Western allies seek rapid end to Gaza war as Israel presses on

Hundreds missing from Al-Aqsa Hospital amid Israeli bombardment

FE Team | Published: January 08, 2024 23:45:07

ABU DHABI/CAIRO, Jan 08 (Reuters): The United States and its allies in the Group of Seven are seeking a quick way out of the military phase of the Gaza conflict, Italy said on Monday, as US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and his EU and German counterparts toured the region.
Blinken was holding talks on Gaza in the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia on Monday before heading on to Israel, aiming to kick start concerted peace efforts that he says are needed to avoid a wider conflagration.
He began a five-day Middle East diplomatic effort in Jordan and Qatar on Sunday, his fourth visit to the region since deadly Oct. 7 attacks on Israel by Hamas militants in Gaza sparked a massive Israeli assault that shows no signs of ending.
Other Iranian-backed militant groups have weighed in, attacking Israeli forces on the border with Lebanon, US troops in Iraq and Syria and commercial ships in the Red Sea. Israel has also cracked down on Palestinians in the occupied West Bank.
Germany's foreign minister Annalena Baerbock was in Israel on Monday and the European Union's top diplomat Josep Borrell was in Lebanon in a sign of international concern.
"G7 countries are working with the Israeli government to find a rapid way out of the military phase," the Italian Foreign Ministry quoted minister Antonio Tajani as saying as Italy began its one-year presidency of the Group of Seven.
Meanwhile, hundreds of patients and staff are reported to be missing from Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in central Gaza, which is struggling to cope amid intense air strikes across the enclave.
The majority of medical staff, as well as around 600 patients, have been forced to leave the complex to unknown locations with no information of their whereabouts, the World Health Organization (WHO) and the United Nations (UN) reported on Monday.
The two institutions note chaotic scenes as the remaining staff at the hospital continues to try to cope with an influx of injured people as "heavy Israeli bombardment from air, land, and sea intensified across much of the Gaza Strip".
Staff from the WHO and the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) visited the only functioning hospital in the governorate of Deir el-Balah in central Gaza on Sunday. They noted that intense bombing had driven many to seek medical help at Al-Aqsa.
Israeli strike kills top Hezbollah
commander in Lebanon
An Israeli strike on south Lebanon on Monday killed a senior commander in Hezbollah's elite Radwan force, three security sources told Reuters.
The security sources identified him as Wissam al-Tawil, the deputy head of a unit within the Radwan force. They said he and another Hezbollah fighter were killed when their car was hit in a strike on the Lebanese village of Majdal Selm.
"This is a very painful strike," one of the security sources said. Another said, "things will flare up now."
Israeli bombardment has killed more than 130 Hezbollah fighters in southern Lebanon since cross-border shelling began in the aftermath of Hamas's attack on Israeli territory on Oct. 7. Another 19 have been killed in Syria.
Al Jazeera says two Gaza journalists
killed in Israeli strike
Al Jazeera said Sunday two of its Palestinian journalists in the Gaza Strip were killed in an Israeli strike on their car, in what the Qatar-based media network claimed was a "targeted killing". Hamza Wael Dahdouh and Mustafa Thuria, who also worked as a video stringer for AFP and other news organisations, were killed while they were "on their way to carry out their duty" for the channel in the Gaza Strip, the network said.
A third freelance journalist travelling with them, Hazem Rajab, was seriously injured. The health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza also confirmed the deaths and blamed an Israeli strike.
Israel hits south Gaza as top US
diplomat Blinken seeks de-escalation
Israel hit targets in south Gaza and across its border with Lebanon, the army said Monday ahead of a visit by the top US diplomat who is seeking to avert a wider war.
Gaza's health ministry said 73 dead and 99 wounded had arrived at Al-Aqsa hospital in central Gaza's Deir Al-Balah city over the previous 24 hours.
Three months into its battle with Gaza-based Hamas militants, Israel's army says its focus has moved from the northern Gaza Strip to "dismantling" militants in the centre and south of the Hamas-ruled Palestinian territory.
In the southern city of Khan Yunis, troops and warplanes overnight Sunday-Monday struck 30 militant targets which a military statement described as "significant." These included underground targets and weapons storage facilities, it said.
A drone also killed 10 militants "preparing to launch rockets toward Israeli territory," the statement added.