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The situation in the Middle East worsened

Mar 01, 2024

Washington [US], March 1: The Israeli army continues to attack throughout Gaza, while the US is said to be concerned that Israel is planning to land in Lebanon.
Bloody conflict
On the morning of February 29, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) announced that they had destroyed many members of the Hamas force in the previous 24 hours, as the IDF continued to carry out a large-scale operation in the Zeitoun area in Gaza City and attack. several areas in both the central and southern parts of the Gaza Strip, according to The Times of Israel . As of last night, there was no information about Hamas's reaction to the statement from the IDF.
A few hours earlier, the Gaza Health Authority announced that at least 79 people were killed on the night of February 28 and early morning of February 29, bringing the total number of Palestinians killed in Gaza in the nearly 5-month conflict to 30,000, according to AFP. The agency said many children died "due to malnutrition, dehydration and widespread hunger" at Al-Shifa, the largest hospital in Gaza City.
Last night, the Gaza Health Authority accused the Israeli army of opening fire on people waiting for aid near Gaza City, killing 104 Palestinians and injuring 280, according to Reuters. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said he had issued a statement of condemnation. Hamas warned that the above incident could lead to failure in negotiations to reach a ceasefire agreement and release hostages. Meanwhile, an Israeli army spokesman confirmed that they knew nothing about the shooting at the above location. The Israeli military later said that dozens of people were injured when they were pushed and trampled as trucks carrying aid arrived in northern Gaza.
The continuing conflict has made transporting aid into Gaza by road increasingly difficult. Faced with this situation, a US official yesterday told Reuters that US President Joe Biden's administration is considering dropping aid from US military aircraft to Gaza. "The situation is really bad. We can't get enough aid by truck so we need desperate measures like dropping goods from planes," a US official said. US officials admit such action would not be very effective and that any large amounts of aid could only be delivered by road.
Instability on the Israel-Lebanon border
In addition, cross-border clashes between Israel and Lebanon show no signs of cooling down. Lebanon's NNA news agency reported that new Israeli attacks killed two people in southern Lebanon on the evening of February 28. The same morning, Hamas's armed wing, the Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigade, announced that it had targeted two military locations in northern Israel with two series of Grad rockets launched from Lebanon. Meanwhile, the Israeli military announced that its air defense forces had intercepted a number of rockets launched from Lebanon into Israel, and had "attacked firing sources in Lebanon", according to AFP.
Cross-border fighting has escalated since October 8, 2023, the day after the conflict in Gaza broke out, raising fears of an all-out war on Israel's northern border with Lebanon. Accordingly, an ally of Hamas in Lebanon, Hezbollah, has been fighting with the Israeli army almost every day, and Hamas has occasionally announced attacks on northern Israel from Lebanon.
CNN reported yesterday that US officials are concerned that Israel is planning a ground attack on Lebanon, which could be launched in the next few months, if diplomatic efforts do not cause Hezbollah to withdraw from the border. northern border with Israel.
Source: Thanh Nien Newspaper