Israel says it has killed 8,000 Hamas fighters in northern Gaza alone – as Blinken warns against escalation
Israel claims to have killed 8,000 Hamas fighters in northern Gaza alone, as the US warns failing to prevent the conflict from spreading in the Middle East would lead to an “endless cycle of violence”.
Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari, a spokesman for the Israel Defence Forces (IDF), said Israeli troops had now finished dismantling Hamas’s “military framework” in the north of the Gaza Strip.
He said the military has also seized tens of thousands of weapons in that area and millions of documents, and added: “We are now focused on dismantling Hamas in the centre of and south of the Strip.”
But Antony Blinken, the US secretary of state, accepted “far too many” Palestinians have been killed – “especially children” – during the conflict so far.
He was speaking on the second day of an urgent tour of the region, intended to address growing tensions and avoid the risk of the conflict spreading.
Speaking to reporters on the Greek island of Crete, after meeting both Turkish and Greek leaders, Mr Blinken said he was looking for countries to do all they could so “we don’t see escalation”.
Antony Blinken shakes hands with Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan in Istanbul
Greek Foreign Minister George Gerapetritis greets Antony Blinken
He said it was in the interest of virtually all nations to contain the fighting and that failure to do so would lead to “an endless cycle of violence… and lives of insecurity and conflict for people in the region”.
“We want to make sure that countries who feel that way are also using their ties, using their influence, using their relationships with some of the actors that might be involved to keep a lid on things, to make sure that we’re not seeing the spread of conflict,” he said.
He also said the US is working with its allies to see what can be done to protect civilians in Gaza as Israel’s military campaign continues, adding that Israel “does not want escalation”, but that they must defend themselves.
Mr Blinken started his tour of the Middle East in Turkey on Friday and spoke to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and foreign minister Hakan Fidan.
The top US official said after the meeting that Turkey was prepared to use its relationships with “critical players” to de-escalate conflicts arising from the situation in Gaza.
Mr Blinken will also visit Jordan before going to other Arab states, Israel and the occupied West Bank.
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People scramble for food in Gaza
Israel continues to bombard Gaza in response to Hamas’s 7 October attack, during which Israel says 1,200 people were killed and 240 hostages were taken back to Gaza.
Israel believes 129 hostages remain, while Gaza’s Hamas-run health ministry says the Israeli response to 7 October has killed more than 22,700 Palestinians.
Much of Gaza has been laid to waste, with UN humanitarian chief Martin Griffith warning on Friday it has become a place of “death and despair”.
Pro-Palestinian protests have continued around the world, with demonstrators staging a sit-in at Westminster Bridge in London on Saturday, with several arrests made.
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Gaza protest blocked Westminster Bridge
Tensions rising on border with Lebanon
Israel has been trading fire with Lebanon-based Hezbollah in one of the heaviest days of cross-border fighting in recent weeks.
On Saturday morning, Hezbollah claimed it fired 62 rockets at a key Israeli observation post as a “preliminary response” to the assassination of Hamas’s deputy leader.
Sirens sounded across northern Israel, with its military saying “approximately 40 launches from Lebanon toward the area of Meron in northern Israel were identified”, though there are no reports of casualties or damage.
Later on Saturday, Lebanon’s Jama’a Islamiya said it had also fired two volleys of rockets at Kiryat Shmona in northern Israel, in the third operation claimed by the hardline Sunni Muslim group since the conflict began.
After meeting the Lebanese foreign minister in Beirut, the EU’s senior diplomat Josep Borrell said he is seeing a “worrying intensification” of fire across the Israel-Lebanon border.
“Diplomatic channels have to stay open, war is not the only option – it’s the worst option,” he said, adding it is important that Lebanon not be dragged into the Gaza conflict.
European Union’s foreign policy chief Josep Borrell spoke in Beirut
IDF troops operate in a location given as Gaza. Pic: IDF
Hezbollah had said the death of Saleh al Aroui – a founder of Hamas’s military wing who was killed in an Israeli drone strike in a Beirut suburb on Tuesday – would not go unanswered.
Analysts believe Israel’s drone strike could be a message to Hamas’s ally, Hezbollah, that even its prime stronghold of Dahiyeh is not beyond Israel’s reach.
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Israel outlines Gaza post-war plan
Iran warns ‘enemy’ to ‘stay away’
Meanwhile, as concerns grow over key shipping routes where Iran’s allies have been attacking vessels, the commander of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards vowed on Saturday to reach “the enemy” its interests were threatened.
Guards commander Hossein Salami did not name a specific enemy in his speech, but 22 nations – including the UK – have agreed to join a US-led coalition to protect commercial routes in the Red Sea.
“We need to defend our national interests to wherever they extend,” Mr Salami said in a televised speech.
“It will be harmful for the enemy. They should stay away from this area.”
Since the conflict made Red Sea routes more dangerous, many shipping companies have switched to the longer and more costly route around Africa’s Cape of Good Hope.
