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Israel Shows Images of Tanks in Gaza as War on Hamas Deepens

Palestinians check the damage at the site of Israeli strikes on houses, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and Palestinian group Hamas, in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip, October 29, 2023. (Reuters)
Palestinians check the damage at the site of Israeli strikes on houses, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and Palestinian group Hamas, in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip, October 29, 2023. (Reuters)
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Israel Shows Images of Tanks in Gaza as War on Hamas Deepens

Palestinians check the damage at the site of Israeli strikes on houses, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and Palestinian group Hamas, in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip, October 29, 2023. (Reuters)
Palestinians check the damage at the site of Israeli strikes on houses, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and Palestinian group Hamas, in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip, October 29, 2023. (Reuters)

Israel signaled intent to encircle Gaza's main city on Sunday, publishing pictures of battle tanks on the Palestinian enclave's western coast 48 hours after ordering expanded ground incursions across its eastern border.

Israel's self-declared "second phase" of a three-week war against Hamas militants had initially been kept from public view, with forces moving under darkness and a telecommunications blackout cutting off Palestinians.

The phone and internet cuts appeared to be easing on Sunday, according to Gaza residents. But they have severely hampered rescue operations for casualties of Israeli barrages wreaking destruction, especially on northern Gaza City, site of Hamas's government and command centers.

As well as the Israeli military's pictures of tanks, some pictures online appeared to show Israeli soldiers waving an Israeli flag deep inside Gaza.

Reuters could not verify those images.

Hamas said it was firing mortars against Israeli forces in north Gaza and had hit Israeli tanks with missiles, belittling reports of deep advances by its enemy.

"Israel cut us off from the world in order to wipe us out, but we are hearing the sounds of explosions and we are proud the resistance fighters have stopped them at meters distance," said Shaban Ahmed, a public servant who stayed in Gaza City despite an Israeli warning to evacuate south.

Ahmed said he only found out on Sunday that his cousin had died in an air strike two days previously due to the blackout.

Israeli Defense Force (IDF) fighter jets struck over 450 Hamas targets, including operational command centers, look-out posts, and anti-tank missile launch posts, in the last 24 hours, the military said on Sunday.

It said several gunmen emerged from a tunnel near Israel's border and were killed or wounded in a clash with troops.

"We are gradually expanding the ground activity and the scope of our forces in the Gaza Strip," said IDF spokesperson Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari.

Israel has tightened its blockade and bombarded Gaza since Hamas gunmen stormed across the border into Israel on Oct. 7, killing at least 1,400 people and taking more than 200 hostages.

Medical authorities in the Gaza Strip, which has a population of 2.3 million people, said on Sunday 8,005 people - including 3,324 minors - had been killed.

Regional overspill?

Israel has vowed to annihilate Hamas, a task that it described as necessitating protracted ground assaults in, around and under Gaza City, where the militants have an extensive subterranean bunker network.

Western countries have generally backed what they say is Israel's right to self-defense. But there has been mounting international outcry over the toll from the bombing and calls for a "humanitarian pause" to allow aid to reach Gaza civilians.

There are fears too of regional overspill to the Gaza war, including in Lebanon where the Israeli army and Iranian-backed Hezbollah group have been exchanging fire.

On Sunday, the United Nations' Lebanon peacekeeping force UNIFIL said one of its members was injured after shells hit the mission's base near Houla on the Lebanese-Israeli border the day before.

Israel said there were several rocket or mortar launches from Lebanon at its territory, and that it was returning fire.

White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan told CNN that Israel must use every means possible to distinguish between Palestinian civilians and Hamas in Gaza. He also urged Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to "rein in" violence against innocent people in the occupied West Bank.

Pope Francis on Sunday called for a ceasefire and renewed his call for the release of all hostages.

British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and French President Emmanuel Macron expressed concern about getting aid into Gaza during a phone call on Sunday, Sunak's office said.

With supplies of food, water and medicines running low and much of Gaza reduced to rubble, thousands of residents broke into warehouses and distribution centers of the United Nations Palestinian refugee agency (UNRWA), grabbing flour and other basics, the organization said on Sunday.

Israel will allow a dramatic increase in aid to Gaza in coming days and Palestinian civilians should head to a "humanitarian zone" in the south of the tiny territory, said Colonel Elad Goren of Cogat, the Israeli Defense Ministry agency that coordinates with the Palestinians.

