Blinken discusses Israel-Hamas war on Middle East trip; Hezbollah launches rockets at Israel: Live updates

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken met with international leaders in Istanbul on Saturday in one of his first stops on a Middle East trip to discuss the humanitarian crisis in Gaza and efforts to ease growing tensions that are threatening to broaden the Israel-Hamas war.

The meetings with Turkey's president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, and foreign minister, Hakan Fidan, included discussions on what Turkey and other countries can do to influence Iran and its proxies to ease tensions. Meanwhile, the Iran-backed Hezbollah launched dozens of rockets into Israel on Saturday in retaliation

They also talked about how to speed up humanitarian aid to Gaza, which has been under siege for months while humanitarian groups warn of civilian deaths, hunger and illness ravaging the territory. Israel’s air, ground and sea assault on Gaza has killed more than 22,400 people, two-thirds of them women and children, according to the territory's health ministry.

It is Blinken's fourth trip to the Middle East since Hamas' Oct. 7 attacks that killed about 1,200 people, mostly Israeli civilians, in which another 240 people were taken captive and held hostage in the Gaza Strip.

During his trip, Blinken is also scheduled to travel to Israel, the West Bank, Egypt, Qatar, Jordan, the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and Egypt, according to a statement from Matthew Miller, a spokesperson for the U.S. Department of State. Blinken also met with Greece’s prime minister, Kyriakos Mitsotakis on Saturday.

Blinken will underscore the "importance of protecting civilian lives" in Gaza and the West Bank, ensuring Palestinians are "not forcibly displaced from Gaza," and the secure release of hostages, who remain in captivity, Miller said.

The top U.S. diplomat will also "discuss urgent mechanisms to stem violence, calm rhetoric, and reduce regional tensions," including deterring the attacks of Houthi rebels on vessels in the Red Sea and avoiding escalation in Lebanon.

Developments:

∎ The Israeli military said it struck more than 100 targets throughout Gaza on Friday, killing an unspecified number "of operatives" and destroying multiple "operational command centers and military sites."

∎ The Palestinian Red Crescent, an independent humanitarian aid group, said on X that its headquarters in the southern Gaza city of Khan Younis was hit by an Israeli airstrike. The group also said Israeli forces aimed gunfire at one of its ambulances in Central Gaza. The crew inside the vehicle reportedly survived.

∎ At least six people were killed in an apparent Israeli airstrike on a home in Rafah overnight, according to the Associated Press. Rafah, in the southern portion of Gaza, is where over a million Palestinians have crowded after they fled their homes. About 85% of Gaza's 2.3 million people have been displaced by the war.

∎ France announced a joint operation with Jordan to airdrop 7.7 tons of medical aid to a Gaza field hospital. “The humanitarian situation remains critical in Gaza,” French President Emmanuel Macron said Friday on X. “In a difficult context, France and Jordan delivered aid to the population and to those who are helping them.”

∎ Former Vice President Mike Pence said on Friday he visited Israel’s Northern Command and met with soldiers near the Lebanon border. “Ever since October 7th, these courageous Israelis, several of whom are also American citizens, left families and home to stand strong for Israel. God Bless Them All,” Pence said.

Hezbollah launches rockets after suspected Israeli strike

Hezbollah, the Iran-backed militant group in Lebanon, launched dozens of rockets into northern Israel on Saturday and said it was an initial response after the targeted killing of a top Hamas leader presumably carried out by Israel.

The attacks come a day after Hezbollah's leader, Hassan Nasrallah, said in a televised speech that the group must respond to the killing of the Hamas official or face exposure to further operations by Israel's military.

He said Hezbollah "cannot be silent about a violation of this seriousness," referring to the airstrike in Beirut that killed Saleh al-Arouri on Tuesday. While Nasrallah, Lebanon state media and others blamed Israel for the attack, no party has yet claimed responsibility.

Arouri, who had a $5 million U.S. information bounty on his head, was believed by Israeli and U.S. national security officials to be involved in the funding and training of Hamas militants who carried out the Oct. 7 terrorist attack on Israel.

In a statement credited to Hezbollah earlier this week, the group vowed not to let Arouri’s death go unpunished, characterizing it as a “dangerous development in the course of the war between the enemy and the axis of resistance.”

Nasrallah said about 670 operations have been carried out by Hezbollah along the border between Israel and Lebanon since the start of the Israel-Hamas war. He said the group's operations have "destroyed a large number of Israeli vehicles and tanks" and killed "a large number of Israeli troops." He did not provide any specific number. The Israeli military has said at least nine of its soldiers have died in the skirmishes along the country's northern border.

UN: 'Death and despair' in Gaza

The United Nations' relief chief on Friday called for the international community to use its influence to end the war, and described "death and despair" unfolding in Gaza since Oct. 7.

"Gaza has simply become uninhabitable. Its people are witnessing daily threats to their very existence – while the world watches on," Martin Griffiths, undersecretary-general for humanitarian affairs and emergency relief coordinator, said in a statement.

Griffiths said people in Gaza are experiencing the highest levels of food insecurity ever recorded; families are sleeping out in the open while temperatures drop; areas previously declared safe are under bombardment; and a health crisis is underway.

Tens of thousands of people, mostly women and children, have been killed or injured, he said.

"We have seen how violence cannot resolve differences, but only inflame passions and build new generations of danger and insecurity," Griffiths said.

Watchdog group warns of unauthorized Israeli settlements during war

A record number of unauthorized outposts by Israeli settlers have cropped up in areas of the occupied West Bank since the beginning of the Israel-Hamas war, according to a new report by Israeli watchdog group Peace Now.

