Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday warned Tehran and Hezbollah not to test Israel. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken returned to Israel after exhaustive diplomatic efforts to prevent a regional war that could include Iran.
“We have a message for Iran and Hezbollah,” Netanyahu said in a speech at the Knesset. “Do not test us in the North. Do not repeat your previous mistake, because the price you will pay will be much worse.”
He urged the international community to support Israel in its war against Hamas.
“Our war is also your war,” he said. “If we do not stand together in a united front, it will reach you as well.”
Netanyahu spoke on the 10th day of the Gaza war, which began when Hamas killed 1,300 civilians and soldiers and took nearly 200 people hostage, including Americans and other foreigners.
Several violent exchanges on the northern border have sparked fear of a second front with Hezbollah, following Iran’s warning that it was prepared to intervene.
US President Joe Biden has also warned Iran against such a step. The newest US aircraft carrier, which is the world’s largest, was already in the Eastern Mediterranean and is due to be joined by a second US aircraft carrier in the coming days.
Some 2,000 US troops could be preemptively sent to the region due to the escalating war, The Wall Street Journal reported Monday.
Asked by reporters about a possible visit by Biden, which Israeli media have reported could happen this week, IDF Spokesman R.-Adm. Daniel Hagari said a “visit by the president of the United States has strategic importance.” Blinken then confirmed that Biden would travel to Israel on Wednesday.
“Its strategic importance is for the entire Middle East and the impact in which the highest level figure in the United States comes to Israel in time of war,” he said.
Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Nasser Kanaani said Washington must be held to account for “the crimes of the Zionist regime... Iran considers that the United States is already militarily involved in the conflict between Israel and Palestinians.”
Putin said Russia was ready to help end Gaza conflict
Russian President Vladimir Putin spoke with Netanyahu and said Russia was ready to help end the Gaza conflict, the Kremlin said.
“Vladimir Putin informed [Netanyahu] about the steps Russia is taking to help normalize the situation, prevent further escalation of violence, and prevent a humanitarian catastrophe in the Gaza Strip,” it said.
Earlier on Monday, Putin discussed the crisis with the leaders of Iran, Egypt, Syria, and the Palestinian Authority and said any form of violence against civilians was unacceptable, the Kremlin said.
Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi said supporting the Palestinians was Tehran’s foreign policy priority, but the “resistance” groups make their own independent decisions, Iranian state media reported.
Raisi was quoted as telling Putin: “There is a possibility of the conflict between Israel and [the] Palestinians expanding to other fronts.”
In a push to calm the situation, Egypt, which often plays a mediator role between Hamas and Israel, called for a summit with regional countries on the crisis, which Egyptian media outlet Al Qahera News said was expected to be held on Saturday in Sharm el-Sheikh.
Diplomats continued to push on Monday to secure the release of the hostages. Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan spoke by phone with Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh on Monday, a Turkish Foreign Ministry source said.
They discussed the latest developments in the war and the release of civilian hostages held by Hamas, the source said. In addition, Blinken spoke with Fidan by phone about the hostage situation.
Blinken met with Netanyahu, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, and President Isaac Herzog. His meeting with Netanyahu was interrupted by a warning siren that forced them to go into a bomb shelter.
Blinken “underlined his firm support for Israel’s right to defend itself from Hamas’s terrorism and reaffirmed US determination to provide the Israeli government with what it needs to protect its citizens,” the US State Department said.
He discussed with Netanyahu “the US’s close coordination with the UN and regional partners to facilitate the provision of humanitarian aid to civilians, [and] also discussed our commitment to the safe and speedy release of those held hostage by Hamas,” it said.
Diplomatic concerns continued to grow on Monday for the fate of the one million Gazans displaced by IAF airstrikes and suffering from Israel’s decision to halt electricity, fuel, and food shipments to Gaza.
European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell called for the hostages to be released and for humanitarian aid to be restored to Gaza.
“Human suffering can be no bargaining chip,” he said.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres issued the same call and said the Middle East was on the “verge of the abyss.”
Authorities from the Hamas-run Gaza Strip said more than 2,800 Palestinians had been killed since the war began, with about a quarter of them being children, and more than 10,000 were wounded and in hospitals desperately short of supplies.
According to the United Nations, power is out, sanitary water is scarce, and the last fuel for hospital emergency generators could be used up within a day.
Gaza residents on Monday said overnight airstrikes were the heaviest yet, and the bombing carried on through the day.
Cairo said the Rafah crossing was not officially closed but was inoperable due to Israeli airstrikes on the Gaza side.
“We are waiting for the green light for the aid to enter, and dozens of volunteers are ready at any time,” a Red Crescent official in the northern Sinai said.
Early on Monday, two Egyptian security sources told Reuters a ceasefire for several hours in southern Gaza had been agreed upon for aid and evacuations at Rafah. Egyptian state TV later quoted an unnamed, high-level source as saying no such truce had been agreed to, and Israel and Hamas also denied it.
“There is an urgent need to alleviate the suffering of Palestinian civilians in Gaza,” Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry told reporters, adding that talks with Israel on opening the Rafah crossing for aid had so far been fruitless.
UN humanitarian aid chief Martin Griffiths was expected to travel to Cairo on Tuesday to try to get supplies through.
“It is critical that life-saving assistance is allowed to move through the Rafah crossing without delay,” his office said.
Washington has been focusing on getting the crossing briefly opened to allow some of the few hundred Gazans with US passports to leave. Shoukry said Egypt could allow medical evacuations and let some Gazans cross with permission to travel.
But there has been no public talk of Egypt accepting a mass influx of refugees, meaning the vast majority of Gazans are unlikely to be offered a route out. Egypt and other Arab states say a mass exodus would be unacceptable, amounting to the expulsion of Palestinians from their land.