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Gaza could remain under Israeli ‘security control’
British maritime security firm Ambrey said on Saturday it had received a report of a maritime security event in the Red Sea’s Bab al Mandab area.
Without elaborating, it advised crews to minimise deck movements and that only essential crew should be on the bridge.
Later on Saturday, United Kingdom Marine Trade Operations reported six small craft approaching a merchant vessel to within one nautical mile in the area of the Red Sea near Yemen.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed to retaliate against the Houthis and their Iranian “masters” after the group launched a missile attack on the country’s main international airport.
A missile fired by the group from Yemen landed near Ben Gurion Airport, causing panic among passengers in the terminal building.
“Attacks by the Houthis emanate from Iran,” Mr Netanyahu wrote on X. “Israel will respond to the Houthi attack against our main airport AND, at a time and place of our choosing, to their Iranian terror masters.”
Israeli police officers investigate the missile crater. Pic: Reuters
The missile impact left a plume of smoke and briefly halted flights and commuter traffic at the airport. Some international carriers have cancelled flights to and from Tel Aviv for several days.
Four people were lightly wounded, paramedic service Magen David Adom said.
Air raid sirens went off across Israel and footage showed passengers yelling and rushing for cover.
The attack came hours before senior Israeli cabinet ministers were set to vote on whether to intensify the country’s military operations in the Gaza Strip, and as the army began calling up thousands of reserves in anticipation of a wider operation in the enclave.
Houthi military spokesperson Brigadier General Yahya Saree said the group fired a hypersonic ballistic missile at the airport.
Iran’s defence minister later told a state TV broadcaster that if the country was attacked by the US or Israel, it would target their bases, interests and forces where necessary.
Israel’s military said several attempts to intercept the missile were unsuccessful.
Air, road and rail traffic were halted after the attack, police said, though it resumed around an hour later.
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Yemen’s Houthis have been firing missiles at Israel since its war with Hamas in Gaza began on 7 October 2023, and while most have been intercepted, some have penetrated the country’s missile defence systems and caused damage.
Israel has previously struck the group in Yemen in retaliation and the US and UK have also launched strikes after the Houthis began attacking international shipping, saying it was in solidarity with Palestinians over Israel’s war with Hamas.
The Israeli Air Force is regarded as one of the country’s most elite units.
So, when hundreds of current and former pilots call for an end to the war in Gaza to get the hostages out, Israelis take notice.
This month, 1,200 pilots caused a storm by signing an open letter arguing the war served mainly “political and personal interests and not security ones”.
The pilots’ protest letter
Part of the letter translated
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the original letter was written by “bad apples”.
But Guy Paron, a former pilot and one of those behind the letter, said the Israeli government had failed to move to phase two of the ceasefire deal with Hamas, brokered under US President Donald Trump.
That deal called for a full withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza and the release of all the remaining hostages. Mr Netanyahu continues to argue that the war must continue to put pressure on Hamas.
Mr Paron said the (Israeli) government “gave up or violated a signed agreement with Hamas” and “threw it to the trash”.
“You have to finish the deal, release the hostages, even if it means stopping that war,” he argued.
It’s not the first time Israeli pilots have taken up a cause. Many of them also campaigned against Mr Netanyahu’s 2023 judicial reforms.
“In this country, 1,000 Israeli Air Force pilots carry a lot of weight,” Mr Paron added.
“The Air Force historically has been the major force and game-changer in all of Israel’s wars, including this current one. The strength of the Air Force is the public’s guarantee of security.”
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UN runs out of food aid in Gaza
Anti-government campaign spreads
Now, the open letter campaign has spread to other parts of the military.
More than 15,000 people have signed, including paratroopers, armoured corps, navy, special units, cyber and medics. The list goes on.
Dr Ofer Havakuk has served 200 days during this war as a combat doctor, mostly in Gaza, and believes the government is continuing the war to stay in power.
He has also signed an open letter supporting the pilots and accused the prime minister of putting politics first.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu described the authors of the original letter as ‘bad apples’. Pic: AP
He said Mr Netanyahu “wants to keep his coalition working and to keep the coalition together. For him, this is the main purpose of the war”.
A ceasefire could lead to the collapse of the prime minister’s fragile far-right coalition, which is opposed to ending the war.
Threat of dismissal
The Israeli military has threatened to dismiss those who have signed protest letters.
We met a former pilot who is still an active reservist. He didn’t want to be identified and is worried he could lose his job.
“This is a price that I’m willing to pay, although it is very big for me because I’m volunteering and, as a volunteer, I want to stay on duty for as long as I can,” he told us.
The controversy over the war and the hostages is gaining momentum inside Israel’s military.
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It is also exposing deep divisions in society at a time when there is no clear sign about how the government plans to end the war in Gaza, or when.
The renewed war in Gaza over the last year and a half followed deadly Hamas attacks on Israel on 7 October 2023, which killed 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and saw around 250 taken hostage.
More than 51,000 people have been killed in Gaza during the Israeli military’s response, many of them civilians, according to the enclave’s Hamas-run Ministry of Health.
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