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Fears of a wider regional conflict intensify as the Israel military and Lebanon’s Hezbollah escalate attacks.
Here’s how things stand on Saturday, April 13, 2024:
Bombardments and fighting
- Dozens of Israeli air strikes have hit central Gaza, including in the area of Deir el-Balah, with several casualties reported. Israel’s military said its aircraft struck more than 60 targets in Gaza over the previous day. Authorities in the enclave said at least 25 people were taken to hospital after a house was hit.
- Five Palestinians have been killed and more than 30 injured overnight after the Israeli army bombed a residential building in the Zarqa area of central Gaza City, according to Gaza civil defence.
- Five Palestinians were injured overnight in an Israeli settlers’ attack in a village northeast of Ramallah in the occupied West Bank, a day after an attack killed a 25-year-old Palestinian man and injured 25 people.
Politics and diplomacy
- Ireland, Spain and other countries are getting “much closer” to recognising a Palestinian state, Irish prime minister Simon Harris said as he met his Spanish counterpart, Pedro Sanchez. The comments came just hours after Norway announced during a visit by Sanchez that it, too, was ready to recognise a Palestinian state.
- Senior Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal has promised to “break the enemy soon”, as he attended an event to mourn members of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh’s family killed in an Israeli air strike. Referring to the six-month-old war, Meshaal said, “This is not the final round” in the path to a free Palestine.
Regional tensions
- Lebanon’s Hezbollah said it fired “dozens of rockets” at Israeli artillery positions in response to the Israeli military’s strikes in southern Lebanon, in one of its largest assaults since the start of the war on Gaza.
- The Israeli army said “approximately 40 launches were identified crossing from Lebanese territory”, but there were no reports of casualties. In response, the Israeli army said it hit a Hezbollah military compound in southern Lebanon.
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The United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO) said a vessel has been seized by “regional authorities” 50 nautical miles (92km) northeast of the United Arab Emirates’s Fujairah. UKMTO did not say which authorities it was referring to. The commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’ (IRGC) navy had warned this week that Israel’s presence in the UAE was viewed as a threat by Iran, adding that it could close the Strait of Hormuz if necessary.
- Iranian state media reported that the IRGC’s navy had detained the container ship.
- The United States has moved warships into position to protect not only Israel but its own forces in the Middle East amid growing concern that Iran might launch a direct attack on Israel in response to an attack on its consulate in Syria, according to The Wall Street Journal.
- Italy’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Antonio Tajani has spoken by telephone with his Iranian counterpart, Hossein Amirabdollahian, urging restraint amid fears of an attack on Israel from Tehran. He said the world “cannot risk escalation” and urged all regional actors to “show responsibility”.
- Australian airline Qantas has announced it would redirect its long-haul flights between Perth and London to avoid Iran’s airspace amid soaring Middle East tensions.
- Earlier, German airline Lufthansa said its planes would no longer use Iranian airspace as it extended a suspension on flights to and from Tehran.
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