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The US and Saudi Arabia have stepped up diplomatic efforts in the Middle East as fears mount that the Israel-Hamas war will spiral into a regional conflict.
US secretary of state Antony Blinken arrived in Israel on Thursday, hours after the leaders of Saudi Arabia and Iran spoke for the first time in years in what Riyadh said was a bid to prevent the war from spreading across the Middle East.
Blinken issued a warning before departing to other regional powers not to “take advantage” of the situation in Israel.
Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman also discussed the hostilities by phone with Iran’s president Ebrahim Raisi on Wednesday, the first such contact between the Middle East’s Sunni and Shia heavyweights for years.
An Israeli ground offensive into the Gaza Strip is widely expected, with hundreds of thousands of troops called up and sent close to the border.
“The main point is this: we stand with Israel,” Blinken said, as he underlined that 22 Americans had died in Hamas’s weekend attack on Israel and that “a number” of others were likely to be held hostage in Gaza.
But the US and some of Israel’s neighbouring states are alarmed the war may spread elsewhere.
Blinken emphasised that the US had sent “the world’s largest aircraft carrier group to the region to make very clear our intent to deter anyone contemplating any further aggression against Israel”.
Prince Mohammed, whose call with Raisi contrasted with his recent efforts to normalise relations with Israel, also said he was seeking to de-escalate the crisis, according to the Saudi state news agency.
The main fear is a second front with Hizbollah, the Iranian-backed Lebanese militant movement, on Israel’s northern border. There has already been artillery exchange across the frontier, although both sides appear so far to be attempting to contain the hostilities.
A broader conflict could also draw in Iranian-backed militant groups in Syria and Iraq and suck in regional powers.
Richard Hecht, a spokesperson for Israel’s military, said on Thursday morning that the country had deployed an additional division on its northern border with Lebanon. He added that, although people were “very jumpy”, the situation in the north was “contained”.
Hecht said that Israeli forces were still repelling sporadic attempts by Hamas militants to enter Israel from the sea, and were preparing for the next stage of the war. However he said “no decision” had been taken on how it would be fought.
Israeli jets have been bombarding targets in Gaza since Saturday, when the country was left reeling after Hamas militants launched the worst-ever attack on its territory. The assault killed at least 1,200 civilians and soldiers, and wounded more than 3,000 while militants took dozens more hostage, according to Israeli officials.
Palestinian officials said on Thursday that 1,203 people had been killed by the Israeli strikes in Gaza and that 5,763 had been wounded.
Tensions are also rising in the occupied West Bank, where authorities say 28 Palestinians have been killed in the past five days, and which Blinken is due to visit on Thursday, according to a senior Palestinian official.
Blinken’s trip follows a deal between Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu and opposition party leader Benny Gantz to form a unity government for the duration of the war.
Netanyahu said after the deal was reached that Israel had “gone over to the offensive”. He added: “Every Hamas member is a dead man.”
Israel has cut off supplies of water, electricity, fuel and goods to Gaza, which Israel and Egypt have subjected to a crippling blockade since Hamas took control in 2007.
Health ministry spokesperson Ashraf al-Qudra said health services in Gaza had reached a “critical stage” after the enclave’s only power plant ceased working on Wednesday, with medicine supplies set to run out “imminently”.
“The health situation has become unbearable,” he said. “Urgent action must be taken to provide safe passage for medical supplies and for the wounded and sick to be transferred before it is too late.”
The UN said 340,000 Palestinians had been displaced within the 40km strip, with many rushing to UN-run schools and refugee camps to seek shelter from the Israeli bombardment. The UN’s Palestinian relief agency said on Wednesday that 12 UN staffers had been killed in air strikes.
John Kirby, US National Security Council spokesperson, said on Wednesday that the US was in discussions with Israel and Egypt to create a humanitarian “safe passage” corridor for civilians in Gaza caught up in the conflict.
