Israel-Hamas war: Baerbock urges less 'intensive' operation

US President Joe Biden said he was attempting to convince Israel to curtail its military offensive in Gaza.

"I've been quietly working with the Israeli government to get them to reduce and significantly get out of Gaza," Biden said after protesters calling for a cease-fire disrupted him during a campaign speech in Charleston, South Carolina.

"I understand their passion," Biden said of the protesters as security removed them from the church where he spoke. 

Biden has firmly supported Israel during its military operation against Hamas militants following the October 7 attacks but has increasingly called on Israel to avoid civilian casualties.

The UN Human Rights office expressed concern on Monday over the amount of media workers who had been killed in Gaza.

"Very concerned by high death toll of media workers in Gaza," the UN rights office said on X, formerly Twitter, demanding that all such cases be "thoroughly, independently investigated to ensure strict compliance with international law, and violations prosecuted."

Sunday saw two reporters killed in a strike on their vehicle.

Freelance journalists Hamza Wael al-Dahdouh and Mustafa Thuraya died when their car was struck while driving between Rafah and Khan Younis in southern Gaza.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said Thuraya and Hamza, who's father Wael al-Dahdouh, is Al Jazeera's Gaza bureau chief, was killed in the attack was traveling in a car with a Palestinian militant.

"An IDF aircraft identified and struck a terrorist who operated an aircraft that posed a threat to IDF troops. We are aware of the reports that during the strike, two other suspects who were in the same vehicle as the terrorist were also hit," the Israeli army said.

On Monday press freedom watchdog, the Committee to Protect Journalists, said that according to its investigations at least 79 journalists and media workers had been killed since the start of the Israel-Hamas war.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken is in Saudi Arabia for talks with de facto ruler , Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.

Blinken is expected to discuss the Red Sea attacks by the Iranian-backed Houthis while also touching on the potential normalization of ties with Israel.

Discussions to that end were put on hold after the beginning of the Israel-Hamas war which began after the Hamas Islamist group launched a terror attack on southern Israel on October 7.

The meeting is to take place in a tent in Al Ula, a historic oasis in western Saudi.

"This is a conflict that could easily metastasise, causing even more insecurity and even more suffering," Blinken said on Sunday in Qatar, the previous leg of his whistlestop tour which began January 4 and will wrap up on the 11th.

Blinken also discussed efforts to prevent the Gaza conflict from spreading with EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell who is also in Saudi Arabia. 

Germany's top diplomat Annalena Baerbock on Monday called on Israel to provide better protection for Palestinians in West Bank communities from settler attacks as she met with residents of the village of al-Mazraa al-Kiblija.

She also met Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh and Palestinian Foreign Minister Riyad al-Maliki in Ramallah.

"It is the responsibility of the Israeli army to protect the Palestinians from violent settlers," said Baerbock.

It is also the "responsibility of the Israeli government to implement and enforce the rule of law in the event of attacks on people who live here legitimately and who are attacked illegally," Baerbock added. "What is happening here is illegal — illegal under Israeli law and illegal under international law."

The West Bank is one of two Palestinian territories, along with the Gaza Strip. It has been under military occupation by Israel since the end of the Six-Day War in 1967.

Violence has surged there ever since the October 7 terror attacks by the militant Palestinian group Hamas in southern Israel that killed over 1,100 people.

While global attention has largely focused on the humanitarian situation in Gaza, hundreds of Palestinians have also been killed in the West Bank and east Jerusalem in the past months, according to the UN.

Baerbock has also urged Israel to ease its military campaign in the Gaza Strip and do more to protect civilians. Baerbock is on her fourth visit to the region since October 7.

A top Hezbollah commander has been killed by an Israeli strike in southern Lebanon, according to the Reuters news agency and AFP who both cited unnamed security sources.

AFP quoted the source as saying that that the commander "had a leading role in managing Hezbollah's operations in the south."

The official added that he "was killed in an Israeli strike targeting his car in the south."

Hezbollah has been exchanging fire with Israel on a near-daily basis since the Hamas terror attack on October 7. 

Last week, senior Hamas official Sale Arouri was among those killed in a drone strike on a Hamas office in Beirut.

Arouri was deputy to Hamas' political leader, Ismail Haniyeh, and the most senior Hamas figure killed since the start of the war with Israel.

Hamas, and Hezbollah's military wing, are considered terrorist groups by several countries, including the US and the European Union.

The World Health Organization (WHO) on Sunday said it had to cancel a planned mission to transport medical supplies to northern Gaza due to lack of safety guarantees.

The WHO said the mission cancellation was the fourth since December 26, and meant that it had been 12 days since the organization had managed to reach the northern part of the Palestinian territory.

