FIGHTING IN GAZA CONTINUES
Jordan and Egypt warned on Wednesday against any Israeli re-occupation of the Gaza Strip and appealed for uprooted residents to be allowed to return home.
In Gaza, Israeli strikes intensified despite Israel's pledge to pull out some troops and shift to a more targeted campaign.
Israel's chief military spokesperson Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari told a briefing the military was focussing its operations on Khan Younis and the refugee camps in the center of the Strip.
In the latest sign of the three-month-old war spreading, U.S. and British warships in the Red Sea fended off the biggest attack yet from Yemen's Houthi movement, which says it is acting to support Gaza.
Washington and London said they shot down 21 drones and missiles aimed at shipping lanes. No one was hurt.
The U.N. Security Council approved a resolution demanding that the Houthis immediately cease the shipping attacks.
The World Health Organization canceled a planned medical aid mission to Gaza due to security concerns, the sixth such cancellation in two weeks.
The Palestinian Red Crescent said four of its staffers were killed by an Israeli strike near Deir al-Balah, in the central Gaza Strip, while Palestinian health officials said four children were killed in an Israeli air strike on a house in Rafah.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, on his fourth trip to the region during the war, met Palestinian leaders in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, including Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas.
The State Department said Blinken expressed support for a Palestinian state and discussed efforts to protect and aid civilians in Gaza. The Palestinian Authority said Abbas told Blinken no Palestinians should be displaced from Gaza or the West Bank.
Senior White House adviser Amos Hochstein is expected to visit Beirut on Thursday, a U.S. official said, as part of U.S. efforts to ease tension along the Israel-Lebanon border.
REUTERS
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