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Gaza to a ceasefire in Israel's bombardment of the Palestinian enclave, launched after a deadly rampage into southern Israel nearly three weeks ago. Israel says it is preparing a ground invasion, but has been urged by the U.S. and Arab countries to delay an operation that would multiply the number of civilian casualties in the densely populated coastal strip and might ignite a wider conflict. Two U.S.

Middle East which could disrupt oil supplies, after reports that the U.S military had struck Iranian targets in Syria. Brent crude futures for December rose 93 cents or roughly 1.1%, to $88.86 a barrel by 1254 GMT.

By Naomi Rovnick and Stella Qiu

By Natalie Grover

UN warned Friday that «many more will die» in Gaza from catastrophic shortages after nearly three weeks of bombardment by Israel in response to Hamas staging the deadliest attack in its history. As the conflict raged into its 21st day, the Israeli army said its soldiers backed by fighter jets and drones mounted a land incursion into the Gaza Strip, as it prepares for a ground offensive. Concern is growing about regional fallout from the conflict, with the United States warning Iran against escalation while striking facilities in Syria it says were used by Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and others. Israel has heavily bombarded Gaza since Hamas gunmen stormed across the border on October 7, killing 1,400 people, mostly civilians, kidnapping more than 220 others, according to Israeli officials. The health ministry in the Hamas-run Gaza Strip says the strikes have killed more than 7,000 people, mainly civilians and many of them children, leading to growing calls for protection of innocents caught up in the conflict. «People in Gaza are dying, they are not only dying from bombs and strikes, soon many more will die from the consequences of (the) siege imposed on the Gaza Strip,» Philippe Lazzarini, head of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA), told reporters in Jerusalem. Israel has cut supplies of food, water and power to Gaza, notably blocking all deliveries of fuel saying it would be exploited by Hamas to manufacture weapons and explosives. «Basic services are crumbling, medicine is running out, food and water are running out, the streets of Gaza have started overflowing with sewage,» he said of the devastated territory where around 45 percent of all housing has been damaged or destroyed,

Joe Biden administration's determination to maintain a delicate balance. In an effort to prevent further aggression, which might be sparked by Israel's fight against Hamas, the United States wants to take maximum action against Iranian-backed organisations that it believes are aiming at the country. At the same time, it wants to avoid escalating the situation and starting a larger conflict, AP added.

Joe Biden has sent a rare message to Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei warning Tehran against targeting U.S. personnel in the Middle East, the White House said on Thursday after a spate of attacks on American forces in the region. «There was a direct message relayed,» White House spokesman John Kirby said at a news briefing, declining to elaborate. Iran's mission to the United Nations did not immediately respond to a request for comment. U.S. officials want to avoid a wider conflict in the Middle East following the Oct. 7 attack by the militant Hamas group on Israel that killed at least 1,400 people, mostly civilians. About 900 additional U.S. troops are headed to the region or have recently arrived there to bolster air defenses to protect U.S. personnel amid a surge in attacks in the region by Iran-affiliated groups, the Pentagon said.

Investing.com — Crude prices rose for the first time in four days, with global benchmark Brent recapturing key $90 per barrel pricing, as traders braced for the possibility of contagion from the Israel-Hamas war that could disrupt oil traffic in the Middle East — despite little evidence of such impact.

Israeli jets hit sites across Gaza, according to a report published by the news agency PTI. The Israeli military announced that it had targeted military facilities within Syria in retaliation for prior missile launches directed at Israel. Gaza's 2.3 million people have been running out of food, water, and medicine since Israel sealed off the territory following the devastating Oct 7 attack by Hamas on towns in southern Israel.

Emmanuel Macron proposed on Tuesday that an international coalition fighting against Islamic State in Iraq and Syria be widened to include the fight against the Palestinian militant group Hamas in Gaza. Macron gave no detail on how the U.S.-led coalition of dozens of countries, of which Israel is not a member, could be involved. Speaking alongside Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Jerusalem, Macron stressed that France and Israel shared terrorism as their «common enemy». «France is ready for the international coalition against Daesh in which we are taking part for operations in Iraq and Syria to also fight against Hamas,» he told reporters, referring to Islamic State. Macron, who warned against the risks of a regional conflict, also said the fight against Hamas «must be without mercy but not without rules». Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu did not directly comment on Macron's proposal but said the fight was a battle between the «axis of evil» and «the free world». «This battle is not merely our own… it's everybody's battle,» he said. The U.S-led coalition fighting Islamic State was formed in September 2014. What began as a major military operation that helped «deliver the military defeat of Daesh in Iraq and Syria», is now focusing on advising and assisting local partners, including with reconnaissance and intelligence, to ensure the group cannot reclaim lost ground, the coalition says on its website. It operates primarily in Iraq. Thirty French citizens were killed by Hamas militants in their attack on southern Israel on Oct.

