Western allies seek rapid end to Gaza war as Israel presses on

The United States and its allies in the Group of Seven are seeking a quick way out of the military phase of the Gaza conflict, Italy said on Monday, as US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and his EU and German counterparts toured the region.

Blinken was holding talks on Gaza in the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia on Monday before heading on to Israel, aiming to kick start concerted peace efforts that he says are needed to avoid a wider conflagration.

He began a five-day Middle East diplomatic effort in Jordan and Qatar on Sunday, his fourth visit to the region since deadly Oct. 7 attacks on Israel by Hamas fighters in Gaza sparked a massive Israeli assault that shows no signs of ending.

Other Iranian-backed militant groups have weighed in, attacking Israeli forces on the border with Lebanon, US troops in Iraq and Syria and commercial ships in the Red Sea. Israel has also cracked down on Palestinians in the occupied West Bank.

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Germany's foreign minister Annalena Baerbock was in Israel on Monday and the European Union's top diplomat Josep Borrell was in Lebanon in a sign of international concern.

"G7 countries are working with the Israeli government to find a rapid way out of the military phase," the Italian Foreign Ministry quoted minister Antonio Tajani as saying as Italy began its one-year presidency of the Group of Seven.

An Israeli strike on south Lebanon on Monday killed a senior commander in Hezbollah's elite Radwan force, three security sources told Reuters, the latest in daily clashes across Israel's northern border.

Baerbock told Israel it had a duty to protect Palestinians in the West Bank after Blinken sounded the wider alarm in Doha on Sunday.

Displaced Palestinians, who fled their houses due to Israeli strikes, seek shelter near the border with Egypt, in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip, January 7, 2024. PHOTO: REUTERS

"This is a conflict that could easily metastasize," Blinken said before heading to Abu Dhabi.

Israel outlined a more focused approach to its war in Gaza ahead of the visit but Palestinian health officials say it is still killing scores of people every day, reporting 249 dead in the past 24 hours.

Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant said his country was both determined to end Hamas rule of the enclave and deter other potential Iran-backed adversaries like Hezbollah.

"We are fighting an axis, not a single enemy," Gallant told the Wall Street Journal. "Iran is building up military power around Israel in order to use it."

'They may kill us here'

Palestinians said Israel had bombarded areas in the east of the southern city of Khan Younis and central Gaza Strip all night amid clashes in those areas. One strike alone in Deir Al-Balah had killed 18 people and wounded dozens, they said.

Israel said it had bombed an arms cache and uncovered a tunnel shaft in the central part of the strip and killed at least 10 Palestinian fighters in Khan Younis.

On Monday morning, the Israeli army dropped leaflets on al Moghani in central Gaza Strip warning residents to evacuate several districts it said were "dangerous combat zones".

Nearly all of Gaza’s 2.3 million people have fled their homes in the war at least once and many are now moving again, often sheltering in makeshift tents or huddled under tarpaulins.

For Aziza Abbas, 57, one of a handful of Gazans now camped close to the southern border with Egypt, there was nowhere else to go after what she said was bombardment around a school in which she had taken shelter after leaving her home in the north.

"They may kill us here, it doesn't matter to them," she told Reuters, saying she did not want to leave Gaza for Egypt, which has closed the border fearing an exodus. In nearby Rafah, medics said an Israeli air strike on a car had killed three people.

The UN's Palestinian refugee agency UNRWA reported 63 direct hits on its installations and said only five of 22 health centres were working in central and southern Gaza.

Israel, whose offensive has also caused acute shortages of food, water, and medicines, accuses Hamas fighters of deliberately operating among civilians, allegations they deny.

Read: Western diplomats seek to prevent Gaza spillover after three months of war

Blinken said he would tell Israeli officials they must do more to prevent civilian casualties in Gaza and allow Palestinian civilians to return home. An Israeli government spokesman said Israel hoped Blinken would be able to stop Hezbollah attacks that had displaced 80,000 Israelis.

The Israeli offensive has so far killed 23,084 Palestinians in Gaza, Palestinian health officials said on Monday.

Netanyahu said the war would not stop until Hamas returned more than 100 hostages still held of 240 people seized during its Oct. 7 attack on Israeli towns that killed 1,200 people.

Qatar's prime minister vowed on Sunday to continue trying to mediate the release of the hostages but said its work had been complicated by the killing of a Hamas leader by an Israeli drone strike in Beirut last week.