Biden warns Iran over Gaza
US President Joe Biden has warned Iran against getting involved in Israel’s conflict with Hamas amid fears of a wider regional conflict.
Israeli jets have pounded the Gaza Strip for days in retribution for a weekend attack by Palestinian Hamas militants who breached the border fence enclosing Gaza and rampaged through towns and villages, killing 1200 people, injuring more than 2700 and taking scores of hostages, the Israeli military said.
Biden dispatched his top diplomat, Antony Blinken, to the Middle East to show Washington’s enduring support for Israel, seek to secure the release of captives, including Americans, and prevent a wider war from erupting.
Speaking to a roundtable of Jewish community leaders in Washington, Biden said his deployment of military ships and aircraft closer to Israel should be seen as a signal to Iran, which backs Islamist groups Hamas and Lebanon’s Hezbollah.
“We made it clear to the Iranians: Be careful,” Biden said on Wednesday.
Iran likely knew Hamas militants were planning “operations against Israel” but initial US intelligence reports showed that some Iranian leaders were surprised by the group’s unprecedented attack from Gaza, US sources said.
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Blinken was expected to arrive in Israel on Thursday and will also visit Jordan. He was not scheduled to visit the Israeli-occupied West Bank, where he ordinarily meets Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas.
Hamas-affiliated media on Wednesday said seven people were killed by Israeli air strikes on homes in Khan Younis in southern Gaza.
Gaza’s Health Ministry said retributive bombings by Israeli fighter jets have killed 1100 people and wounded more than 5000. Some 535 residential buildings have been destroyed leaving around 250,000 homeless, Hamas officials said.
Most of the displaced were in UN-designated shelters, others huddling in shattered streets.
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Israel has deployed formations of tanks and armoured vehicles near Gaza in possible preparation for a ground offensive into the Hamas-ruled coastal enclave.
Israel withdrew Jewish settlers and Israeli troops from Gaza in 2005 after 38 years of occupation. An Israeli blockade since Hamas seized power in the enclave in 2007 has created conditions that Palestinians say are intolerable.
“We will wipe this thing called Hamas, ISIS-Gaza, off the face of the earth,” Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant said on Wednesday, likening Hamas to the Islamic State group.
“It will cease to exist.”
Asked if Washington had advocated for Israel to exercise restraint in its response, Blinken said before departing that Israel respects international law and makes efforts to avoid civilian casualties.
“We know that Israel will take all of the precautions that it can, just as we would, and again that’s what separates us from Hamas and terrorist groups that engage in the most heinous kind of activities,” Blinken said.
-AAP
