Israel ramped up airstrikes Tuesday against Hamas targets in Gaza and warned that any Hezbollah fighters approaching the northern border with Lebanon “will be killed,” while fears mounted in Washington over danger President Biden may face on his high-stakes trip to the region.
Mr. Biden is slated to visit Israel Wednesday, a day after an explosion at a hospital in Gaza reportedly killed more than 500 people. Hamas blamed the blast on an Israeli airstrike, while Israeli military officials said the explosion was caused by a misfired rocket from the militants.
The development came as Hamas lobbed more rockets at Israel on Tuesday, while Israeli forces continued a near-relentless bombardment of targets across Gaza, even as U.S. officials scrambled behind the scenes to allow humanitarian aid into the densely packed territory.
Gaza is home to more than 2 million Palestinians. International aid groups say roughly half have been displaced in the days since Israel launched its fierce counterattack against Hamas in response to the terrorist group’s brutal assault Oct. 7 that killed more than 1,400 Israelis and at least 27 Americans.
Israel has vowed to eradicate Hamas and has systematically targeted the group’s leadership with air strikes, while Palestinian civilians struggle to find safety within the warzone. One Israeli strike on Tuesday killed Ayman Nofal, a top Hamas commander and the third high-profile militant leader killed in the past several days.
The hospital explosion, meanwhile, sparked immediate political fallout.
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, whose offices are located in the West Bank, not Gaza, reportedly canceled plans for a meeting with Mr. Biden on Wednesday in protest of Israel’s alleged involvement in the hospital blast.
Israel is separately amassing ground troops and weaponry along its border with Gaza ahead of a highly-anticipated ground incursion into the territory.
The United Nations and other groups warn such an incursion is likely to deepen the already tragic humanitarian situation in the impoverished Palestinian enclave.
Food, water and medicine are all in short supply in Gaza, local officials and international observers say, though Israel insists Hamas is to blame for basing its terrorist operations in civilian areas of the territory.
Biden in Israel
Following a visit with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Wednesday, White House officials say Mr. Biden will travel to Jordan, one of a handful of influential Arab nations that have diplomatic relations with Israel.
The trip comes just days after Secretary of State Antony Blinken engaged in shuttle diplomacy across the region, meeting leaders in Jordan, Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and Egypt.
Administration officials say Mr. Biden’s trip is part of a widening U.S. effort to rally international support behind Israel and blunt the growing narrative promoted by Iran and others in the region that Israel’s military campaign in Gaza is inhumane and perhaps even constitutes war crimes.
Officials in Gaza say 2,778 people have been killed and another 9,700 wounded by the Israeli attacks so far. More than two-thirds of the dead are children, Gaza officials have said. The death toll already exceeds that of the 2014 Gaza War, which lasted more than six weeks.
Mr. Blinken, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and other top American officials have traveled to Israel in recent days, appearing publicly there despite the mounting death toll and obvious risks.
Gen. Erik Kurilla, the head of U.S. Central Command, arrived in Tel Aviv on Tuesday for meetings with Israeli military leaders.
Some U.S. lawmakers warn that a sitting American president traveling to such a dangerous region at such a delicate moment is an entirely different matter and presents serious security concerns.
“I wish the president wasn’t going over there. I think it’s a gutsy, bold move, but I really wish he wasn’t going over there,” Rep. Tim Burchett, Tennessee Republican, told NewsNation late Monday.
Mr. Burchett added that his own father “fought the Japanese in the Pacific, and he used to say, ‘Buddy, when somebody’s willing to lose their life to take you out, there’s not a whole lot you can do sometimes.’”
Mr. Biden traveled to Ukraine last February, another visit to an active war-zone that required extensive planning and security precautions far beyond those routinely taken for presidential travel.
Such precautions are expected to play out this week as well, given Hamas’ near-constant rocket barrages into Israel and the growing threat from the terrorist group Hezbollah along Israel’s northern border with Lebanon.
Warnings to Hezbollah
The U.S. is surging military assets to the region ahead of Mr. Biden’s visit and is even considering deploying additional ground troops.
The Pentagon has ordered two aircraft carrier groups to the eastern Mediterranean Sea off Israel’s coast. And Mr. Austin on Tuesday issued “prepare to deploy” orders for about 2,000 personnel for possible support of Israel, Pentagon officials said.
The Defense Department said select military units are in a heightened state of readiness, which improves the Pentagon’s ability to quickly respond to the security situation in the Middle East.
“No decisions have been made to deploy any forces at this time,” the Pentagon said in a statement. “The secretary will continue to assess our force posture and remain in close contact with allies and partners.”
The growing U.S. military footprint is meant to be a deterrent against Hezbollah and its benefactor, Iran, should either decide to try and support Hamas by launching a major attack on Israel.
There were growing signs Tuesday that an already simmering conflict between Israel and Hezbollah near Israel’s northern border with Lebanon could soon erupt into a full-blown war.
Clashes along the border left at least five Hezbollah militants dead, the group said. Ten of its members have been killed in recent fighting with the Israeli military, the group said.
Hezbollah also launched fresh strikes against Israeli targets Tuesday.
An anti-tank missile fired from Lebanon landed in the town of Metula in northern Israel and wounded three Israelis, according to The Associated Press. A separate missile barrage out of Lebanon targeted the Yiftah kibbutz in northern Israel. No Israelis were injured in that attack.
Military analysts have warned that a full Hezbollah entrance in the war would be a nightmare scenario for Israel. The group has significantly more fighters and better equipment than Hamas.
Still, Israel has said it will crush Hezbollah if necessary.
“Whoever approaches the border with Lebanon will be killed,” Israeli military spokesman Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari said.
Mr. Netanyahu offered a similar warning.
“Don’t test us in the north. Don’t make the mistake of the past. Today, the price you will pay will be far heavier,” he told Israeli lawmakers, referencing the fierce war the two sides fought in 2006 that ended in a stalemate.
Other officials around the Middle East have said they are working to prevent the Israel-Hamas war from spreading.
Turkey’s foreign minister, Hakkan Fidan, met with Lebanese officials in Beirut on Tuesday and cautioned that the current conflict “might lead to greater wars.”
“We are doing all we can so that the war does not spread to other countries,” he said.
• Guy Taylor, Mike Glenn and Mallory Wilson contributed to this article, which is based in part on wire-service reports.
• Ben Wolfgang can be reached at bwolfgang@washingtontimes.com.