The Palestinian Red Crescent said on Sunday 10 Egyptian trucks carrying food and medicine had arrived in Gaza via the Rafah crossing, bringing the total number so far to 94, a small fraction of what is needed.

'God have mercy'

Displaced Palestinians staying in tents in Gaza’s Khan Younis described dire living conditions, with little access to food and water and having to queue hours for the toilet.

"I wish God will have mercy on us and the war stops," said Rami Al-Erqan, a father cradling his daughter, one of his six children. "We reached a state where we wish to have died under the rubble just to find some rest. Our life is torture."

Central Israel also came under heavy rocket fire on Sunday, with sirens sounding in several major cities.

Al-Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of Hamas, said on its Telegram account that it was "bombing Tel Aviv in response to the Zionist massacres against civilians".

They later said their fighters had clashed with Israeli forces northwest of Gaza and had also set fire to two Israeli tanks. There was no immediate word from Israel on the claims.

The conflict has prompted large demonstrations worldwide in support of the Palestinians. On Sunday several thousand people rallied in Beirut to show solidarity with Gaza.

The Palestinian Red Crescent said it had received warnings from Israeli authorities to immediately evacuate al-Quds hospital in the Gaza Strip, adding that raids conducted on Sunday had taken place just 50 meters from the facility.

The Red Crescent says some 14,000 people have sought shelter at the hospital from Israeli air strikes.

Israel has accused Hamas of locating command centers and other military infrastructure in Gaza hospitals, something the group denies.

Palestinian officials said around 50,000 people had also taken shelter in the Gaza Shifa Hospital and said they were concerned about ongoing Israeli threats to the facility.

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Arab World

Village in Southern Lebanon Buries a Child and Father Killed in Israeli Drone Strike 

Lebanese special forces policemen carry the coffins of their comrade Hassan Jaber, who was killed on Monday with his son Ali, by an Israeli drone attack, during their funeral procession in Yanouh village, south Lebanon, Tuesday, Feb. 10, 2026. (AP)
Lebanese special forces policemen carry the coffins of their comrade Hassan Jaber, who was killed on Monday with his son Ali, by an Israeli drone attack, during their funeral procession in Yanouh village, south Lebanon, Tuesday, Feb. 10, 2026. (AP)
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Village in Southern Lebanon Buries a Child and Father Killed in Israeli Drone Strike 

Lebanese special forces policemen carry the coffins of their comrade Hassan Jaber, who was killed on Monday with his son Ali, by an Israeli drone attack, during their funeral procession in Yanouh village, south Lebanon, Tuesday, Feb. 10, 2026. (AP)
Lebanese special forces policemen carry the coffins of their comrade Hassan Jaber, who was killed on Monday with his son Ali, by an Israeli drone attack, during their funeral procession in Yanouh village, south Lebanon, Tuesday, Feb. 10, 2026. (AP)

Mourners in southern Lebanon on Tuesday buried a father and his young son killed in an Israeli drone strike that targeted a Hezbollah member.

Hassan Jaber, a police officer, and his child, Ali, were on foot when the strike on Monday hit a passing car in the center of their town, Yanouh, relatives said. Lebanon's health ministry said the boy was 3 years old. Both were killed at the scene along with the car driver, Ahmad Salami, who the Israeli military said in a statement was an artillery official with the Lebanese armed group.

It said it was aware of a “claim that uninvolved civilians were killed” and that the case is under review, adding it “makes every effort to reduce the likelihood of harm” to civilians.

Salami, also from Yanouh, was buried in the village Tuesday along with the father and son.

“There are always people here, it’s a crowded area,” with coffee shops and corner stores, a Shiite religious gathering hall, the municipality building and a civil defense center, a cousin of the boy’s father, also named Hassan Jaber, told The Associated Press.

When the boy and his father were struck, he said, they were going to a bakery making Lebanese breakfast flatbread known as manakish to see how it was made. They were standing only about 5 meters (5.5 yards) from the car when it was struck, the cousin said.

“It is not new for the Israeli enemy to carry out such actions,” he said. “There was a car they wanted to hit and they struck it in the middle of this crowded place.”

