It was 2.30am in Washington DC when White House officials were first alerted to a situation which will come to represent a truly bloody turning point.
Throughout the remainder of the night, the phone lines were hot. Israel’s most important ally was in constant contact with military officials in Tel Aviv and the political leaders in Jerusalem trying to determine what was unfolding.
By 7am, America’s National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan was speaking by phone to his Israeli counterpart. By just after 8am, the full national security team including the secretary of state, the defence secretary, the CIA chief and others were talking to President Biden relaying the unprecedented gravity of the situation.
The president then called Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu and made clear his total commitment and full unequivocal support for Israel.
Image: Joe Biden and Antony Blinken at the White House in Washington on Saturday
By mid-morning, US time, as the attacks in Israel continued, President Biden spoke to King Abdullah of Jordan, a key conduit for all sides in this long conflict now taking a new alarming twist.
In parallel, US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken was on the phone to his counterparts in the UK, Germany and Italy as well as key calls to Saudi Arabia, Egypt and to Palestinian Authority President Mahmood Abbas in the West Bank.
This was a Saturday morning of high diplomatic tension to reflect an astonishing unravelling of a situation that’s been forgotten, ignored, or tolerated by too many for too long.
There is no question that this multi-layered Palestinian attack represents a huge Israeli intelligence failure. Israel has been too consumed in its internal political meltdown. It reflects badly on the intelligence capabilities of America too. They didn’t have Israel’s back.
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Image: A Palestinian boy in the Gaza Strip
But does it also reflect failure of diplomacy too? A rush to cement the Abraham Accords (a hugely significant Trump-era normalisation deal between Israel, the UAE and Bahrain) by expanding it to include Saudi Arabia.
American officials insist they have been central in keeping the Palestinians a key part of the conversation. True, maybe, for West Bank Palestinians. But as always, the Palestinian Gaza situation was a nettle no one would, or could, grasp.
Short term, we can predict what will happen. The civilian loss of life will be huge. The consequence of Saturday’s terrorism against Israel will be truly terrifying for the people of Gaza.
Prime Minister Netanyahu’s overnight statement spelt out with characteristic blunt clarity what it will look like.
“We will destroy [Hamas] and we will forcefully avenge this dark day…” he said, adding “As Bialik [a Jewish poet] wrote: ‘Revenge for the blood of a little child has yet been devised by Satan’.”
To the residents of Gaza, he said: “Leave now because we will operate forcefully everywhere.”
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2:57
Israel: How the attack unfolded
The problem is, where do they go? They cannot leave the Gaza Strip. Could Egypt open its Rafah border crossing? Would they allow nearly a million people across?
This is a key question which American officials are trying to answer. A presidential call between Joe Biden and Abdel Fattah el-Sisi of Egypt is likely.
Through previous iterations of this long conflict, Western unequivocal support for Israel becomes more nuanced as the civilian casualties mount.
This Saturday, the Israeli civilian casualties have been unprecedented. We can expect the Israeli response to be equally unprecedented.
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2:54
‘Israel has right to defend itself’
On this point, an American administration official said: “I am not going to comment on what the Israelis might do, might not do, should do, should not do. I am just not going to get into that tonight.”
You can bet though that they will want to know precisely what the Israelis will do.
Beyond the immediate focus on Gaza, there are so many unknowns.
To what extent will the West Bank be drawn into the conflict? The Palestinian Authority which runs the West Bank (and cooperates with Israel) is distinct from Hamas who run Gaza. But across the West Bank, hopelessness has pushed people away from the moderation of their own leaders to the extremism of Hamas.
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2:53
Israel attack: What we know so far
To the north, how will Hezbollah in Lebanon respond? Their well-rehearsed opportunist tactics are to attack from the north, to pressure Israel on another front. Lebanon’s broken politics and economy make things even more dangerous.
Then there is Iran. How will Israel respond to their conviction that all this is, in the end, an Iran problem?
The potential for spillover in the Israel-Palestinian conflict is always there. It’s just got so much more real.
The US has abstained from a UN General Assembly vote on a resolution it drafted on the war in Ukraine after the body approved amendments proposed by European countries.
The vote took place on the same day the 193-member assembly approved a competing European-backed resolution from Ukraine which demanded Russia immediately withdraw from the country.
The duelling proposals reflect the tensions that have emerged between the US and Ukraine after Donald Trump suddenly opened negotiations with Russia in a bid to quickly resolve the conflict.
