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Israeli forces carried out airstrikes Thursday in the Gaza Strip and in southern Lebanon, while uncertainty remained about the latest push to achieve a cease-fire in Gaza as negotiators worked to resolve differences between Israel and the Hamas militant group.
The official Palestinian news agency WAFA said Thursday an Israeli strike in Beit Lahiya, in northern Gaza, killed at least 11 people.
Israel's military reported an airstrike hitting a weapons warehouse near a Hamas military site in Gaza City, as well as strikes that killed militants in central Gaza.
Another round of airstrikes targeted more than 10 areas in southern Lebanon overnight, the Israel Defense Forces said Thursday. Those attacks were aimed at locations used by the Hezbollah militant group, the IDF said.
As tensions remain high in the region, the U.S. now has two aircraft carrier strike groups in the Middle East. The USS Abraham Lincoln arrived in the region with accompanying destroyers on Wednesday, the U.S. military announced. The USS Theodore Roosevelt is the other.
"We've moved capabilities into the region that, I think it's fair to say, have gotten into the headspace of Iran and will influence their calculation on how and if they choose to respond. We don't want to see that happen," Deputy Pentagon press secretary Sabrina Singh told reporters Thursday.
U.S. President Joe Biden and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke Wednesday about efforts by the United States to support Israel "against all threats from Iran, including its proxy terrorist groups Hamas, Hezbollah, and the Houthis, to include ongoing defensive U.S. military deployments," according to a White House statement.
Biden also "stressed the urgency of bringing the cease-fire and hostage release deal to closure and discussed upcoming talks in Cairo to remove any remaining obstacles," the statement said.
Iranian-backed Houthi militants in Yemen on Wednesday attacked a Greek-flagged oil tanker in the Red Sea that was carrying about 1 million barrels of crude oil, setting the ship ablaze and potentially creating an environmental disaster, Singh said.
The 25-person crew was rescued by a vessel with the European Union's naval force after the attack.
Houthi militants have carried out a continuous assault campaign on ships in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden that has disrupted commercial shipping through the important corridor. The campaign began after Israel launched a retaliatory attack against Hamas in Gaza following the October 7 terror attack, and the Houthis claim they are acting in solidarity with Palestinian amid the war.
"I'm not exactly sure how hitting a ship carrying over a million barrels of crude oil and creating a spill in your backyard helps people in Gaza who you said you're trying to help," Singh said Thursday in response to a question about the attack.
The United Nations warned Wednesday that Israeli evacuation orders in Gaza are pushing Palestinian civilians into overcrowded areas along the Gaza Coast.
Israel's latest order was for people to leave a residential area in Deir al-Balah, near the main hospital in central Gaza, and in Khan Younis in southern Gaza, which combined affect more than 150,000 people, the U.N. said.
The war began with a Hamas attack on Israel that killed about 1,200 people and led to the capture of about 250 hostages. Israeli airstrikes and ground operations have killed more than 40,000 Palestinians, most of them women and children, according to Gaza health officials. The Israeli military says the death toll includes thousands of Hamas fighters.
Negotiators from the United States, Egypt, Qatar and Israel are expected to meet in the coming days in Cairo to try to push forward the process of achieving a cease-fire that would include a halt in fighting and the release of hostages still held by Hamas.
Netanyahu's office said Wednesday that Israel insists on achieving all of its goals for the war, including ensuring that Hamas cannot pose a security threat to Israel.
Hamas on Wednesday reiterated its core demands, which include Israel fully withdrawing from Gaza.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who traveled to the region for talks about the cease-fire earlier this week, has spoken with diplomats and leaders from Jordan and Qatar to stress "the urgent need to finalize the cease-fire deal that would alleviate the suffering of the Palestinian people and secure the release of hostages," according to the State Department.
Some information for this report came from The Associated Press, Agence France-Presse and Reuters.
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