By Amina Ismail and Humeyra Pamuk
TYRE, Lebanon/RIYADH (Reuters) -U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken pushed on Wednesday for a halt to fighting between Israel and militant groups Hamas and Hezbollah, but heavy Israeli air strikes on a large historic Lebanese port city demonstrated that there was no respite.
Israel began to bomb the UNESCO-listed port of Tyre in south Lebanon roughly three hours after issuing an order online for residents to flee central areas. Huge clouds of thick smoke billowed above residential buildings.
Tens of thousands of people had already fled Tyre in recent weeks as Israel steps up its campaign to destroy Hezbollah in Lebanon and Hamas in Gaza, both close allies of its arch Middle East enemy Iran.
The port is typically a bustling hub for the south – with fishermen, tourists and even U.N. peacekeepers on a break from deployments near the border spending time there by the sea. But Israel’s evacuation orders this week have for the first time encompassed swathes of Tyre, right up to its ancient castle.
Some Lebanese fear their country will end up like the Gaza Strip, where Israeli airstrikes and shelling have killed tens of thousands of Palestinians and levelled much of the small, densely populated enclave.
In Gaza, where Israel has intensified an assault on the northern edge of the territory since killing the leader of Hamas last week, health authorities reported at least 20 people killed in fresh Israeli strikes, most in the north.
Aside from mass destruction, Gazans face severe shortages of food, water, fuel, medicine and proper medical care.
A failure to address the humanitarian situation there could create more insurgents in Gaza, U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said, echoing concerns Israel’s offensive could create new, more radical militants after 17 years of Hamas rule there.
Blinken, who has travelled to the Middle East regularly since the outbreak of the war, is making his first trip since Israel killed Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar, its most-wanted enemy, a death Washington hopes can provide an impetus for peace.
The secretary of state’s trip is the last major U.S. peace push before the Nov. 5 presidential election pitting Vice President Kamala Harris against former President Donald Trump, which could scramble U.S. policy in the region.
Washington is also seeking to head off a further widening of the conflict in anticipation of Israeli retaliation for an Iranian Oct. 1 missile attack, launched by Tehran in solidarity with Hezbollah and Hamas. Blinken said on Wednesday that Israel’s retaliation should not lead to greater escalation.
After meeting Israeli officials including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Blinken travelled to regional power and close U.S. ally Saudi Arabia for talks with Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan.
They discussed the urgent need to end the Gaza war and release all hostages of Hamas, as well as ways of establishing security, governance and reconstruction after the conflict, said State Department spokesman Matthew Miller.
Blinken also met Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the de facto Saudi ruler, state media said, without elaborating.
ISRAEL CONFIRMS KILLING HEZBOLLAH’S NEXT LEADER
In Lebanon, Israel’s military said it had killed three Hezbollah commanders and some 70 fighters in the south in the past 48 hours, a day after confirming it had killed Hashem Safieddine, the militant group’s heir apparent leader after Hassan Nasrallah’s death in a Sept. 27 Israeli airstrike.
Blinken said it was time for Israel to “turn (its military) successes into an enduring strategic success.
“The focus needs to be on getting the hostages home, ending this war and having a clear plan for what follows.”
In the year since Hamas-led fighters rampaged through Israeli towns killing 1,200 people and capturing more than 250 hostages, Israel has laid Gaza to waste to root out Hamas, killing nearly 43,000 Palestinians. Last week Israel killed Sinwar, suspected mastermind of the Oct. 7, 2023 attacks.
Over the past month it has also dramatically ramped up war in Lebanon against Hezbollah, Iran’s strongest proxy force which has rocketed Israel in support of the Palestinians.
Israel has launched a ground offensive and killed most of Hezbollah’s leadership in airstrikes that have killed 2,530 people and displaced around 1.2 million.
CHANCE FOR PEACE?
The U.S. sees Sinwar’s demise as a chance to bring peace, feeling it would now be easier for Netanyahu and his far-right government to argue that major goals have been achieved in Gaza.
But Gaza residents say that since Sinwar’s death, Israel has only intensified an assault on northern areas where it says Hamas fighters are regrouping.
Hospitals have ceased functioning and are running out of coffins and shrouds for the dead. An emergency U.N.-backed polio vaccination campaign, launched after a Gaza baby was paralysed by the disease for the first time in 25 years, was halted.
Blinken said new formulations were being examined in an effort to win freedom for hostages held in Gaza and bring an end to the war.
Still, there has been no sign of a letup in fighting. Hamas says it will not free scores of hostages it is still holding without an Israeli promise to end the war in Gaza. Israel says it will not stop fighting in Gaza until Hamas is annihilated, and in Lebanon until Hezbollah no longer poses a threat.
(Reporting by Nidal al-Mughrabi in Cairo, Laila Bassam, Timour Azhari and Maya Gebeily in Beirut, Amina Ismail in Tyre, Clauda Tanios and Nayera Abdullah in Dubai, Maayan Lubell and Jonathan Saul in Jerusalem, Phil Stewart in Rome, Humeyra Pamuk and Simon Lewis in Washington, Thomas Escritt in Berlin; writing by Michael Georgy; editing by Lincoln Feast, Peter Graff and Mark Heinrich)
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