US secretary of state Antony Blinken pushed on Wednesday for a halt to fighting in Gaza and a diplomatic solution to conflict in Lebanon, but Israeli strikes on a historic Lebanese port city proved there was no respite.
Huge clouds of smoke billowed above residential buildings in Tyre, a Unesco-listed port city in south Lebanon, which Israel began bombing hours after issuing an order online telling residents to flee central areas.
Tens of thousands of people have already fled Tyre as Israel steps up its campaign to destroy Hizbullah in Lebanon and Hamas in Gaza, both close allies of its Middle East enemy Iran.
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Strikes hit central parts of the city for about an hour at midday. The Israeli military said it had targeted Hizbullah command and control centres there, including its southern front headquarters.
There was no immediate comment from Hizbullah.
In northern Israel, rockets fired across the frontier set off air raid sirens. Smoke trails hung over the city of Haifa, which appeared to be from the interception of Hizbullah rockets. One person was badly hurt, according to Israel’s ambulance service.
Israeli strikes across Gaza killed 42 people as Israeli forces intensified a siege of northern parts of the Palestinian enclave, surrounding hospitals and refugee shelters, and ordering residents to head south, medics and residents said.
The Gaza health ministry and the World Health Organisation said they would be unable to start a polio vaccination campaign in northern Gaza as planned because of the intense bombardments.
The Israeli military announced last Friday it had sent another army unit to Jabalia on the northern edge of Gaza. Residents say the troops have besieged shelters, forcing displaced people to leave while rounding up many of the men. The health ministry said at least 650 people had been killed since the new offensive began.
Of at least 42 people reported killed by Israeli military strikes across the enclave on Wednesday, 37 deaths were in northern Gaza.
Later on Wednesday, the Gaza Civil Emergency Service said three of its rescuers were wounded in northern Gaza in what it said was a “targeted strike”, that aimed to force them out of Jabalia, hours after the Israeli army ordered some of their staff to leave the camp.
The United Nations Palestinian refugee agency Unrwa said one of its staff members was killed when an Unrwa vehicle was hit in Deir Al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip. Medics said the man’s brother was also killed. The municipality of Gaza City said two city workers were killed and three wounded in a strike.
Health and civil emergency officials said dozens of bodies of Palestinians killed by Israeli fire in and around Jabalia were scattered on roadsides and under the rubble where medical teams could not reach them.
Hospitals in the north have either stopped providing medical services or are hardly operating because of the offensive. Hospitals where medics have refused Israeli evacuation orders say they are running out of blood for transfusions, as well as coffins and shrouds for the dead.
Washington has called on its ally Israel to do more to help Gazans. A failure to address the humanitarian situation in Gaza could create more insurgents, US defence secretary Lloyd Austin said. Israel denies blocking aid from the battle zone.
Mr Blinken, who has travelled to the Middle East regularly during the war, is making his first trip since Israel killed Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar, its most-wanted enemy, whose death Washington hopes can provide an impetus for peace.
The trip is also the last major US peace push before the November 5th presidential election that could alter US policy.
Washington aims to head off a widening of the conflict in anticipation of Israeli retaliation for an Iranian missile attack on October 1st. Mr Blinken said Israel’s retaliation should not lead to greater escalation.
Mr Blinken met Israeli officials including prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu, then travelled to Saudi Arabia and met crown prince Mohammed bin Salman.
In Lebanon, Israel’s military said it had killed three Hizbullah commanders and some 70 fighters in the south in the past 48 hours. A day earlier it confirmed it had killed Hashem Safieddine, the militant group’s heir apparent leader after Hassan Nasrallah’s death in a September 27th Israeli air strike.
Lebanon’s government said later on Wednesday that at least 28 people had been killed by Israeli strikes in the previous 24 hours, raising the total toll since October 2023 to 2,574.
In the year since fighters directed by Sinwar rampaged through Israeli towns killing 1,200 people and capturing more than 250 hostages, Israel has laid Gaza to waste to root out Hamas, killing nearly 43,000 Palestinians. The past month’s strikes on Lebanon have displaced at least 1.2 million Lebanese.
– Reuters