In a post on social media, the WHO office in the occupied Palestinian territories said: "Heavy bombardment, movement restrictions and interrupted communications are making it nearly impossible to deliver medical supplies regularly and safely across Gaza, particularly in the North." 

The WHO had been trying to get medical supplies to five hospitals in the north, including the al-Awda Hospital.

The WHO said hospitals were severely short-staffed and "perilous conditions" were impeding patients' access to health facilities.

The Hamas-run Health Ministry, meanwhile, on Monday said that 249 Palestinians had been killed in Gaza over the past 24 hours. The ministry doesn't provide a breakdown as to how many of its figures are combatants or civilians. However, it is considered by several UN agencies as a largely reliable source on casualties in Gaza. 

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) on Monday said it had conducted strikes on "30 significant targets in Khan Younis" in the southern part of Gaza.

The IDF said that these included "underground targets, terrorist infrastructure and weapons storage facilities."

Ten Palestinian fighters were also targeted in the southern Gazan city of Khan Younis at a location from where the IDF said rockets were being launched toward Israel. 

Meanwhile to the north, the Israeli army said it had fired on a number of Hezbollah targets in Lebanon, with fighter jets attacking a military facility near Marwahin.

The IDF said a rocket launcher was also struck in the border area in the latest exchange of fire with the Hezbollah militant group, which is allied with the Islamist militant group Hamas.

Hamas, and Hezbollah's military wing, are considered terrorist groups by several countries, including the US and the European Union.

An airport in Lebanon's capital, Beirut, has been hit by a cyberattack, according to state news agency NNA.

The agency said that the attack temporarily crippled Rafic Hariri Airport's baggage handling system. It said authorities were working to "maintain normal movement at the airport."

Social media reports said that electronic screens were hacked to show a message criticizing Lebanon's Hezbollah militant group and its leader Hassan Nasrallah.

"Hassan Nasrallah, you will have no more defenders if Lebanon goes to war," the message reportedly read. "We fight in the name of no one."

Images of the screens shared by Lebanese media also showed the emblem of the Christian "Soldiers of God" group.

Lebanese authorities said they were investigating the incident.

Hezbollah has repeatedly exchanged fire with Israeli forces across Lebanon's southern border since the war with Hamas broke out on October 7.

The group controls large swaths of eastern and southern Lebanon and its political wing is one of the major parties in the country's coalition government.

Hezbollah is classified as a terrorist organization by Israel, the US, Germany and several other states, while the European Union designates the group's military wing as a terror group.

German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock has urged Israel to act with restraint in its offensive in the Hamas-run Gaza Strip.

"The suffering of many innocent people cannot continue in this way," she said on a visit to Israel on Sunday. "We need a less intensive operation."

"It's becoming clearer and clearer: the Israeli army needs to do more to protect civilians in Gaza," she said.

"You must find ways to fight Hamas where so many Palestinian people aren't harmed," she said, addressing Israeli authorities.

The minister warned against any expulsion of Palestinians from the Gaza Strip. "It is irrevocable: Gaza belongs to the Palestinians."

At the same time, Baerbock reassured Israel that it can count with Germany's solidarity "in the battle against the blind terror that wants to wipe Israel off the map."

The Hamas militant-Islamist group launched attacks on Israel on October 7, after which Israel began its offensive in Gaza. According to Israeli authorities, Hamas killed 1200 people in the attacks, most of them civilians, and took 240 hostages.

Hamas is classified as a terror group not only by Israel, but also the US, Germany, the EU and others. 

Baerbock said that Berlin will continue to support in all forums "Israel's right to self-defense within the confines of international humanitarian law."

Baerbock said that she told Israeli President Isaac Herzog and Foreign Minister Israel Katz that the way in which Israel handles the offensive and its aftermath will have an impact on Israel's security. She called for Israeli authorities to enter talks with a reformed Palestinian National Authority over the implementation of a two-state solution to the conflict in Israel and the Palestinian territories.

"A reformed [Palestinian] Authority is the non-violent alternative to Hamas," she said. "This is unavoidable for the security of the West Bank, and thus also Israel's security."

She also expressed concern over attacks by radical Israeli settlers on Palestinians in the occupied West Bank.

Baerbock stressed that Israel must defend itself against attacks by the Lebanon's Hezbollah militant group and Yemen's Houthi rebels while still avoiding the outbreak of a broader regional conflict.

Baerbock also said that Berlin will no longer oppose the delivery of Eurofighter jets to Saudi Arabia given Houthi attacks on international shipping in the Red Sea.

She said that Saudi Arabia had intercepted multiple rockets launched by Houthi militants, adding that Berlin was "thankful" for this.

The United Kingdom has long sought to provide Riyadh with Eurofighters, but needs Germany's approval, as the jets are jointly produced by the two European countries.

sdi/wd (Reuters, AP, AFP, dpa)