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US secretary of state Antony Blinken arrived in Israel on Thursday as Washington stepped up efforts to prevent the country’s war with Hamas from spiralling into a regional conflict.
Blinken’s visit comes after Israel formed a new unity government on Wednesday and tightened its siege of the Gaza Strip, with hundreds of thousands of troops called up ahead of an expected ground offensive into the enclave.
Richard Hecht, a spokesperson for Israel’s military, said on Thursday morning Israeli forces were still repelling sporadic attempts by Hamas militants to enter Israel from the sea, and were preparing for the next stage of the war. However he said “no decision” had been taken on how it would be fought.
Israeli jets have been bombarding targets in Gaza since Saturday, when the country was left reeling after Hamas militants launched the worst-ever attack on its territory. The assault killed at least 1,200 civilians and soldiers, and wounded more than 3,000 while militants took dozens more hostage, according to Israeli officials.
Palestinian officials said on Thursday that 1,203 people had been killed by the Israeli strikes in Gaza and that 5,763 had been wounded.
Israeli forces have also engaged in light skirmishes on the country’s northern border with militants from Hizbollah, the Iran-backed group in Lebanon, after they fired mortars at Israel. Tensions are rising in the occupied West Bank, where 28 Palestinians have been killed in the past five days, according to health officials.
Blinken said before his departure from the US that Washington was warning other countries in the region not to “take advantage” of the situation in Israel.
On Thursday Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman discussed the conflict by phone with Iran’s president Ebrahim Raisi in the first conversation between leaders in years.
Prince Mohammed, who was previously engaged in US-mediated efforts to normalise relations with Israel, said he was concerned by the humanitarian situation in Gaza and was pushing to de-escalate the crisis. He added that Saudi Arabia opposed the targeting of civilians, according to the Saudi state news agency.
In a show of solidarity with Israel — and a warning to Iran — the US has dispatched an aircraft carrier group to the eastern Mediterranean. President Joe Biden said on Wednesday that he was also sending additional fighter jets to the region.
Hecht said Israel had deployed an additional division on its northern border with Lebanon, although people were “very jumpy”, the situation in the north was “contained”.
Blinken is also due to visit the West Bank, where he will meet Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas, a senior Palestinian official said on Thursday.
Blinken’s trip follows a deal between Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu and opposition party leader Benny Gantz to form a unity government for the duration of the war.
Netanyahu pledged in a statement after the deal was reached that Israel had “gone over to the offensive”.
“Every Hamas member is a dead man,” Netanyahu said.
Israel has cut off supplies of water, electricity, fuel and goods to Gaza, which Israel and Egypt have subjected to a crippling blockade since Hamas took control in 2007.
Health ministry spokesperson Ashraf al-Qudra said health services there had reached a “critical stage” after Gaza’s only power plant ceased working on Wednesday, with medicine supplies set to run out “imminently”.
“The health situation has become unbearable,” he said. “Urgent action must be taken to provide safe passage for medical supplies and for the wounded and sick to be transferred before it is too late.”
The UN said 340,000 Palestinians had been displaced within the 40km strip, with many rushing to UN-run schools and refugee camps to seek shelter from the Israeli bombardment. The UN’s Palestinian relief agency said on Wednesday that 11 UN staffers had been killed in air strikes.
John Kirby, US National Security Council spokesperson, said on Wednesday that the US was in discussions with Israel and Egypt to create a humanitarian “safe passage” corridor for civilians in Gaza caught up in the conflict.