Jaber said the little boy, Ali, had not yet entered school but “showed signs of unusual intelligence.”

“What did this innocent child do wrong, this angel?” asked Ghazaleh Haider, the wife of the boy’s uncle. “Was he a fighter?”

Attendees at the funeral carried photos of Ali, a striking child with large green eyes and blond hair. Some also carried flags of Hezbollah or of its ally, the Amal party.

Lebanon’s Internal Security Forces, of which the child’s father was a member, said in a statement that the 37-year-old father of three had joined in 2013 and reached the rank of first sergeant.

The strike came as Israel has stepped up its campaign against Hezbollah and its allies in Lebanon.

The night before the strike in Yanouh, Israeli forces launched a rare ground raid in the Lebanese village of Hebbarieh, several kilometers from the border, in which they seized a local official with the Jamaa al-Islamiya group. The group is allied with Hezbollah and the Palestinian group Hamas.

After the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas-led attack on Israel triggered war in Gaza, Hezbollah began firing rockets from Lebanon into Israel in support of Hamas and the Palestinians.

Israel responded with airstrikes and shelling. The low-level conflict escalated into full-scale war in September 2024, later reined in but not fully stopped by a US-brokered ceasefire two months later.

Since then, Israel has accused Hezbollah of trying to rebuild and has carried out near-daily strikes in Lebanon that it says target Hezbollah members and facilities.

Israeli forces also continue to occupy five hilltop points on the Lebanese side of the border. Hezbollah has claimed one strike against Israel since the ceasefire.

Arab World

US Sanctions Target Alleged Hezbollah Gold Exchange 

Hezbollah supporters raise their group's flags during a protest condemning recent Israeli military actions in Lebanon and calling on the international community to intervene as tensions escalate along the southern border, outside the headquarters of the UN Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia, ESCWA, in Beirut, Lebanon, Wednesday, Feb. 4, 2026. (AP)
Hezbollah supporters raise their group's flags during a protest condemning recent Israeli military actions in Lebanon and calling on the international community to intervene as tensions escalate along the southern border, outside the headquarters of the UN Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia, ESCWA, in Beirut, Lebanon, Wednesday, Feb. 4, 2026. (AP)
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US Sanctions Target Alleged Hezbollah Gold Exchange 

Hezbollah supporters raise their group's flags during a protest condemning recent Israeli military actions in Lebanon and calling on the international community to intervene as tensions escalate along the southern border, outside the headquarters of the UN Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia, ESCWA, in Beirut, Lebanon, Wednesday, Feb. 4, 2026. (AP)
Hezbollah supporters raise their group's flags during a protest condemning recent Israeli military actions in Lebanon and calling on the international community to intervene as tensions escalate along the southern border, outside the headquarters of the UN Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia, ESCWA, in Beirut, Lebanon, Wednesday, Feb. 4, 2026. (AP)

The United States on Tuesday imposed sanctions against a gold exchange it said facilitates Iranian financial support to Lebanon’s Hezbollah.

The Treasury Department said the targeted gold exchange was part of Al-Qard al-Hassan, a Hezbollah financial institution already under US sanctions and whose branches were bombed by Israel in 2024 strikes.

"Hezbollah is a threat to peace and stability in the Middle East," Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said in a statement.

"Treasury will work to cut these terrorists off from the global financial system to give Lebanon a chance to be peaceful and prosperous again."

The Treasury Department imposed sanctions on the gold exchange, Jood Sarl, which it said "masquerades as a non-governmental organization" and is used to ensure Hezbollah's cash flow from Iran.

It also said it was imposing sanctions on a number of individuals or entities, including a Russian national, for working on Hezbollah's finances.

The sanctions freeze any assets in the United States and make financial transactions with the listed entities a crime.

Israel struck a major blow against Hezbollah in the 2024 war, killing its longtime leader Hassan Nasrallah, a year after Hamas, another group backed by Iran, carried out a devastating attack against Israel.

In accordance with a truce, the Lebanese army said it had disarmed Hezbollah in an area close to the Israeli border. But Hezbollah has refused to surrender further arms and Israel says progress is insufficient, keeping up periodic attacks.

