Middle East latest: Hamas now aiming for 'full-scale regional war', US says - as 'goalposts moved' on truce talks (2024)

Israel's planned ground operation in Rafah is expected to last around six weeks and target areas where the military believes Hamas leaders are fighting and hiding, according to a report.

Egyptian officials told the Wall Street Journal that Israel is preparing to move civilians from the southernmost city in Gaza, where some 1.2 million Palestinians are sheltering, to nearby Khan Younis.

Earlier we reported that satellite images show a tent compound being built in Khan Younis ahead of the proposed operation (see 8.25 post).

The officials said civilians would be moved during a two or three week operation to shelters with tents, food distribution services and medical aid.

The evacuation would be carried out in coordination with the US, Egypt and other states, they told the WSJ. It's unclear when such an operation would take place.

Israel has vowed to press on with its offensive in Rafah despite pleas from several countries, including the US, for it to reconsider over the potential human toll. UK foreign secretary Lord Cameron previously said Israel should "stop and think seriously" before taking further action in Rafah.

Iran's president has warned that there could end up being "nothing left" of Israel if it were to attack Iranian territory.

In comments cited by Iranian news agency IRNA, Ebrahim Raisi said the "circ*mstances" would completely change in the event of an Israeli attack on Iran.

Tehran and Israel have both traded fire this month, sparking fears of an all-out war in the region.

Iran's 13 April attack was itself retaliation for a strike - attributed to Israel - on an Iranian consulate in Syria on 1 April. Israel later appeared to respond with a strike near a major air base and nuclear site in central Iran.

The claim that the IDF buried Palestinian bodies is "baseless and unfounded", it has said.

Earlier UN rights chief Volker Turk said he was "horrified" by the destruction of the Nasser and Al Shifa medical facilities in Gaza and reports of mass graves discovered there (see post at 10.25am).

Now, the IDF has said the operation in the area of Nasser Hospital was to locate hostages and missing persons, and bodies "buried by Palestinians in the area of Nasser Hospital were examined".

The examination was done in a "careful manner and exclusively in places where intelligence indicated the possible presence of hostages", it said.

"The examination was carried out respectfully while maintaining the dignity of the deceased. Bodies examined, which did not belong to Israeli hostages, were returned to their place," the IDF added.

Forces conducted a "precise and targeted operation" against Hamas in the Nasser Hospital area at the end of February, the IDF said.

"During the operation, about 200 terrorists who were in the hospital were apprehended, medicines intended for Israeli hostages were found undelivered and unused, and a great deal of ammunition was confiscated," it said.

"The activity was done in a targeted manner and without harming the hospital, the patients and themedicalstaff."

Hezbollah says it has launched its deepest attack inside Israel since the outbreak of the Israel-Hamas war.

The Lebanese militant group said it launched a drone attack targeting Israeli military bases north of Acre in northern Israel.

Acre lies some 20 kilometres from the Lebanon-Israel border.

The IDF said it had no information on its facilities being hit but said in a post on X that it intercepted two "suspicious aerial targets" off Israel's northern coast.

Israel earlier claimed to have killed two "key" Hezbollah militants in air attacks on southern Lebanon in the past day (see 11.13 post).

There appears to have been a development after a major blast at Iraq's Kalsu military base on Saturday.

Iraq's Popular Mobilisation Forces claimed the explosion - which killed a member of the Iraqi security force that includes Iran-backed groups - was the result of an attack.

The US denied involvement and the Iraqi military launched an investigation.

Iraq's state media is now reporting that the blast was the result of an explosion in ammunition and rocket storage.

It added that no warplanes or drones had been spotted in the sky above the Babil province, where the Kalsu site is based, at the time of the explosion.

We've more now on those reports that Hamas is planning to move its main political office from Qatar after more than a decade there.

Qatar has said there is no justification to end the presence of an office for Hamas in the capital of Doha while ceasefire talks continue.

Earlier, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the Turkish president, said he did not believe the militant group would make the move (see post at 10.53).

Qatari foreign ministry spokesperson Majed Al-Ansari said his country was still committed to mediating hostage release and ceasefire discussions but that "frustration with attacks" on its efforts had prompted it to reassess its role.

A resident in northern Gaza has described her fear as Israel bombarded the area overnight in what appeared to be some of the heaviest shelling in weeks.

Civilians and Hamas media reported that Israeli tanks attempted a new incursion east of Beit Hanoun city in the northeast, with gunfire reaching some schools where residents had found shelter.

There was heavy shelling there and in nearby Jabalia overnight and into this morning. Residents also reported at least 10 strikes in quick succession in Zeitoun, nearly three miles southwest of Jabalia.

"It was one of those nights of horror that we had lived in at the start of the war. The bombing from tanks and planes didn't stop," said mother-of-six Um Mohammad, who lives just under a kilometre from Zeitoun.

"I had to gather with my children and my sisters who came to
shelter with me in one place and pray for our lives as the house
kept shaking," she said.

"I don't know if we will make it alive before this war stops."

Nearly four months ago, Israel's military withdrew troops from areas of northern Gaza it said were no longer controlled by Hamas - but has since carried out raids in places where it claims the militant group has regrouped.

Israel says it has attacked and killed two "key" fighters of the Hezbollah militant group in southern Lebanon.

The country's air force said it carried out an attack this morning which killed Hussein Ali Azqul.

Azqul was "heavily involved" in Hezbollah's air defence operations, the air force said, and "took part in the planning and execution of a variety of terrorist activities".

Israeli forces also killed Muhammad Khalil Atiya in an overnight attack in the Arzon area of Tyre in southern Lebanon.

Describing him too as a "key" member of Hezbollah's Radwan unit, the air force said Atiya was "involved in the preparation and execution of terrorist plans".

Recep Tayyip Erdogan says he doesn't believe Hamas will move out of Qatar after reports that senior leaders were eyeing up a move from the militant group's headquarters in Doha.

The Wall Street Journal reported the apparent proposal, noting that it could complicate the ceasefire and hostage release talks which Qatar is involved in mediating.

But speaking to Turkish media, Mr Erdogan said he doesn't believe Hamas will leave the Gulf state, and added that he hadn't seen any sign that Doha would push for the move either.

On the war between Israel and Hamas, the president said total Israeli seizure of Gaza could "open the door to other occupations".

According to the comments cited by Haberturk, Mr Erdogan said Israeli settlement in Gaza will make it "more aggressive and reckless".

The UN's human rights chief says he is "horrified" at the destruction of Gaza's Al Shifa and Nasser hospitals and reports that mass graves have been discovered there.

The Palestinian Civil Defence said yesterday that it had uncovered 283 bodies from a temporary burial ground at the Nasser facility in Khan Younis.

Rights chief Volter Turk also criticised the Israeli strikes in Gaza in recent days which he said had killed mainly women and children.