Heavy fighting raged in central and southern Gaza on Wednesday as fears mounted of a regional escalation following a strike in Beirut that killed one of the top Hamas leaders.
The strike was widely blamed on Israel but it’s implications for the war remain unclear. Israeli officials have not commented on the strike Tuesday that killed Saleh Arouri, the most senior Hamas member slain since the war in Gaza erupted nearly three months ago. Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari, an Israeli military spokesman, said “we are on high readiness for any scenario.”
Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack from Gaza into southern Israel killed around 1,200 people, and some 240 others were taken hostage. Israel’s air, ground and sea assault in Gaza has killed more than 22,100 people, two-thirds of them women and children, according to the Health Ministry in the Hamas-ruled territory. The count does not differentiate between civilians and combatants.
Israel’s campaign has driven some 85% of Gaza’s population from their homes, forcing hundreds of thousands of people into overcrowded shelters or teeming tent camps in Israeli-designated safe areas that the military has nevertheless bombed. A quarter of Gaza’s population face starvation, according to the United Nations, as Israeli restrictions and heavy fighting hinder aid delivery.
Currently:
— A Hamas official killed in a Beirut strike had been on Israel’s hit list for years.
— US intel confident militant groups used largest Gaza hospital in campaign against Israel: AP source.
— South Africa’s genocide case against Israel sets up a high-stakes legal battle at the UN’s top court.
— Zvi Zamir, ex-Mossad chief who warned of impending 1973 Mideast war, dies at 98.
— Find more of AP’s coverage at: https://apnews.com/hub/israel-hamas-war.
Here’s what’s happening in the war:
JERUSALEM — Israel’s far-right finance minister is doubling down on his calls to encourage Palestinians in Gaza to leave the territory despite an international outcry, including from the United States.
In a post on X, formerly Twitter, on Wednesday, Bezalel Smotrich wrote that 70% of Israelis support “voluntary migration” for Palestinians from Gaza to other countries, saying that Israel couldn’t allow itself to live so close to a “hotbed of hate.” He did not say where the figure came from.
Smotrich, a champion of West Bank settlements, drew criticism from the U.S., Egypt, Germany and France after he made similar comments earlier this week while calling on Israel to reestablish settlements in the Gaza Strip. The State Department said his comments were “inflammatory and irresponsible.”
Talk of mass displacement brings up difficult memories for Palestinians, some 700,000 of whom fled or were forced to flee during the war leading to Israel’s creation in 1948.
Smotrich is a key partner in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government, Israel’s most nationalist and conservative. He has largely been sidelined by the War Cabinet that does not include him.
South Africa has cited statements by some Israeli officials as part of its argument at the International Court of Justice that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza.
BERLIN – Germany has joined in strong criticism of two Israeli ministers’ calls for Palestinians to be resettled outside Gaza.
Foreign Ministry spokesperson Sebastian Fischer said Wednesday that Berlin, a close ally of Israel, rejects the comments by Ministers Bezalel Smotrich and Itamar Ben Gvir “in the strongest terms” and that “they are neither useful nor helpful.”
He underlined the position of Germany and its Group of Seven allies that “there must be no expulsion of Palestinians from Gaza, there must be no territorial reduction of the Gaza Strip.”
He added that “from our point of view, a two-state solution remains the only sustainable model for Israelis and Palestinians to live together peacefully.”
PARIS — French President Emmanuel Macron has warned Israel against contemplating a forced displacement of Gaza residents.
In a phone call on Tuesday with Benny Gantz, a member of Israel’s War Cabinet, Macron “argued that statements relating to the forced displacement of Gazans were unacceptable and contradicted the two-state solution which constitutes the only viable solution for a return to peace and security for all,” the president’s office said in an overnight readout of the phone call.
Macron also warned against the risk of spreading conflict, saying it is “essential to avoid any escalatory attitude, particularly in Lebanon,” the statement said. “France will continue to pass these messages to all actors involved directly or indirectly in the area,” it added.
WASHINGTON — The Biden administration has spoken out against the comments of two far-right Israeli ministers who recently called for Palestinians to be resettled outside of Gaza.
In a statement Tuesday, State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller called Israeli Ministers Bezalel Smotrich and Itamar Ben Gvir’s comments “inflammatory and irresponsible.”
On Sunday, Smotrich, Israel’s far-right finance minister, said Israel should “encourage migration” from Gaza and re-establish Jewish settlements in the territory, where it withdrew settlers and soldiers in 2005. Ben Gvir has made similar comments about resettling Palestinians.
Miller said Israeli leaders, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, have “repeatedly” told the U.S. leaders that “such statements do not reflect the policy of the Israeli government.”
“Gaza is Palestinian land and will remain Palestinian land, with Hamas no longer in control of its future and with no terror groups able to threaten Israel,” Miller said.