Israel’s war with Hamas may become a wider Middle East conflagration are flashing ominously. America has sent a second carrier strike group led by the USS Eisenhower to the Persian Gulf. “There’s a likelihood of escalation," said Antony Blinken, the American secretary of state, on October 22nd.

UN General Assembly will meet Thursday to discuss the conflict triggered by the attack by Hamas militants on Israel, the body's president announced in a letter to member states. The Security Council has so far failed to agree on a resolution concerning the war, but a number of states — including Jordan on behalf of an Arab group of nations, Russia, Syria, Bangladesh, Vietnam and Cambodia — formally requested General Assembly President Dennis Francis to schedule the meeting. Last week, the UN Security Council, regularly divided on the Israeli-Palestinian issue, rejected a Russian draft resolution calling for a «humanitarian pause.» Only five of the 15 member states had supported the text, which condemned all violence against civilians and all terrorist acts, but did not name Hamas, an unacceptable omission to the United States, the United Kingdom and France. Washington then vetoed a second resolution put forward by Brazil as the text did not mention Israel's right to defend itself. Twelve out of 15 Council members voted in favor of that resolution, which also condemned the «heinous terrorist attacks by Hamas,» while Russia and the United Kingdom abstained. The United States was the only vote against, but as one of the body's five permanent members its vote counts as a veto. The Security Council will meet to discuss the issue Tuesday ahead of the General Assembly's gathering Thursday at 10:00 am (1400 GMT).

Track the latest updates on Israel-Hamas war Syria, under Bashar al-Assad's rule since 2000, has held differing views on Hezbollah. While the Syrian leadership adheres to the Alewite sect, Hezbollah adheres to hardline Shia school of thought, and envisages a theocratic state on the lines of post-1979 Iran. The Assad-Hezbollah relations, however, turned strong in the aftermath of the Syrian civil war in 2011, as the militant group sided with Iran and Russia to back the embattled Syrian president.

Gaza early Monday, including in areas where Palestinian civilians have been told to seek refuge, after another small aid shipment was allowed into the besieged Hamas-ruled territory. Israel is widely expected to launch a ground offensive in Gaza following Hamas' brutal October 7 rampage into southern Israeli communities. Tanks and troops have been massed at the Gaza border, and Israel says it has stepped up airstrikes in order to reduce the risk to troops in the next stages.

firepower. Israeli warplanes are striking targets across Gaza ahead of an expected ground offensive in the besieged Hamas-ruled territory. Fears of a widening war have grown as Israel struck targets in the occupied West Bank, Syria and Lebanon and traded fire with Lebanon's Hezbollah militant group.

fires. Civilians have been evacuated and soldiers in helmets guard the junctions. Every hour or so, Hizbullah missiles explode inside the border, and Israel launches a counter-barrage aimed at the Iran-backed militia.

Antony Blinken and Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin said Sunday that the United States expects the Israel-Hamas war to escalate through involvement by proxies of Iran, and they asserted that the Biden administration is prepared to respond if American personnel or armed forces become the target of any such hostilities. «This is not what we want, not what we're looking for.

Hezbollah risks dragging Lebanon into a wider regional war after another night of intense cross-border fire with the Iran-backed militant group. As Israel’s military battles Gaza-based Hamas, following the group’s deadly attacks on southern Israel on Oct. 7, it has also been facing the threat to the north posed by Hezbollah, which last fought a war with its neighbour in 2006. Israel reported that anti-tank missiles were fired again from Lebanon Sunday and that it had intercepted a drone.

By Kanishka Singh

war mushrooming into a wider Middle East conflict rose on Sunday with the U.S. sending more military assets to the region as Israel pummelled Gaza anew and deadly clashes along its border with Lebanon intensified. Gaza's Health Ministry said 266 Palestinians, including 117 children, had been killed by Israeli air strikes in the past 24 hours in the enclave, to which Israel laid «total siege» after a deadly mass infiltration into Israel by Hamas gunmen on Oct. 7. In neighbouring Syria — where Hamas's main regional backer Iran has a military presence — Israeli missiles hit Damascus and Aleppo international airports early on Sunday, putting both out of service and killing two workers, Syrian state media said. Along Israel's northern border with Lebanon, the Iran-backed Hezbollah group has clashed with Israeli forces in support of Hamas in the deadliest escalation of frontier violence since an Israel-Hezbollah war in 2006. Hezbollah said four fighters were killed in heavy exchanges of fire on Sunday and another died of wounds sustained earlier, raising to 24 the number of its members killed since Oct. 7.

Gaza overnight and into Sunday, as well as two airports in Syria and a mosque in the occupied West Bank allegedly used by militants, as the two-week-old war with Hamas threatened to spiral into a broader conflict. Israel has traded fire with Lebanon's Hezbollah militant group on a near-daily basis since the war began, and tensions are soaring in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, where Israeli forces have battled militants in refugee camps and carried out two airstrikes in recent days.