US to hit back after death of three soldiers as Israeli forces renew Gaza push

Key PointsThe three soldiers were the first US casualties since the start of the conflict.US President Joe Biden has ordered retaliatory strikes against Iran-backed groups, who he says are responsible for the attack.A new framework for truce and hostage release will be sent to Hamas, Qatar said.

The United States is planning its response after three servicemen were killed in the first deadly strike on its forces since war broke out in the Middle East.

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, 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.

‘Not looking for a war with Iran’

The White House said it does not want a war with Iran but must respond to an “escalatory” drone strike in Jordan that killed three troops.

“We are not looking for a war with Iran,” US National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said, adding however that the attack “was escalatory, make no mistake about it, and it requires a response”.

Biden ordered retaliatory attacks on Iranian-backed groups but stopped short of hitting Iran directly for fear of igniting a broader war amid violence that has already hampered global 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.

Hamas to be sent new hostage deal framework

A framework for a halt in fighting in Gaza and the

is to be relayed to Hamas, Qatar’s prime minister said Monday following meetings with US, Israeli and Egyptian officials.

Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani said “good progress” had been made during the talks in Paris.

The parties were “hoping to relay this proposal to Hamas and to get them to a place where they engage positively and constructively in the process”, he said.

Sheikh Mohammed added that Hamas had made “a clear demand” for a “permanent ceasefire ahead of the negotiations”.

The current proposal, the prime minister said, “might lead to a ceasefire permanently in the future”.

Israel renews push into Gaza City

Israel has launched an assault on Gaza’s main northern city weeks after pulling back from there, residents say.

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.

Israeli soldiers stand in a Hamas tunnel underneath a cemetery during the ground offensive on the Gaza Strip in Khan Younis. Source: AP / Sam McNeil

Israel said late last year that it had largely completed operations in northern Gaza. The push back into Gaza City, where residents reported fierce gun battles near the main 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.

Funding crisis for refugee agency

Gazans said the renewed violence made a mockery of a ruling by the World Court calling on Israel to do more to help civilians. Health officials say 26,637 Palestinians have been killed in the conflict with thousands more bodies likely under the rubble of destroyed buildings across the coastal territory.

People in the north have been grinding animal feed to make flour after flour, rice and sugar ran out, part of an aid crisis now exacerbated by

.

The United States and another major donor, Germany, are among countries to have suspended aid to the agency since Friday after Israel said 12 of UNRWA’s 13,000 staff in Gaza were involved in the 7 October Hamas attacks on Israel which killed about 1200 people.

The Israeli report, seen by Reuters, said 190 UNRWA staff were also militants, naming 11.

UNRWA, which says more than 150 of its staff have been killed since October, said it would have to end operations within a month if funding was not restored.

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