WILMINGTON, Delaware/Ramallah: Despite US President Joe Biden's threat to avenge the killing of a Hamas leader in Tehran, Iran has expressed hope that Israel's war against Palestinian militants in Gaza could escalate into a wider conflict in the Middle East.
Regional tensions rose after the killing of Ismail Haniyeh, the top leader of Hamas, on Wednesday, a day after an Israeli strike in Beirut killed Fuad Shukr, a senior military commander of the Iranian-backed Lebanese group Hezbollah.
Iran and Hamas have blamed Israel for Hanieh's killing and vowed to retaliate with Hezbollah. Israel has neither claimed nor denied responsibility.
Asked by reporters if Iran would stand up, Biden said in response to a shouted question on Saturday, “I hope so. I don't know.”
Seeking to bolster defenses in the Middle East in response to threats from Israel's enemies, the Pentagon said Friday it would deploy more fighter jets and naval warships to the region.
Hanih's death was one of a series of assassinations of senior Hamas figures as the Gaza war approaches its 11th month, and has fueled concerns that the conflict in Gaza is turning into a wider Middle East war.
Hamas said it had launched a “comprehensive consultation process” to choose a new leader three days after Haniyeh, the group's face of international diplomacy, was killed.
The US and international partners, including France, Britain, Italy and Egypt, maintained diplomatic contacts on Saturday, seeking to prevent further regional tensions.
The US urged its citizens wishing to leave Lebanon to begin making plans immediately, and the British government advised its citizens to “leave now”. Canada warns citizens not to travel to Israel, saying regional armed conflict threatens security.
Violence in Gaza and the West Bank
Violence continued in the Palestinian territories on Saturday.
At least 15 Palestinians were killed in an Israeli airstrike on a school sheltering displaced people in Gaza City, hours after two strikes in the occupied West Bank killed nine militants, including a local Hamas commander, Hamas said.
The Israeli military said the first of two West Bank airstrikes hit a vehicle in a town near the town of Tulkarm, targeting a militant cell on its way to attack.
A Hamas statement said one of the dead was the commander of the Tulkarm Brigades, while its ally Islamic Jihad claimed the other four killed in the attack were its fighters.
Hours later, a second airstrike in the area targeted another group of militants who fired at the army, Israel's military said, in what it described as an anti-terrorist operation in Tulkarma.
The Palestinian news agency WAFA said four people were killed in the attack, and that all nine fighters killed in two Israeli attacks by Hamas in the West Bank.
At least 39,550 Palestinians have been killed in the Israeli military operation in Gaza, according to Gazan health officials. The offensive was triggered by a Hamas-led offensive in southern Israel on October 7 that killed 1,200 people and kidnapped 250, according to Israeli estimates.
A high-level Israeli delegation made a brief visit to Cairo on Saturday in an attempt to restart Gaza ceasefire talks, an Egyptian airport authority source said. Israeli officials returned to Israel hours later, Israeli media said.
Success seems less likely after recent events in Lebanon and Iran.
Israel has not said whether it was involved in Haniyeh's murder. But Netanyahu said earlier this week that Israel had cracked down on Iran's proxies, including Hamas and Hezbollah, in recent days.
