AN ISRAELIstrike on a mosque in the Gaza Strip early on Sunday killed at least 19 people, Palestinian officials said, as Israel intensified its bombardment of northern Gaza and southern Beirut in a widening war with Iran-allied militant groups across the region. Displaced people were sheltering at the mosque that was struck near the main hospital in the central town of Deir alBalah. A further four people were killed in a strike on a school sheltering displaced people near the town. The Israeli military said both strikes targeted militants, without providing evidence. An ‘Associated Press’ journalist counted the bodies at the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital morgue. Hospital records showed that the dead from the strike on the mosque were all men. Israel is still battling Hamas in Gaza a year after the group’s attack on Israel, and has opened a new front in Lebanon against Hezbollah, which has been trading fire with Israel along the border since the war in Gaza began. Israel has also vowed to strike Iran itself after Tehran launched a ballistic missile attack on Israel last week.

 

The widening conflict risks drawing in the United States, which has provided crucial military and diplomatic support to Israel, as well as US-allied Arab countries that host American forces. Iran-allied militant groups in Syria, Iraq and Yemen have already joined in with long-distance strikes on Israel. Israeli forces return to Jabaliya and issue new evacuation orders The Israeli military, meanwhile, announced a new air and ground offensive in Jabaliya, in northern Gaza, home to a densely populated refugee camp dating back to the 1948 war surrounding Israel’s creation. It circulated photos and video footage showing a column of tanks heading toward the area. Israeli forces encircled Jabaliya as warplanes struck militant sites inside, the military said. Over the course of the war, Israel has carried out several large operations there, only to see militants regroup. Israel reiterated its call, from the opening weeks of the war, for the complete evacuation of northern Gaza. Up to 300,000 people are estimated to have remained in the heavily destroyed north after earlier Israeli warnings that sent around a million fleeing to the south.

 

“We are in a new phase of the war,” the military said in leaflets dropped over the area. “These areas are considered dangerous combat zones.” French President Emmanuel Macron on Sunday reiterated his call for a partial arms embargo on Israel — a demand that prompted an angry response from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. In a written statement, Macron’s office said he favours a halt to arms exports for use in Gaza because a ceasefire is needed “to stop the mounting violence, free the hostages, protect civilians and clear the way to the political solutions needed for the security of Israel and the whole Middle East.” Macron’s earlier similar remarks led Netanyahu to release a video statement in which he called out the French President by name and referred to such calls as a “disgrace.” Macron’s office insisted that “France is Israel’s unfailing friend” and called Netanyahu’s remarks “excessive.