Conflict rages into fourth month

GAZA/JERUSALEM — Fighting intensified in the Middle East over the weekend as the Gaza conflict entered its fourth month and claimed many more lives even as top US and European diplomats sought ways on Sunday to keep the violence from spreading, with the mounting bloodshed underlining the huge difficulties they faced.

The Israeli army launched on Saturday night airstrikes on the Jabalia refugee camp in the Gaza Strip, causing the deaths of at least 20 people, the official Palestinian news agency WAFA reported on Sunday.

The Israeli military signaled that it has wrapped up major combat in northern Gaza, saying it has completed dismantling Hamas' military infrastructure there, reported The Associated Press.

Israeli aircraft fired on Palestinian militants who had attacked troops in the occupied West Bank on Sunday, the military said, and Palestinian health officials said six Palestinians were killed.

An Israeli border police officer was killed and others wounded when their vehicle was hit by an explosive device during operations in the West Bank city of Jenin, the military and police said.

The West Bank had seen its highest levels of unrest in decades during the 18 months before the Oct 7 attack on Israel by the militant Hamas group in Gaza, Reuters reported. Confrontations in the West Bank have risen sharply since Israeli forces launched their retaliatory offensive on Gaza.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and the European Union's top diplomat, Josep Borrell, were on separate trips to the region to try to stop any spillover from the conflict into Lebanon, the West Bank and the Red Sea shipping lanes.

Israel and Lebanon-based Hezbollah traded fire on Saturday in one of the heaviest days of cross-border fighting in recent weeks, a day after the militia's leader urged retaliation for the targeted killing, presumably by Israel, of a top Hamas leader in Lebanon's capital.

Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah said that if his group did not strike back for the killing on Tuesday of Saleh Arouri, Hamas' deputy political leader, all of Lebanon would be vulnerable to Israeli attacks.

Hezbollah said it launched 62 rockets toward an Israeli air surveillance base on Mount Meron and scored direct hits in its "initial response" to Arouri's killing. It said rockets also struck two army posts near the border.

The Israeli military said about 40 rockets were fired toward Meron and that a base was targeted. The army's chief spokesperson Daniel Hagari said the rockets caused no casualties in Israel.

Hagari said the military struck the Hezbollah squads that fired the rockets and also attacked Hezbollah's military sites. Hezbollah said six of its fighters were killed Saturday, raising the toll since the fighting began to 150.

Blinken was in Jordan on Sunday, after stops in Turkiye and Greece, while Borrell was on a trip to Lebanon. Both said their priority was quelling spillover from the Gaza crisis.

"We have an intense focus on preventing this conflict from spreading," said Blinken, who will also travel to Israel, the West Bank, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and Egypt during his fourth trip to the region.

In Istanbul, Blinken held talks with Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan and President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis met with Blinken in Hania, Crete, on Saturday, and expressed growing concern over the humanitarian situation in Gaza.

After the meeting, Blinken, who was on his Mideast diplomatic mission, told reporters that he wanted to make sure the conflict in the Middle East "doesn't spread".

Borrell expressed alarm in Beirut about exchanges of fire between Israel and Hezbollah forces in Lebanon and the risk that Lebanon could be dragged into the Gaza conflict.

"Diplomatic channels have to stay open. War is not the only option — it's the worst option," Borrell said.

Israel's offensive has killed at least 22,835 Palestinians, according to Palestinian health officials on Sunday.

Two journalists were killed and another journalist was injured on Sunday in an Israeli airstrike targeting their vehicle in the southern Gaza Strip, according to Hamas media office.

The Oct 7 Hamas attack in southern Israel killed 1,200 people, according to Israeli officials.

Israel has signaled a shift in recent days to scale down forces while facing international pressure over the mounting death toll and humanitarian crisis in Gaza.

Agencies - Xinhua