Antony Blinken held tense talks in Turkey on Monday as the US secretary of state extended a dash through the Middle East to try to head off regional spillover from Israel’s war against Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
Alarmed at the risks the conflict could spiral into a wider war, the Foreign Office said it was pulling some embassy staff and all family members out of Lebanon, from where the Iranian-backed group Hezbollah could open a second front against Israel. “Events in Lebanon are fast moving. The situation has potential to deteriorate quickly and with no warning,” it said. Energy Security Secretary Claire Coutinho also stressed the need for “de-escalating” soaring tensions across the Middle East.
She told Sky News that the Prime Minister, Foreign Secretary and Defence Secretary were all working “with everyone in the region to make sure we can keep tensions in check and also that we can make sure we’re getting humanitarian aid into Gaza”.
Mr Blinken travelled to Ankara for a meeting with Turkish foreign minister Hakan Fidan hours after hundreds of pro-Palestinian protesters tried to storm an air base housing US personnel in southern Turkey. Police forced them back with tear gas and water cannon.
Mr Blinken was in Turkey after pushing Israel for a humanitarian pause in the fighting. But Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has rejected a ceasefire - as has Hamas - and Israeli forces said they had reached the coastline to the south of Gaza City, effectively cutting the Strip in two.
CIA director William Burns was also set to visit Israel on Monday to discuss the war and intelligence with senior officials, before heading on to other Middle East countries, the New York Times reported.
Backing up the shuttle diplomacy, US Central Command said it had deployed an Ohio-class nuclear missile submarine to the region. Nuclear powers rarely disclose the location of their ballistic submarines — and the announcement was seen as a pointed message to Iran.
The top US diplomat’s visit came after stops in the West Bank, Iraq and Israel, where he urged prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu to implement humanitarian pauses to the fighting in Gaza.
But Mr Netanyahu has rejected a ceasefire — as has Hamas — and Israeli forces said they had reached the coastline to the south of Gaza City, effectively cutting the Gaza Strip in two.
Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who has refused to join Nato allies in stressing Israel’s right to defend itself, said his government was “working behind the scenes” with regional allies for an end to the fighting and to secure humanitarian aid into Gaza.
Jordan’s air force dropped urgent medical aid to a Jordanian field hospital in Gaza in what appeared to be the first such delivery by plane with Israel cutting off most road traffic into the territory.
Before any truce, Israel insists on the return of some 240 hostages seized by Hamas terrorists when they murdered 1,400 people inside Israel on October 7.
More than 10,000 Palestinians have now been killed in the war, the Hamas-controlled health ministry said on Monday.
Health ministry spokesman Ashraf al-Qidre announced that 10,022 people have died since Israel began carrying out airstrikes on the besieged enclave last month.
Some 1.5 million Palestinians, or around 70 per cent of Gaza’s population, have fled their homes since the war began.
Israeli fighter jets struck 450 Hamas targets in Gaza and troops seized a militant compound as they tightened their encirclement of Gaza City, the Israel Defence Forces said, amid one of the most intense overnight bombardments from the air, ground and sea since the war began.
The IDF said its strikes hit “tunnels, terrorists, military compounds, observation posts, and anti-tank missile launch posts”. A senior Hamas commander, Jamal Mussa, who had headed the group’s special security operations, was among those killed, it said. The Gazan health ministry said dozens of people were killed by the Israeli air strikes in Gaza City, and further south in Gaza neighbourhoods including Zawaida and Deir Al-Balah.
People searched for victims or survivors at the Maghazi refugee camp in Gaza, where the health ministry said Israeli forces had killed at least 47 people in strikes early yesterday. “All night I and the other men were trying to pick the dead from the rubble. We got children, dismembered, torn-apart flesh,” said Saeed al-Nejma, 53.
The IDF said it was gathering details of that strike. It declined to comment on claims that a separate attack had killed 21 Palestinians from one family.
Nearly 100 UK nationals have used the Rafah crossing into Egypt to leave Gaza since it opened to foreign nationals last week. Among them were the parents-in-law of Scottish first minister Humza Yousaf. But the evacuations were suspended after an Israeli strike hit an ambulance in Gaza on Friday. Israel claimed it was carrying Hamas militants.