Nine outposts and 18 roads have been created by settlers since Oct. 7, a record for any three-month span since settlements began in the 1990s, Peace Now said in its report. The report also said settlers have constructed roadblocks, restricting the movement of Palestinians.

According to the report, the settlements are in parts of the West Bank under full Israeli control, according to 1990s accords. Israel says the territory is disputed and that the fate of settlements should be negotiated. The international community considers settlements illegal, because the Fourth Geneva Convention bars an occupying power from transferring parts of its civilian population into occupied territory.

More than half-a-million Israelis live in settlements in the West Bank and in east Jerusalem, areas Palestinians seek for a future state.

The new outposts include tents or simple structures, but many similar outposts have been developed into more permanent settlements over the years.

"They persist in constructing outposts on private Palestinian lands, defining open areas, and restricting Palestinian movement in the West Bank," Peace Now said.

According to the U.N., 2023 was the deadliest year for Palestinians in the West Bank with 507 people killed since the agency began recording casualties nearly two decades ago. It was also a record year for the number of Israelis killed in the West Bank and Israel from attacks by Palestinians with 36 fatalities recorded.

Since Oct. 7, 314 Palestinians – including 80 children – have been killed in the West Bank, according to the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. Israeli forces have injured 3,949 others, including 593 children, OCHA added.

2nd Biden administration official quits over war

A Department of Education policy adviser appointed by the Biden administration quit this week over the White House’s handling of the Israel-Hamas war.

Tariq Habash became at least the second official, and the first known official of Palestinian origin, to resign from the administration in protest of President Joe Biden’s actions regarding the war. State Department veteran Josh Paul resigned in October as the U.S. accelerated arms transfers to Israel.

Habash confirmed on X that he resigned on Wednesday.

“I cannot represent an administration that systematically dehumanizes Palestinians and enables their ethnic cleansing. The President must call for a permanent ceasefire,” he said.

Habash had been among staffers of Middle East, Muslim and Jewish backgrounds who were taking part in meetings with senior White House officials and others in the administration regarding concerns over the U.S. role in the war. Habash described the sessions as briefings from higher-ups rather than opportunities for staffers to be heard.

The former Biden administration appointee worked in the education department to help overhaul the student loan system and address inequities in higher education.

UNICEF: Gaza's 1.1 million children face malnutrition, diseases

Cases of malnutrition and indications of deteriorating health conditions have surged among Gaza's 1.1 million children as well as other vulnerable populations, including pregnant women, UNICEF said in a statement on Friday.

About 90% of children under 2 are consuming two or fewer food groups, according to a UNICEF survey conducted on Dec. 26. Most families who participated in the survey said their children were only eating grains or milk, meeting the definition of “severe food poverty," UNICEF said.

Among pregnant and breastfeeding mothers, of which there are over 155,000 in Gaza, 25% said they ate only one food type the day before, while almost 65% said two.

The U.N. agency also said cases of diarrhea in children under 5 rose from 48,000 to 71,000 in one week in mid-December – "a strong indication that child health in the Gaza Strip is fast deteriorating."

“Children in Gaza are caught in a nightmare that worsens with every passing day,” Catherine Russell, UNICEF’s executive director, said in a statement. “The futures of thousands more children in Gaza hang in the balance. The world cannot stand by and watch. The violence and the suffering of children must stop."

With Gaza's overwhelmed and understocked hospitals focusing on the large number of wounded patients, they are "unable to adequately treat disease outbreaks," according to UNICEF.

Additionally, the lack of clean water makes it nearly impossible for Palestinians to maintain the necessary hygiene levels needed to prevent disease. The World Health Organization said this week over 180,000 people in Gaza are suffering from upper respiratory infections; more than 5,000 chickenpox cases have been reported; and lice and scabies are affecting 55,000 people.

Israeli hostage, 38, dies in captivity

Tamir Adar, a 38-year-old Israeli who was taken hostage on Oct. 7, has died in captivity, according to the Hostages and Missing Persons Families Forum. A cause of death was not provided.

Adar lived in Kibbutz Nir Oz community, where 40 people were abducted during Hamas' deadly attack in Israeli border communities, which left 1,200 people, mostly civilians, dead. Of the 250 people taken hostage, the Israeli military says about 113 are still being held captive in Gaza following a weeklong cease-fire in November.

Adar's grandmother, 85-year-old Yaffa Adar, was taken hostage in the incursion. She was among more than 100 hostages released during the temporary cease-fire.

Israeli official lays out vision for next phase of war

Israel's Defense Minister Yoav Gallant in a statement on Thursday presented his vision for the next phase of the war in Gaza and how the territory would be run after Israel achieves its stated goal of defeating Hamas.

Gallant said operations in northern Gaza, where entire neighborhoods have been destroyed, would slow to a less intensive, more targeted "combat approach" in which military forces would focus on raids, destroying tunnel networks, “air and ground activities and special operations." Israel has in recent days begun to withdraw troops from northern Gaza, signaling a potential scale-down in operations.

Meanwhile, combat in southern Gaza, where most of Gaza's displaced population has sought refuge, will go on "for as long as necessary," Gallant said.

Gallant added that, after the war, Israel would hold onto military control in the region while Palestinian local civil servants or communal leaders would run the territory, with Israel providing “information to guide civilian operations." The U.S. would be in charge of a task force that would lead a rebuilding effort.

The vision is a stark contrast from proposals from U.S. officials, including Biden, who had previously said he'd like the Palestinian Authority to take control of the region.

Contributing: The Associated Press; Jorge L. Ortiz, John Bacon, Josh Meyer; USA TODAY

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Israel-Hamas war live updates: Hezbollah launches rockets at Israel