In a new flare-up overnight, Iranian state-owned Press TV reported that Israeli forces killed six Palestinians in a drone strike on the West Bank. Separately, an Israeli border policewoman was killed in the Jenin refugee camp in the West Bank on Sunday and an Arab-Israeli citizen was killed in a shooting attack on his car.

Israel was expected to give the go-ahead to Elon Musk’s Starlink satellite internet service this week to start limited operations in the war-torn country, a communications ministry official said.

Blinken warns Israel-Hamas war could ‘easily metastasise’

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken warned that the Israel-Hamas war could “easily” spill over into a full-blown regional conflict, as he travels across the Middle East in an attempt to calm tensions and urge Israel to do more to protect civilians in Gaza.

“This is a moment of profound tension in the region,” Blinken said at a news conference on Sunday evening in the Qatari capital of Doha. “This is a conflict that could easily metastasize, causing even more insecurity and even more suffering.”

Qatar, which maintains ties with Hamas, has played a central mediation role in the conflict, helping broker the release of more than 100 Israeli hostages.

Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed Bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, speaking alongside Blinken, called for a broader ceasefire that would end the violence, echoing many leaders across the Arab world. Israel and the US reject that option, arguing it would allow Hamas to launch renewed attacks like the one on 7 October that killed about 1,200 Israelis.

Blinken met with Jordanian Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi and King Abdullah II earlier on Sunday, a day after stops in Turkey and Greece.

He landed in Doha on Sunday afternoon and travelled on to the United Arab Emirates, followed by stops in Saudi Arabia, Israel, the West Bank and Egypt. It’s Blinken’s fourth extended visit to the region since war broke out.

Blinken, asked repeatedly about the rising Palestinian casualties including from Arab journalists, said Israel must do more to protect civilians. More than 22,000 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza since the war began, according to the Hamas-run health ministry. Blinken reiterated calls for a lasting peace that included the creation of a Palestinian state.

“It is absolutely imperative that more be done, that Israel do more to protect civilians, and with others, to enable more humanitarian assistance to get where it’s needed,” Blinken said. “That will be one focus of my conversations when I get to Israel.”

Asked whether the US should consider conditioning its military aid to Israel in order to limit the violence — which President Joe Biden has called a “worthwhile thought” — Blinken replied that the US always monitors the use of weapons it provides to allies and partners.

“Any military assistance we provide to any country, including Israel, comes with requirements — including that weapons be used in accordance with international humanitarian law, the laws of war,” he said. “And that’s something we look at very carefully on an ongoing basis.”

Blinken’s latest trip comes as tensions simmer between Israel and Iran-backed Hezbollah fighters in southern Lebanon. Hamas, designated a terrorist group by the US and the European Union, blames Israel for a drone strike in Beirut that killed a senior leader, while Hezbollah retaliated with a volley of rockets into northern Israel.  

Meanwhile, a US-led coalition has also warned the Houthi militia in Yemen, also backed by Tehran, of “consequences” if they don’t halt attacks on commercial shipping in the Red Sea — which the group has vowed to continue.

Al Thani said Qatar didn’t see military strikes against the Houthis in Yemen as a viable solution. “They will keep us in a loop that will never end, and will create real tension in the entire region,” he said.

Earlier on Sunday, Blinken toured a World Food Programme (WFP) warehouse in Amman, Jordan, with vast stockpiles of humanitarian aid — including canned beans and hummus — ready to be transported into Gaza. While touring the facility, Blinken noted that the supplies were ready to eat, since many Palestinians displaced within Gaza weren’t in a position to prepare meals.  

“The United States has worked, from day one, to open access routes into Gaza, to get assistance to people who need it. We continue to work on that every single day,” Blinken said at the facility. “Not only to keep the routes open, but to multiply them, to maximise them, to try to get, as I said, more food, more assistance, to more people, more effectively.”

WFP Palestine acting country director Laura Turner told reporters that trucks en route to northern Gaza, where Israeli forces have partially withdrawn, were getting mobbed by desperate Palestinians before they can reach their destinations.

Read more: US braces for high-stakes decisions over Houthi sea strikes

“The situation for men, women and children in Gaza remains dire,” Blinken told reporters on Saturday evening in Crete, where he touched down briefly to meet Greece’s prime minister.

“Far too many Palestinians have been killed — especially children,” he continued. “Far too many remain incredibly challenged in terms of their access to food, to water, to medicine, to the essentials of life.”

In his meetings in Jordan, Blinken stressed “the critical need to protect Palestinian civilians in the West Bank from extremist settler violence”, according to a readout from his spokesperson. 

Israel ministry to give go-ahead for Musk’s Starlink this week

Israel was expected to give the go-ahead to Elon Musk’s Starlink satellite internet service this week to start limited operations in the war-torn country, a communications ministry official said. 

Sales will initially be restricted to official bodies, and Starlink agreed not to grant access to humanitarian organisations in the Gaza Strip without the approval of Israel’s defence establishment, Elad Malka, deputy director of the ministry, said in an interview. 

SpaceX didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

Israel wants to use Starlink to bolster wartime communications along its southern and northern borders while ensuring that the service remains blocked in the Gaza Strip over fears it could be used by Hamas. 

Musk angered Israeli officials in November when he suggested he could offer the service in the Gaza Strip, specifically to humanitarian groups.

Read more: Musk wields Starlink in Israel to quell uproar over anti-Semitism

The world’s wealthiest man walked back the comments following a backlash in Israel, saying on his X platform, formerly known as Twitter, that he’d received no requests from Gaza aid groups for access and would only activate Starlink there with US and Israel government approval.

Malka said Israel’s government had fast-tracked plans for the Starlink licence as a result of its war with Hamas, which is entering its fourth month. 

Starlink had opened an Israeli subsidiary and would begin selling its terminals in the coming weeks, with sales restricted under the licence to a list of approved clients that included communications companies and local councils, he said. DM

Read more in Daily Maverick: Israel-Palestine War