US, Europe make new diplomatic push to halt spillover of Gaza war

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Europe's top diplomat, Josep Borrell, were due in the Middle East on Friday to try to halt the spillover of the conflict in Gaza to the Israeli-occupied West Bank, Lebanon and Red Sea shipping lanes.

The visits take place almost three months since the assault on southern Israel by Hamas from the Palestinian enclave sparked an Israeli offensive that has killed more than 22,000 Palestinians and left much of Gaza in ruins.

Palestinians said there had been no let-up in Israeli air strikes and shelling, with planes and tanks intensifying attacks overnight on the densely populated areas of Al-Maghazi, Al-Bureij and Al-Nusseirat in the centre of the coastal strip.

Four people were killed in an air strike on a street in Al-Nusseirat. Further south, where hundreds of thousands of Gazans have moved on Israeli advice, six Palestinians were killed in a strike on Khan Younis, local health officials said.

Artillery shelling had renewed near the Al-Amal hospital in Khan Younis, the Palestinian Red Crescent said, and aid agency MSF said its operations were shrinking towards the border with Egypt.

"We are being pushed into a corner in the south of Gaza, in Rafah, with fewer and fewer options to provide the healthcare that people so desperately need," Jacob Burns, project coordinator in Gaza, wrote on social media.

Israel's military said it had struck more than 100 targets throughout Gaza in the past 24 hours, destroying gunmen who had tried to attack a tank in Al-Bureij and others in Khan Younis.

The war in Hamas-run Gaza has stoked violence in the West Bank, which is governed by its rivals Fatah and is another territory where Palestinian hopes for statehood have been crushed since the last round of U.S.-mediated talks on a solution broke down in 2014.

The Palestinian health ministry said a 17-year-old was killed and four other Palestinians wounded by Israeli army gunfire in the West Bank town of Beit Rima. A military spokesperson said troops shot at Palestinians who threw petrol bombs at them.

The UN rights office has said Israeli forces are increasingly using military tactics in the West Bank and that 300 Palestinians have been killed, including 79 children, with eight or nine of the people killed by Israeli settlers. Two Israelis, one civilian and one military, have also been killed.

Source: Reuters