Biden meets Israel, Egypt, Jordan, Palestine leaders today

US president Joe Biden is expected to visit the Middle East today (Wednesday), on a whirlwind tour of diplomacy that will take in meetings with the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, and other officials in Tel Aviv, report agencies.
Biden will then move on to meet Jordan's King Abdullah, the Egyptian president, Abdel Fatah al-Sisi, and the Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, in Amman, Jordan.
The UN human rights office said on Tuesday that Israel's siege of Gaza and its evacuation order there could amount to the international crime of the forcible transfer of civilians.
"We are concerned that this order, combined with the imposition of a complete siege of Gaza, may not be considered as lawful temporary evacuation and would therefore amount to a forcible transfer of civilians in breach of international law,"Ravina Shamdasani, a spokesperson for the UN human rights office, said.
Around 3,000 people have been killed in Israeli strikes on the Gaza Strip, the health ministry in the Hamas-run Palestinian territory said on Tuesday.
More than 12,500 others have been wounded since Israel started bombarding Gaza on October 7, in retaliation for Hamas attacks in Israel which killed more than 1,400 people.
Report from Washington adds :The US military on Tuesday ordered 2,000 personnel to prepare for deployment to the Middle East as a show of force as Israel's war on Hamas intensifies.
Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said the deployment would allow the United States "to respond more quickly" to the crisis, while the White House stressed it did not intend to put US combat forces on the ground.
Meanwhile, Hamas said Tuesday one of the top leaders of its armed wing was killed during an Israeli strike in the Gaza Strip.
"Ayman Nofal, 'Abu Ahmad', a member of the general military council and commander of the central command in Al-Qassam Brigades, was killed" in an Israeli strike on the central Gaza Strip, Hamas said in a statement, referring to its military wing.
Another report adds Clashes erupted again Tuesday on the border between Lebanon and Israel, where Israeli forces and armed groups in Lebanon have engaged in a series of low-level skirmishes since the outbreak of the latest war in Gaza.
An anti-tank missile fired from Lebanon landed in the town of Metula in northern Israel Tuesday morning, injuring three people, according to the Ziv Medical Center in Safed.
No group in Lebanon has immediately claimed responsibility. It was not clear if the injured were civilians or soldiers, but Israel has ordered civilians to evacuate the area near the border with Lebanon.
Israel responded by striking several areas along the border in southern Lebanon with artillery fire and white phosphorus, the state-run National News Agency in Lebanon reported. The Israeli military said its tanks fired back into Lebanon after an anti-tank missile was launched across the border.
Two more anti-tank missiles were fired from Lebanon at the Yiftah kibbutz in northern Israel without any casualties, the Israeli army said, adding that it had shelled Hezbollah positions in response.