Residents reported Israeli fire in central Gaza on Friday, raising regional tensions after Iran threatened retaliation for an attack in Syria this month that killed two Iranian generals.

As ceasefire talks continue to end the six-month-old war, France has advised its citizens to avoid traveling to the region amid fears that Iran could soon attack Israel. encouraged.

Mohammed al-Rais, 61, told AFP he fled Israeli “airstrikes and artillery shelling” in the central Gaza area of ​​Nasirat overnight.

“It was all fire and destruction, with many martyrs lying in the street,” he said.

Another resident, Leila Nasir, 40, reported “shells and missiles” throughout the night.

“They will do to Nasirat what they did to Khan Yunis,” said Nasser, vowing to flee to the southernmost city of Rafah like most of Gaza’s population.

Israel last week withdrew its forces from the devastated city of Khan Yunis after months of fighting, but officials said they were preparing operations against Hamas operatives in Rafah, near the Egyptian border.

Authorities in the Hamas-ruled coastal Palestinian enclave reported dozens of new airstrikes in the central Gaza Strip on Friday.

Hamas’s media office said “25 people were taken to hospital as a result of an airstrike on a house belonging to the al-Tabibi family” in the city of Deir al-Balah.

Attacks on Syria

Israel’s military said its warplanes targeted more than 60 Hamas operatives in Gaza yesterday.

The war began on October 7 with an unprecedented attack by Hamas against Israel that killed 1,170 people, mostly civilians, according to Israeli figures.

Israel’s retaliation has killed at least 33,634 people in Gaza, mostly women and children, according to the territory’s health ministry. The ministry’s latest tally on Friday included at least 89 more deaths than the previous day.

The latest bombings in Gaza came as Israel said it was strengthening air defenses and suspending leave for combat units, following a deadly airstrike that destroyed Iran’s consulate building in Damascus on April 1. After

Iran blames Israel, its arch-enemy, which has stepped up attacks against Iran-linked targets in Syria since the Gaza war began.

Among these targets are fighters from the Lebanese Hezbollah movement in Syria. The group has also regularly exchanged deadly fire with Israel on the Lebanese border since October.

Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir Abdollahian said late Thursday that he had received phone calls from German Foreign Minister Annalina Bierbach as well as her British and Australian counterparts.

‘main attack’

In a post on X, the Iranian minister said he had told him that “when the Zionist regime violates the immunity of diplomatic persons and places” and the UN Security Council fails to condemn it, “Legitimate defence… is a necessity”.

“Iran does not want to expand the scope of the war,” he added.

US President Joe Biden said on Wednesday that Iran was “threatening to launch a major attack on Israel” and that Washington’s biggest regional ally was “ironclad” despite diplomatic tensions over Israel’s military conduct in Gaza. Posh” pledged support.

The Pentagon said the head of US Central Command, General Michael Karella, was in Israel on Thursday to discuss the situation with Defense Minister Yves Gallant.

France on Friday warned its citizens against traveling to Iran, Israel, Lebanon or the Palestinian territories, after the US embassy in Israel announced a ban on the movement of its diplomats over security concerns. was

Moscow and Berlin urged restraint.

German airline Lufthansa extended the temporary suspension of flights to and from Tehran until Saturday.

In their October attack, Hamas operatives took about 250 hostages, 129 of whom remain in Gaza, 34 of whom have been killed, according to the Israeli military.

Netanyahu leads a coalition that includes religious and ultra-nationalist parties, and is under pressure from anti-government protesters and relatives of hostages who are calling on the government to bring them home.

Thousands of people have taken to the streets.

On Thursday night, hundreds demonstrated near Netanyahu’s Jerusalem residence with a different call — to continue the war.

Father’s Appeal

“You, members of the cabinet, let it be clear that the fighting will not stop, that the IDF and our good sons will continue to crush the enemy until total victory,” said Itzic Buntzel, father of Israeli soldier Amit Buntzel. Killed in Gaza.

Washington has increased pressure on Netanyahu to agree to a ceasefire, increase aid flows and abandon plans to send troops to Rafah.

Israeli Defense Minister Gallant said on Wednesday that Israel would “flood with aid” Gaza using an Israeli crossing point, streamlined checking, the Ashdod port and two new routes organized along Jordan.

However, the UN Security Council on Thursday said that “further steps should be taken to bring about the relief required given the scale of the needs in Gaza”.

The United Nations says famine is imminent in Gaza, much of which has been left barren by bombing.

World Health Organization chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said an assessment team that visited Khan Younis “found devastation disproportionate to what no one can imagine” and three medical centers no longer functioning. had been.

Ceasefire talks that began Sunday in Cairo made no progress on a plan put forward by U.S., Qatari and Egyptian mediators, which Hamas said it was studying.

The framework plan would halt fighting for six weeks and see the exchange of about 40 hostages for hundreds of Palestinian prisoners, as well as the delivery of more aid.

Israel accused Hamas on Thursday of “walking away” from what government spokesman David Manser called “a very reasonable offer on the table”.

Bassem Naim of Hamas’ political bureau said the ceasefire was needed to locate and determine the fate of Israeli hostages held by various groups in the area.

(Other than the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)