Israel says tank fire ‘accidentally’ hit Egyptian post; Netanyahu warns Hezbollah to stay out of war

On Sunday, the Israeli military reported that one of their tanks had inadvertently fired and struck an Egyptian post near the Gaza border. The Egyptian military confirmed the incident, stating that it resulted in minor injuries, but did not provide further details. The Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) expressed regret over the incident and assured that an investigation was underway. The Egyptian army also confirmed that Israel had immediately expressed regret over the unintentional incident and that an investigation was in progress. Egyptian media outlets reported that the Israeli strike would not hinder the delivery of aid to Gaza. They cited witnesses who confirmed that an aid convoy carrying much-needed fuel had entered Gaza on Sunday. Amid escalating tensions, Iran warned that the region could spiral out of control. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu issued a stern warning to Lebanon's Hezbollah, stating that their intervention would be a grave mistake. He cautioned that if Hezbollah decided to enter the war, they would regret it, referencing Israel's war with Lebanon in 2006. He assured that Israel would retaliate with a severity that Hezbollah and Lebanon could not imagine. However, he admitted that he was uncertain whether Hezbollah had decided to fully engage in the war. Addressing the soldiers, Netanyahu acknowledged their loss of friends, emphasizing that they were in a fight for their homeland. He stressed that it was a matter of life or death. Attacks from Lebanon have intensified since the onset of the war. On Sunday, Hezbollah engaged in further combat with Israel's army in the border region. There is growing concern that Hezbollah, backed by Iran and considered more powerful than Hamas, could escalate its attacks on Israel. Western leaders have cautioned Hezbollah against intervening in the conflict, but the group's deputy leader has indicated readiness to increase involvement. Iran's Foreign Minister, Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, warned on Sunday that if the US and Israel did not immediately halt the crimes against humanity and genocide in Gaza, the region could spiral out of control. US Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin announced on Saturday that he had increased US military readiness in the Middle East. The Pentagon explained that this move was aimed at defending US ally Israel amid what it termed as escalations by Iran and its proxies across the region. It also announced that it was alerting additional troops to prepare for deployment orders, without specifying the number or potential deployment date. The State Department ordered non-emergency staff and eligible family members to evacuate the US embassy in Baghdad, Iraq, and the consulate in Erbil in the Kurdistan region on Sunday, citing increased security threats against US personnel and interests. On Sunday, a 17-truck aid delivery made its way through Gaza's Rafah border crossing with Egypt. This was the second such operation in two days, following the arrival of 20 lorries on Saturday after negotiations and US pressure. An Agence France-Presse journalist witnessed six trucks entering from stores at the crossing. A Palestinian official at the crossing confirmed that the trucks were carrying fuel. Israel expressed concern that Hamas could use the fuel brought into Gaza to manufacture weapons and explosives. The United Nations (UN) estimates that about 100 trucks per day are needed to meet the needs of 2. 4 million Gazans given the catastrophic humanitarian situation. The head of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNWRA) warned that fuel supplies would be depleted in three days. Without fuel, there will be no humanitarian assistance, Philippe Lazzarini stated. Israel intensified its attacks overnight, killing dozens of terrorists in and around Gaza City, including the deputy commander of the Hamas rocket network, military spokesman Daniel Hagari reported on Sunday. Hamas claimed that overnight raids on the Gaza Strip resulted in at least 80 deaths and the destruction of more than 30 homes. In central Gaza's Deir al-Balah, an Agence France-Presse journalist saw the bodies of children on the bloodied floor of a morgue. A man held his deceased toddler as people mourned the loss of their relatives. The scale of the bombing has rendered basic systems non-functional, with the UN reporting that dozens of unidentified bodies were buried in a mass grave in Gaza City due to the exhaustion of cold storage. Israel has advised more than one million residents in northern Gaza to relocate south for their safety, and the UN reports that more than half of the territory's population is now internally displaced. It is believed that hundreds of thousands of civilians remain in and around Gaza City in the North, either unwilling or unable to leave. Israel has evacuated dozens of northern communities, and nearly 4,000 people in Lebanon have fled border areas for the southern city of Tyre. A ground invasion poses numerous challenges for Israeli troops, who are likely to encounter Hamas booby traps and tunnels. Israel must also consider the safety of the 212 hostages it claims were abducted by the militants. After a Cairo peace summit involving regional and Western leaders concluded without a joint statement, Pope Francis implored for the bloodshed to end during his weekly Angelus prayer in Rome on Sunday. War is always a defeat, it is a destruction of human fraternity. Brothers, stop! he urged. In Israel's Kibbutz Be'eri, where Hamas militants killed 10 per cent of the population, funerals were being held on Sunday. The conflict has ignited fresh violence in the West Bank, where Israeli raids and settler attacks have resulted in the deaths of dozens of Palestinians, according to the UN. Israel's military reported on Sunday that it had killed terror operatives in an air strike on a mosque in the West Bank city of Jenin. The Palestinian health ministry confirmed that two men were killed in the strike.