(VOVWORLD) - Israel bombarded Gaza with air strikes early on Monday and its aircraft struck southern Lebanon overnight, Israel’s attacks concentrated on the Gaza Strip’s centre and north, Palestinian media reported.
Health authorities in Gaza said at least 4,600 people were killed in Israel’s two-week bombardment that began after a Hamas Oct. 7 rampage on southern Israeli communities in which 1,400 people were killed and more than 200 were taken into Gaza as hostages.
Palestinian Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh and Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian discussed in a call late on Sunday the means of stopping Israel’s “brutal crimes” in Gaza, Hamas said in a statement.
Israel has amassed tanks and troops near the fenced border around Gaza for a planned ground attack aiming to annihilate Hamas.
Fears that the Israel-Hamas conflict could mushroom into a wider Middle East conflict rose over the weekend with Washington warning of a significant risk to US interests in the region and announcing a new deployment of advanced air defenses.