Blinken rallies amid fears of wider conflict

AL ULA, Saudi Arabia/JERUSALEM — Top US diplomat Antony Blinken met Israeli leaders on Tuesday, a day after he met leaders in four key Arab nations and Turkiye, on a mission aimed at preventing the Israel-Hamas conflict from spreading into a regional war.

On his fourth trip to the region since October in a so far largely fruitless quest to tamp down the violence, Blinken said he would share what he had heard in two days of talks with the Arab nations.

Blinken arrived in Tel Aviv late on Monday, saying he would press Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government "on the absolute imperative to do more to protect civilians and to do more to make sure that humanitarian assistance is getting into the hands of those who need it".

Before arriving in Tel Aviv, he said Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates and Turkiye would consider participating in and contributing to "day after" scenarios for the Palestinian territory, which has been devastated by three months of deadly Israeli bombardment.

Arab states have been highly critical of Israel's actions, arguing that the fighting must end before any discussions can begin.

In the latest sign that the conflict may be spreading, Israel killed a top commander of Hezbollah in south Lebanon on Monday, sources familiar with the group's operations said.

Earlier in the day, Hezbollah announced the killing of a "commander" for the first time since October, naming him as Wissam Hassan Tawil.

High-ranking commander

A security official in Lebanon, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Tawil "had a leading role in managing Hezbollah's operations in the south", and was killed there by an Israeli strike.

The Israeli military said it struck Hezbollah "military sites" in Lebanon on Monday, but did not immediately comment on Tawil's death.

This was the second high-profile killing in Lebanon this month, following a strike on a Hezbollah stronghold in Beirut that resulted in the death of Hamas deputy leader Saleh al-Arouri.

Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant told The Wall Street Journal his country was determined to end Hamas' rule of Gaza and deter other Iran-backed adversaries.

The Israeli offensive has killed more than 23,000 Palestinians, and destroyed much of Gaza, creating a worsening humanitarian crisis.

The United Nations humanitarian office said the intensifying Israeli offensive in central and southern Gaza has had "devastating consequences", driving up civilian casualties, severely curtailing aid operations in the central region and risking the closure of three major hospitals.

Almost the entire population of 2.3 million depends on the trucks coming across the border for their survival. One in four Palestinians in Gaza is starving, and the rest face crisis levels of hunger, according to the UN.

Agencies via Xinhua