas in the deadliest escalation of frontier
violence since an Israel-Hezbollah war in 2006.Early on Monday, Israeli aircraft struck two Hezbollah cells in Lebanon that were planning to
launch anti-tank missiles and rockets toward Israel, its military said
Israel&s military also said it struck other Hezbollah targets, including a compound and an observation post.Hezbollah said on Monday that
one of its fighters was killed, without providing details
Israel&s military said 7 troops have been killed on the Lebanese border since the latest conflict began, Reuters reported.With violence
around its heavily guarded borders increasing, Israel on Sunday added 14 communities close to Lebanon and Syria to its evacuation
contingency plan in the north of the country.Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh called on the international community to create &a
united front& to stop Israel&s attacks in Gaza and allow desperately needed aid which has only begun to trickle in.A second convoy of 14 aid
trucks entered the Rafah crossing to the besieged Gaza Strip on Sunday night, and United States President Joe Biden and Netanyahu affirmed
in a call ''there will now be continued flow of this critical assistance into Gaza&, the White House said.The U.N
humanitarian office said the volume of aid entering so far was just 4% of the daily average before the hostilities and a fraction of what
was needed with food, water, medicines and fuel stocks running out.The post Israel bombards Gaza, Lebanon as Netanyahu convenes war cabinet
first appeared on Ariana News.
