Israel charges back into Gaza City as US weighs response to killing of its troops
- Inside Gaza, residents said air strikes on neighbourhoods across Gaza City killed and wounded many people. While tanks shelled the eastern areas of the city
- Biden ordered retaliatory attacks on Iranian-backed groups, after 3 US servicemen were killed in a drone attack by Iran-backed militants in Jordan near the Syrian border
Israel launched an assault overnight on Gaza’s main northern city weeks after pulling back from there, residents said, while Washington promised to respond to the first deadly strike on its forces in the Middle East since the Gaza war began.
Three US servicemen were killed and at least 34 wounded in a drone attack by Iran-backed militants in northeastern Jordan near the Syrian border, US Central Command said on Sunday, an escalation in the violence that has erupted beyond Gaza.
US President Joe Biden said the attacks were carried out by radical Iran-backed militant groups operating in Syria and Iraq. Iran denied any role, but the first fatalities in what have been scores of attacks on US forces in the Middle East since the Israel-Gaza war broke out prompted calls from US politicians for a direct response.
Biden has ordered retaliatory attacks on Iranian-backed groups but has stopped short of attacking Iran directly for fear of igniting a broader war amid violence that has already hampered world trade through attacks on ships in the Red Sea.
“Have no doubt – we will hold all those responsible to account at a time and in a manner of our choosing,” he said on Sunday.