Israel pounds Gaza as Iraq urges end to 'cycle of violence' after US troop deaths
JERUSALEM
Deadly fighting and air strikes rocked besieged Gaza on Monday, as Iraqi authorities condemned the drone attack that killed three U.S. military personnel in Jordan, calling for an "end to the cycle of violence" in the Middle East.
Statement came a day after an attack that killed three U.S. troops in Jordan heightened fears of a wider regional conflict.
"The Iraqi government condemns the ongoing escalation," government spokesman Bassem al-Awadi said, adding that it was willing "to collaborate on establishing fundamental rules to prevent further repercussions in the region and curb the escalation of conflict".
Israeli bombing of the Gaza Strip killed 140 people overnight, including 20 members of one family, said the health ministry in the Hamas-run Palestinian territory..
Ground forces backed by tanks have focused combat operations on the coastal strip's main southern city of Khan Yunis, the hometown of Hamas's Gaza leader Yahya Sinwar.
The almost four-month-old war was sparked by the Hamas attack which resulted in about 1,140 deaths, mostly civilians, in southern Israel, according to an AFP tally of official figures.
Israel's relentless military offensive has since killed at least 26,422 people in Gaza, most of them women and children, according to the territory's health ministry.
In the latest efforts to broker a new ceasefire, CIA chief William Burns met top Israeli, Egyptian and Qatari officials in Paris on Sunday, but no breakthrough was reported.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office said the talks were "constructive" but pointed to "significant gaps which the parties will continue to discuss this week".
U.S. President Joe Biden sent Burns to try to negotiate the release of remaining hostages in exchange for a ceasefire, a security source has confirmed to AFP.
The New York Times reported Saturday that the negotiators were discussing a deal under which Israel would suspend the war for about two months in return for the release of over 100 hostages.
Jordan attack kills 3 U.S. troops
Since the outbreak of the Gaza war, Israel and its top ally the United States have faced attacks from, and struck back at, multiple Iran-backed armed groups with violence flaring in Lebanon, Iraq, Syria and Yemen.
Lebanon's Hezbollah and Israel have traded near daily cross-border fire, and Yemen's Huthi rebels have launched attacks on Red Sea shipping, sparking U.S. and British strikes on their bases.
U.S. forces in Iraq and Syria have also been targeted more than 150 times, the Pentagon says. Most attacks were claimed by the Islamic Resistance in Iraq, a loose alliance of Iran-linked groups.
On Sunday, a drone attack on a remote base in Jordan, near the borders with Iraq and Syria, killed three U.S. troops and wounded 25 others, the U.S. military said.
Biden blamed "radical Iran-backed militant groups operating in Syria and Iraq" and pledged to hold "all those responsible to account at a time and in a manner of our choosing".
Iran's foreign ministry spokesman Nasser Kanani labelled the accusations "baseless" and said Tehran "does not welcome the expansion of conflict in the region".
Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri called the Jordan attack "a message to the American administration" and warned that "the American-Zionist aggression on Gaza risks a regional explosion".
Bitter row over U.N. aid agency
The Gaza war has forced more than one million Palestinians to flee to the far-southern Rafah area near the Egyptian border, according to the U.N., deepening the humanitarian crisis.
Hunger and disease have spread in crowded tent cities where families shelter in makeshift tents against the cold winter rain and mud while fearing more air strikes.
Alarm over their plight has heightened amid a bitter row over the main U.N. aid agency for Palestinians, UNRWA, after Israel charged several of its staff partook in the Oct. 7 attack.
Japan became the latest major donor to freeze funding for the agency that has provided most food, medical and other aid to the 2.4 million people of long-blockaded Gaza.
U.N. chief Antonio Guterres has pleaded for continued financial support, saying "the dire needs of the desperate populations they serve must be met".
Francesca Albanese, the U.N. special rapporteur for the occupied Palestinian territories, warned that suspending funding "overtly defies" an International Court of Justice order to allow more aid into Gaza.
Many Israelis, enraged by the Oct. 7 attack, back the war effort by Netanyahu's government.
Hundreds of protesters have rallied at the Kerem Shalom border crossing in recent days and repeatedly blocked aid trucks from entering Gaza.
And thousands demonstrated Sunday to call for the re-establishment of Jewish settlements in the Gaza Strip, in a rally joined by several far-right ministers.
Netanyahu in official statements has rejected resettlement in Gaza, but the rally showed that the once-fringe position has gained momentum within his hard-right government.