Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant warned the war with Hamas could take months.
“It will take one month, two months, three months, and at the end there will be no more Hamas,” Gallant said.
Around the world, Israel’s friends and foes alike warned against the war in Gaza spilling over into a full-scale regional conflagration.
Several Western leaders including US President Biden issued a joint statement Sunday after frantic diplomatic talks “to prevent the conflict from spreading” and to “preserve stability in the Middle East.”
On Sunday, there seemed little sign that the conflict was being contained as Israel struck targets in Gaza, Lebanon, Syria and the West Bank, while issuing a stark warning to regional foes against intervening in the war against Hamas.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that if Lebanon-based militant group Hezbollah were to get more deeply involved, it would be “the mistake of its life”.
“We will strike it with a force it cannot even imagine, and the significance for it and the state of Lebanon will be devastating,” he said.
Israeli strikes were reported against two airports in Syria, a mosque used by “terror operatives” in the West Bank city of Jenin and Hezbollah “military infrastructure” inside Lebanon.
Hamas, Hezbollah and Syria’s government are all backed by Iran, which opposes Israel’s existence and has warned the region could spiral “out of control”.
Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh spoke by phone with Iran’s Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian on Sunday, the militant group said on Telegram.
During their call, “they discussed the latest developments” in the war, as well as the “use of all the possible ways to stop” Israel’s campaign, it said.
“BROTHERS, STOP!”
With fears growing that the conflict could spread, Israel on Sunday admitted accidentally hitting an Egyptian border post, apologising for the incident which Cairo said had left an unspecified number of border guards with “minor injuries”.
But Washington said it wouldn’t hesitate to act in the event of any “escalation”, just hours after the Pentagon moved to step up military readiness in the region.
“If any group or any country is looking to widen this conflict and take advantage of this very unfortunate situation that we see, our advice is: don’t,” US Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin said on ABC News.
On Sunday, Pope Francis used his weekly Angelus prayer in Rome to plead for an end to the bloodshed.
“War is always a defeat, it is a destruction of human fraternity. Brothers, stop!” he said.
For all the latest world News Click Here
