US urges Israel to end war as IDF attacks Gaza and Lebanon

US secretary of state Antony Blinken urged Israel on Wednesday to focus on ending the war in the Middle East and bringing its hostages home from Gaza as the Israel Defense Forces continued their attacks in the Palestinian enclave and in southern Lebanon.

Blinken told reporters at Israel’s Ben Gurion airport that Israel had “achieved most of its strategic objectives” in Gaza, where according to Palestinian health officials more than 42,000 people have been killed in a year of bombing and street fighting.

Especially after the killing of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar last week in a firefight with Israeli troops in southern Gaza, Blinken said that a genuine opening existed to end the war, which was triggered by the Palestinian militant group’s October 7 2023 attack on the country.

“Now is the time to turn those successes into an enduring strategic success,” Blinken said.

“The focus needs to be on getting the hostages home, ending this war and having a clear plan for what follows,” he added, shortly after sirens sounded in Tel Aviv and other parts of Israel warning of incoming missile fire from Hizbollah in Lebanon. The Israeli military said two projectiles were intercepted by the country’s air defences.

The remarks came after Blinken’s meetings on Tuesday with senior Israeli officials, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and before he flew to Saudi Arabia.

Blinken is set to visit other regional capitals this week in an effort to de-escalate the spiralling conflict across the Middle East, with Israeli forces now fighting Hamas in Gaza, Hizbollah in Lebanon, and set to soon retaliate “severely” against Iran for a massive missile barrage launched this month.

In Gaza, Israel pressed on with its latest offensive in the north of the shattered territory. Thousands have fled Jabalia and Beit Lahia in recent days after IDF air strikes and ground raids killed scores of people, with international aid groups warning of a crumbling health system and lack of access to humanitarian aid.

The World Health Organization on Wednesday said it was halting a planned polio vaccination campaign in north Gaza because of the fighting, which Israel said was aimed at disrupting Hamas efforts to regroup in the area.

Blinken on Wednesday said that it was “absolutely essential that humanitarian assistance get to the people who need it in Gaza”, and that he had presented Israeli officials a “list of things that need to happen” to improve the dire conditions inside the territory.

On Iran, Blinken added that while the US would always “stand with Israel in its defence”, it was also “very important that Israel respond in ways that do not create greater escalation and do not risk spreading the conflict”.

Separately, the Israeli military said it had confirmed that it killed Hashem Safieddine, heir apparent to assassinated Hizbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, in a massive air strike in Lebanon three weeks ago.  

In a statement, the IDF said that Safieddine, who was expected to succeed Nasrallah, was “eliminated” in a strike on the Lebanese militant group’s “main intelligence headquarters” located in an underground bunker in the Dahiya area of south Beirut.

The IDF added that another Hizbollah commander, Ali Hussein Hazima, and over 20 other militants were killed in the strike. Hizbollah has yet to confirm that Safieddine or Hazima were killed.

In the days following that air strike, there were signs of life under the rubble, two people with knowledge of the situation said. But they said rescue workers were unable to retrieve anybody alive or dead for fear of further Israeli attacks — despite daily requests from the Lebanese government passed by UN mediators to Israel.

Among other interventions, western diplomats have been attempting to de-escalate the conflict between Israel and Hizbollah, with US envoy Amos Hochstein travelling to Beirut earlier this week. The Iran-backed militant movement began firing into Israel after Hamas’s attack from Gaza, forcing the evacuation of more than 60,000 Israeli residents from their homes in the north of the country.

A year of cross-border fire between the two old foes escalated sharply last month, with Israel launching waves of air strikes across Lebanon. Israel then launched a ground invasion into southern Lebanon earlier this month, claiming it wanted to “push” Hizbollah back from their shared border and secure the return of its northern residents to their homes.

After meeting Blinken on Monday, Netanyahu said that he wanted any diplomatic arrangement that ended the war to “lead to a security and political change” in Lebanon, the Israeli prime minister’s office said in a statement.

Israel’s offensive has killed more than 2,500 people in Lebanon and forced more than 1.2mn from their homes, mostly in the past month, according to Lebanese authorities. About 80 Israeli civilians and soldiers have been killed by Hizbollah fire into Israel and during Israel’s land incursion into southern Lebanon.

Israeli air strikes hit the historic port city of Tyre in south Lebanon on Wednesday, after the Israeli military warned that it planned attacks across a large residential area of the densely populated town, considered one of the world’s oldest cities.

A popular tourist destination, Tyre is home to Shia Muslims as well as Christians, although its politics is dominated by Shia parties Hizbollah and the Amal Movement.