Israel Braces for Attack by Iran as US Urges Gaza Cease-Fire

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(Bloomberg) — Israel braced for a possible attack by Iran and regional militias in response to the assassinations of Hezbollah and Hamas officials as the U.S. sent defensive reinforcements as it presses for a cease-fire in Gaza.

“Israel is waging a multi-front war against the Iranian axis of evil,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said at the start of Sunday’s cabinet meeting. “We are striking at every one of its arms with great force. We are prepared for any scenario – offensive or defensive.”

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The United States, which is moving a squadron of fighter jets to the region and keeping an aircraft carrier nearby to assist Israel, is also pressing Netanyahu to step up negotiations for a ceasefire in Gaza to prevent an escalation of the nearly 10-month-old war.

US Deputy National Security Adviser John Finer called on both sides to “return to the negotiating table.”

Netanyahu said the problem was that Hamas kept changing its demands. Others say Israel has done the same, making it harder to reach an agreement.

Leaders of both Iran and Hezbollah swore that last week’s killings in Beirut and Tehran would not go unanswered, that red lines had been crossed and that attacks were coming.

Israeli officials said any attacks expected in the immediate future would likely be simultaneous and could come from Hezbollah in Lebanon, the Houthis in Yemen and Iran itself. In April, after Israel killed two Iranian generals in Syria, Iran fired more than 300 rockets at Israel for the first time, which were shot down by Israel and a coalition of U.S.-led forces with regional assistance.

The Italian Foreign Ministry said in a statement that the foreign ministers of the Group of Seven nations expressed their concern about the risk of a wider regional crisis during a video call on Sunday. State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said that U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken discussed “the urgent need for de-escalation in the Middle East” with his counterparts.

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In Israel, GPS systems were telling stunned Tel Aviv residents they were in Beirut — part of a concerted effort to make any attack more difficult to succeed. The cabinet had acquired satellite phones to enable communications in case phone lines were disrupted by bombing or cyberattacks, two officials said.

With several foreign airlines — Delta, United and Lufthansa — suspending flights to and from Israel for fear of being caught in the crossfire, tens of thousands of Israelis are stranded abroad. El Al, the national carrier, is trying to add more flights to bring Israelis home. There has also been talk of providing boats to ferry Israelis home.

The United States, the United Kingdom, Canada and other countries are urging their citizens to leave Beirut, and France has asked its citizens to leave Iran.

In Israel, a Palestinian from the West Bank stabbed to death two elderly Israelis in a park and a bus station in the city of Holon near Tel Aviv on Sunday morning before being shot dead by police, adding to rising tensions.

Israeli forces attacked two schools in Gaza City that they said housed Hamas command and control centers. Palestinian officials said the schools were housing displaced people and that at least 30 people were killed, The Washington Post reported.

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“diplomatic work”

An Israeli delegation headed by Egypt’s intelligence chief visited on Saturday in a bid to advance long-stalled peace talks over Gaza, but returned with no immediate sign of a breakthrough.

The proposed arrangement, backed by the United States, would help limit the scope of retaliation by Hamas, Hezbollah and Iran after the killing of senior militants last week. In Israel, too, there was hope that diplomacy could delay the expected attack.

“We still believe the gaps are narrow enough to close,” White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby told Fox News Sunday.

Finer said President Joe Biden conveyed the message to Netanyahu that “this deal has to be done” when the Israeli leader visited Washington in July.

“In that context, when there’s so much going on in the region, and the level of risk and the level of threat is so high, there are always these external events that can make these negotiations themselves more difficult,” Finer told CBS.

“But you know, that’s what diplomacy does,” he said. “It’s not about frustration.”

—With assistance from Alicia Diaz and Jennifer Jacobs.

(Updates with G7 foreign ministers’ call in paragraph 8, Israeli military strike in Gaza in paragraph 13.)

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