GAZA: Israel hit targets in south Gaza and across its border with Lebanon, the army said Monday ahead of a visit by the top US diplomat who is seeking to avert a wider war.
Gaza's health ministry said 73 dead and 99 wounded had arrived at Al-Aqsa hospital in central Gaza's Deir al-Balah city over the previous 24 hours.
Three months into its battle in Gaza, Israel's army says its focus has moved from the northern Gaza Strip to "dismantling" Palestinian groups in the centre and south of the territory.
In the southern city of Khan Yunis, troops and warplanes overnight Sunday-Monday struck 30 targets which a military statement described as "significant". These included underground targets and weapons storage facilities, it said.
Also overnight, the military said it had hit "numerous targets" in Lebanon.
Israel and Lebanon's movement groups have engaged in regular cross-border fire during the war that began an October 7.
But a strike last week in a Beirut stronghold has been a major factor contributing to rising fears of spreading conflict. A US Defense Department official has said that Israel carried out the strike that killed Hamas's deputy leader Saleh al-Aruri.
Israel relentless bombardment and a ground invasion have resulted in killing at least 22,835 people, most of them women and children, according to the Gaza health ministry.
On his fourth regional trip since the war began, Blinken is due in Saudi Arabia after talks earlier Monday in UAE capital Abu Dhabi.
Blinken's visit comes alongside that of other top Western diplomats trying to stop the conflict from spreading and to boost desperately needed aid to Gazans.
In Qatar on Sunday, Blinken warned that the violence could "easily metastasize" into a regional conflict.
Over the weekend Qatari officials also hosted relatives of captives still held in Gaza, said Ruby Chen, father of 19-year-old captive Itay Chen. The release of more captives "serves the bigger objective, as they see it, which is creating regional stability", Chen said on returning to Tel Aviv.
Qatar earlier helped mediate a one-week truce that saw dozens of captives freed in exchange for Palestinian prisoners. Talks on a new truce are "ongoing", the emirate's prime minister said.
Washington, Israel's main ally that provides it with billions of dollars in military aid, has grown increasingly concerned over the war's civilian death toll.
Most of Gaza's population has been displaced, according to the United Nations, leaving them in overcrowded shelters or tents in the winter chill. — AFP
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