Nod from US as Israel tanks go into Gaza
Israel has launched its largest targeted raid yet into Gaza as it builds up for a massive ground offensive with Benjamin Netanyahu vowing to ‘exact the full price’ from the ‘Hamas murderers’.
Israel has used tanks and troops to launch its largest targeted raid yet into Gaza as it builds up for a massive ground offensive.
It came as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed to pursue a land invasion of Gaza to “exact the full price” from the “Hamas murderers” and Joe Biden backed Israel’s “responsibility” to respond while Iranian terror groups lined up against US forces in the region.
Israel found itself fighting on four fronts for the first time in the war, exchanging fire with Gaza, Lebanon, West Bank and Syria in one day amid escalating fears of a region-wide conflict.
Leaders from Iranian-backed terror groups Hezbollah, Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad met to plot what Hezbollah said would be “a real victory for the resistance” amid growing attacks on Israel and American forces in the Middle East.
Mr Netanyahu brushed aside such threats, saying Israel was in “a fight for our existence” and confirmed “we are preparing for a ground incursion” into Gaza, although he did not say when.
In Gaza, the Israeli Defence Forces said it had conducted a targeted raid using tanks in the northern Gaza Strip, as “part of preparations for the next stages of combat”.
Mr Netanyahu was backed strongly by the US President, who, speaking alongside Anthony Albanese in Washington, said Israel had “the right – and I would add responsibility – to respond to the slaughter of their people”.
“We will ensure Israel has what it needs to defend itself against these terrorists; that’s a guarantee,” he said, adding that “Israel has to do everything in its power, as difficult as it is, to protect innocent civilians”.
He also criticised “extremist settlers” in the West Bank who were “pouring gasoline on fire” by attacking Palestinians in the West Bank, where at least 103 Palestinians have died since October 7.
Mr Biden said when the conflict was over, the international community needed to make a concentrated effort to achieve a two-state solution.
Meanwhile, Israel found itself beset on four fronts, striking new targets in Gaza while also launching airstrikes against Palestinians in the West Bank, Hezbollah militants in southern Lebanon and military targets in Syria.
US troops in Iraq, Syria and the Red Sea have also come under growing attack from Iran-backed militia in the region, fuelling concerns that a broader conflict could soon spread beyond Gaza.
The Wall Street Journal offered further evidence of Iran’s involvement in the October 7 terror attack on Israel, revealing that hundreds of the Palestinian Islamist militant group’s fighters received specialised combat training in Iran shortly before the attack.
“The US does not seek conflict with Iran,” Secretary of State Antony Blinken told the UN. “We do not want this war to widen. But if Iran or its proxies attack US personnel anywhere, make no mistake: we will defend our people, we will defend our security – swiftly and decisively.”
In Canberra, Foreign Minister Penny Wong pushed back against Greens’ demands that she condemn Israel’s siege of Gaza as a war crime, while intensifying her call for the Jewish State to protect civilian lives as it defended itself against Hamas.
Senator Wong told a Senate estimates hearing that “the way Israel exercises its right to defend itself matters”, saying the hopes of peace in the region “will recede even further” if Palestinian civilians suffer for “the outrages perpetrated by Hamas”.
Greens senator Jordon Steele-John called on Senator Wong to brand Israel’s actions as a “textbook example of collective punishment”.
“Why won’t your government condemn this crime against humanity?” he said.
Senator Wong replied: “They’re your words. I’ll use my words, and I have responded.”
Seventy-nine Australian citizens, permanent residents and family members of Australians remain in Gaza amid intense diplomatic efforts to allow their passage into Egypt.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has sparked fury in Israel by defending Hamas while accusing Israel of deliberately targeting civilians in Gaza.
“Hamas is not a terror organisation,” he said. “It is an organisation of liberation, of mujahedeen who fight to protect their land and citizens.”
“Erdogan supports terror, period,” Israel’s culture minister, Miki Zohar responded. “It’s time we recalibrate the course of our relations with Turkey.”
Israel continues to bomb Hamas targets in Gaza, saying it had struck more than 7000 targets in the besieged territory since the Hamas attacks on Israel on October 7 that killed more than 1400 Israelis.
The Hamas-controlled Gazan Health Ministry said 6546 people had been killed in Gaza in the bombings, but Mr Biden said he did not believe the figure.
“I have no notion that the Palestinians are telling the truth about how many people were killed,” he said.“I have no confidence in the number the Palestinians are using.”
Only eight aid trucks entered Gaza in the past 24 hours, far fewer than the 100 trucks a day aid workers say are necessary to address the humanitarian crisis in Gaza, which has gone without supplies of food, water, fuel and medicine for more than two weeks.
Additional reporting: Ben Packham
