GAZA: Israel launched an assault overnight on Gaza’s main northern city weeks after pulling back from there, residents said, while Washington promised to respond to the first deadly strike on its forces in West Asia since the Gaza war began.
Three US servicemen were killed and at least 34 wounded in a drone attack by Iran-backed militants in northeastern Jordan near the Syrian border, US Central Command said on Sunday, an escalation in the violence that has erupted beyond Gaza.
US President Joe Biden said the attacks were carried out by radical Iran-backed militant groups operating in Syria and Iraq. Iran denied any role, but the first fatalities in what have been scores of attacks on US forces in West Asia since the Israel-Hamas war broke out prompted calls from US politicians for a direct response.
Biden has ordered retaliatory attacks on Iranian-backed groups but has stopped short of attacking Iran directly for fear of igniting a broader war amid violence that has already hampered world trade through attacks on ships in the Red Sea.
“Have no doubt, we will hold all those responsible to account at a time and in a manner of our choosing,” he said on Sunday.
Yemen’s Iran-aligned Houthis, behind regular attacks on shipping in the region, said on Monday they had fired a rocket at US warship Lewis B Puller in the Gulf of Aden on Sunday.
There was no immediate response from Washington.
Inside Gaza, residents said air strikes on neighbourhoods across Gaza city killed and wounded many people. While tanks shelled the eastern areas of the city, naval boats fired shells and gun rounds at the beachfront areas in the west, they said.
Israel said late last year, it had largely completed operations in northern Gaza. The push back into Gaza city, where residents reported fierce gun battles near Al-Shifa hospital, indicated that the war was not going to plan. Among those killed were two Palestinian journalists, Essam El-lulu and Hussein Attalah, along with several members of their families, health officials and the journalist union said.