Arab World

US Response Muted on New Israeli West Bank Measures

Israeli machinery levels land ahead of settlement construction near Jenin in the occupied West Bank, Dec. 23, 2025 (EPA)
Israeli machinery levels land ahead of settlement construction near Jenin in the occupied West Bank, Dec. 23, 2025 (EPA)
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US Response Muted on New Israeli West Bank Measures

Israeli machinery levels land ahead of settlement construction near Jenin in the occupied West Bank, Dec. 23, 2025 (EPA)
Israeli machinery levels land ahead of settlement construction near Jenin in the occupied West Bank, Dec. 23, 2025 (EPA)

Days ahead of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s visit to Washington, his government moved on measures framed as procedural but laden with far-reaching sovereign implications.

Decisions by Israel’s security cabinet have made it easier for Israelis to purchase land in the West Bank and expanded Israeli enforcement tools in areas formally administered by the Palestinian Authority under the Oslo Accords.

A White House official reiterated President Donald Trump’s opposition to annexing the West Bank, but Washington’s response stopped short of any concrete measures.

The position, attributed to an unnamed official and unaccompanied by deterrent action, prompted speculation that the US stance amounted to tacit acquiescence rather than active opposition.

On the eve of Netanyahu’s arrival, Reuters cited a White House source as saying Trump continues to oppose Israeli annexation of the West Bank and views “stability” there as consistent with the goals of peace and Israel’s security.

The manner in which the position was conveyed, however, left room for interpretation. The issue, analysts say, is less whether Washington rejects annexation in principle than whether it opposes the cumulative steps that could lead to it.

Israeli officials have framed the measures as administrative, but critics view them as part of a broader pattern aimed at gradually altering conditions in the West Bank. Such steps, they argue, create facts on the ground that are later treated as irreversible.

In this reading, formal opposition to annexation does not preclude policies that effectively advance it without an explicit declaration, a process some observers describe as incremental annexation.

Limited US response

Restricting the US reaction to an unattributed statement suggests an effort to balance competing priorities: signaling continuity in Washington’s stated position while avoiding a confrontation with Netanyahu ahead of his visit.

Diplomats note that this approach indicates US objections are being managed through messaging rather than through policy leverage.

Even when the US language is explicit, its impact is limited unless it is accompanied by political cost. Governments typically adjust behavior in response to incentives or penalties, not statements alone.

In this context, the absence of measures reduces the deterrent effect of US opposition, leaving Israel with room to maneuver.

The timing of the Israeli decisions sends parallel messages. Domestically, they signal continued commitment to policies favored by right-wing constituencies and settler groups. Internationally, they suggest that reversing on-the-ground changes is becoming increasingly complex.

The approach reflects a familiar strategy of establishing new realities ahead of any renewed political process.

The moves also highlight the influence of Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich within the governing coalition and his stated objective of undermining the practical foundations of a Palestinian state, even if the concept remains part of official rhetoric.

Measures described as technical adjustments thus take on broader political significance.

Impact on the two-state framework

The West Bank remains central to any viable Palestinian state. Steps that weaken Palestinian administrative authority or alter control over land are therefore assessed primarily by their effect on the feasibility of statehood.

Critics argue the latest measures move in the opposite direction, further blurring the distinction between Israeli control and Palestinian self-governance.

From Washington’s perspective, the situation underscores a broader contradiction. An administration that has shown limited engagement with the international consensus on a two-state solution is, in practice, also narrowing the range of alternative outcomes.

As prospects for two states diminish, analysts warn that other scenarios become more likely, including prolonged security control or recurring instability, complicating the US's assertions that current policies promote stability.

Reports in the US press citing Arab and Islamic condemnation, as well as concern at the United Nations, indicate that the West Bank remains a sensitive issue for many governments, including those maintaining ties with Israel.

Any perception of US leniency risks weakening those partners’ positions domestically.

At the United Nations, repeated warnings from international bodies have reaffirmed legal frameworks that Israel views as restrictive, but which others consider essential to any settlement.

While this divide is longstanding, critics note that developments on the ground are advancing faster than diplomatic efforts to address them.

As Washington emphasizes the importance of stability in the West Bank, the debate increasingly centers on what that stability entails: a temporary calm sustained by existing realities, or one underpinned by a credible political horizon.

For now, analysts say, each new Israeli step is being viewed less as an isolated decision than as a test of the credibility of the US's stated opposition.