Hezbollah says wider Mideast war possible if Gaza assault continues

BEIRUT/GAZA/TEL AVIV - The leader of Lebanon's Iran-backed Hezbollah group warned the United States on Friday that if Israel did not stop its assault on Gaza then the conflict could widen into a regional war.

Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, in his first speech since the Israel-Hamas war erupted on October 7, also threatened the US, Israel's main ally, hinting his Iran-backed paramilitary group was ready to confront US warships in the Mediterranean.

A heavily armed ally of Gaza's Hamas militants, Hezbollah has been engaging Israeli forces on the Lebanon-Israel border in the biggest flare-up since it fought a war with Israel in 2006.

"You, the Americans, can stop the aggression against Gaza because it is your aggression," Nasrallah said. "Whoever wants to prevent a regional war, and I am talking to the Americans, must quickly halt the aggression on Gaza."

He added that Hezbollah, the spearhead of a Tehran-backed regional alliance hostile to Israel and the United States, did not fear the US naval firepower Washington has assembled in the region since the crisis erupted.

"You, the Americans, know very well that if war breaks out in the region, your fleets will be of no use, nor will fighting from the air be of any benefit, and the one who will pay the price will be ... your interests, your soldiers and your fleets," he said.

Other Iran-aligned groups have entered the fray since October 7, with Tehran-backed Shi'ite groups firing on US forces in Iraq and Syria, and Yemen's Houthis launching drones at Israel.

Nasrallah saluted those actions, and said further escalation along the Lebanese border between Israel and his group was contingent on what happened in the Gaza Strip, under assault by Israeli forces since Hamas attacked Israel four weeks ago.

CLOSE-QUARTER COMBAT

In Washington, a spokesperson for the White House National Security Council said it was aware of Nasrallah's speech but would not engage in a "war of words." Hezbollah and other state and non-state actors should not try to take advantage of the conflict between Israel and Hamas, the spokesperson said.

Israel has vowed to wipe out Hamas, which rules Gaza, in retaliation for the October 7 attack in which the militant group killed 1,400 people and took more than 240 people hostage.

Israel has struck Gaza from the air, imposed a siege and launched a ground assault, stirring global alarm at humanitarian conditions in the enclave, with food scarce, medical services collapsing and a civilian death toll that has surpassed 9,000.

Nasrallah's remarks coincided with a visit to Tel Aviv by US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, on his second tour of the region in less than a month to show support for close ally Israel in its confrontation with Hamas.

Blinken urged Israel to temporarily stop its military offensive to allow for aid to enter Gaza, but he faced pushback from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu who rejected any such halt unless hostages held by Hamas militants are freed.

The Israeli military said its troops were fighting Hamas militants in close-quarter combat in the ruined streets after encircling Gaza City in their bid to wipe out the Islamist group that controls the small, densely populated territory.

Aid agencies warn a humanitarian catastrophe is unfolding in the bloodiest episode in decades in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. France plans to hold a humanitarian conference for Gaza's civilians on Thursday, three diplomatic sources said.

Over half of Gaza's population is now sheltering in UN Palestinian refugee agency facilities, with inadequate water and food, four UN agencies said in a joint statement.

ISRAEL STRIKES AMBULANCE IN GAZA CITY

Israel struck an ambulance in Gaza City on Friday that it said was carrying militants, but which health authorities in the Hamas-controlled enclave said was evacuating wounded people from the besieged north to the south of the territory.

Ashraf al-Qidra, spokesperson for the health ministry in Gaza, said the ambulance was part of a convoy that Israel targeted leaving al-Shifa Hospital, adding that "a big number" were killed and wounded but without giving figures.

Israel's military said it had identified and hit an ambulance "being used by a Hamas terrorist cell" in the battle zone.

Gaza health authorities say at least 9,227 people have been killed since Israel started its blitz on the enclave of 2.3 million people in retaliation for the Hamas October 7 rampage.

Chief Israeli military spokesperson Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari in briefing said that so far in the war Israel had killed 10 Hamas commanders responsible for planning the October 7 attack.

Israel said it has lost 23 soldiers in the offensive.

In one Israeli airstrike in Khan Younis in southern Gaza, a local journalist working for the official Palestine TV and at least nine of his immediate family were killed in their house, relatives and health officials said.

The French Institute in Gaza was hit by an Israeli air strike, but no injuries were reported among staff at the site, the French Foreign Ministry said, while the Gaza office of news organisation Agence France-Presse (AFP) was also struck.

More than 300 foreign passport holders and dependents entered Egypt from Gaza on Friday through the Rafah crossing, along with a small group of medical evacuees, according to Egyptian and Palestinian officials.

France said 34 of its nationals were among those who left. The White House said 100 US citizens and family members left Gaza on Thursday and said another large group of Americans was expected to leave on Friday.

The UN rights office described the situation in the Israeli-occupied West Bank as "alarming", saying Israeli forces were increasingly using military tactics and weapons in law enforcement operations there.

At least 132 Palestinians including 41 children were killed in the West Bank, 124 by Israeli forces and eight by Israeli settlers, it said. Two Israeli soldiers were also killed.