It also underscores the strain in the US’ relationship with Europe over the Trump administration’s decision to engage with Moscow.
The US-drafted resolution, marking the third anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, had called for an end to the conflict but did not mention Moscow’s aggression.
It also made no mention of Ukraine’s territorial integrity.
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However, it was amended after European nations said that it should include references to Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine and the need for a lasting peace in line with the UN Charter.
It was also amended to include references to Ukraine’s sovereignty.
The amended US-drafted resolutionwon 93 votes in favour, while 73 states abstained – including the US – and eight – including Russia – voted no.
Meanwhile, there were 93 votes in favour of theUkraine-backed resolution,while 65 abstained and 18 voted against it.
The UK, France and Germany were among the countries that voted in favour of the Ukraine-backed resolution, which called for a “comprehensive, just and lasting peace in Ukraine”.
The US, Russia, Belarus and North Korea were among those that opposed it.
Image: The US voted against Ukraine’s resolution. Pic: AP
The outcome marks a setback for the Trump administration in the UN General Assembly, whose resolutions are not legally binding but are seen as a barometer of world opinion.
However, the result also shows some diminished support for Ukraine – as more than 140 nations had voted to condemn Russia’s aggression in previous votes.
The United States had tried to pressure the Ukrainians to withdraw their resolution in favour of its proposal, according to a US official and a European diplomat.
US deputy ambassador Dorothy Shea, meanwhile, said multiple previous UN resolutions condemning Russia and demanding the withdrawal of Russian troops “have failed to stop the war,” which “has now dragged on for far too long and at far too terrible a cost to the people in Ukraine and Russia and beyond”.
“What we need is a resolution marking the commitment from all UN member states to bring a durable end to the war,” Ms Shea said.
Mr Zelenskyy responded by saying the US president was living in a Russian-made “disinformation space”.
Meanwhile, French President Emmanuel Macron is at the White House holding talks with Mr Trump to discuss a peace plan for Ukraine.
At the start of the meeting, Mr Trump told reporters Russian President Vladimir Putin will accept European peacekeepers in Ukraine as part of a potential deal to end the war in the country.
Mr Trump and Mr Macron have been meeting after the pair had earlier joined a call between G7 leaders.
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An American Airlines flight travelling from New York to New Delhi was diverted midair due to a “bomb threat”.
Flight 292 landed at Rome’s Leonardo da Vinci Rome Fiumicino Airport “due to a possible security issue,” the airline said in a statement on Sunday, adding later the threat “was determined to be non-credible”.
The airline did not clarify what the security issue was, but a source familiar with the situation told Sky News’ US partner network NBC News it was a bomb threat sent via email.
The Federal Aviation Administration said the crew reported the security issue.
“Safety and security are our top priorities, and we apologise to our customers for the inconvenience,” the airline said in a statement.
Image: The view from the cockpit of the fighter jet. Pic: Italian air force/Reuters
Image: Pic: Italian air force/Reuters
The flight requested a diversion to Rome’s Leonardo da Vinci Rome Fiumicino Airport at around 2pm local time, Roberto Rao, a spokesperson for the airport.
“We immediately agreed and organised a safe landing,” Mr Rao told NBC News.
“We don’t know what the security concern was, but my opinion is that it was serious enough to divert the plane, but not urgent, because we received the alert when the plane was over the Caspian Sea, a three hours’ flight from Rome.”
Once in Italian airspace, the plane was escorted by two Italian air force fighter jets and landed in Rome at around 5.30pm local time.
Image: The flight on the ground in Rome. Pic: AP
‘What’s going on here?’
Neeraj Chopra, one of the 199 passengers on board, said the captain announced the plane had to turn around about three hours before it was supposed to land in New Delhi because of a change in “security status”.
Mr Chopra, who was traveling to India to visit family, described the mood on board as calm until the captain later announced that fighter jets would be escorting their plane to Rome.
“I felt a little panic of, okay, what’s going on here?” Mr Chopra told the Associated Press. “There’s got to be like something bigger going on here.”
Jonathan Bacon, 22, added that once on the ground, all passengers were loaded on to buses and taken to the terminal, where each passenger and their personal items underwent additional security screenings that were time-consuming and felt “slightly heightened”.
More than two hours after landing, Mr Bacon and his friend said they were still waiting for their checked baggage. “It was definitely the longest flight to Europe I’ve ever taken,” he said.
American Airlines said the plane was inspected and cleared to depart again for New Delhi “as soon as possible” on Monday, after the crew gets some rest.