NEW YORK: Palestine’s permanent observer to the UN on Sunday urged the international community not to let Israel “double down on its terrible choices,” but to instead encourage it to change course and remind it that “there is a path to peace, where neither Palestinians nor Israelis are killed. And it is the one diametrically opposed to the one Israel has embarked on.”

WASHINGTON: President Joe Biden ordered US ships and warplanes to move closer to Israel in a show of support on Sunday, while sending fresh military aid after attacks by the Palestinian militant group Hamas.
The Pentagon said it was sending the aircraft carrier USS Gerald R. Ford and its accompanying warships to the eastern Mediterranean, while boosting fighter aircraft squadrons in the region. US Central Command confirmed Sunday afternoon that ships and planes had begun moving to their new posts.

LONDON: UAE Foreign Minister Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al-Nahyan and US Secretary of State Antony Blinken discussed the latest regional developments and the ongoing escalation between Israelis and Palestinians, Emirates News Agency reported on Sunday.
During the phone call, Sheikh Abdullah emphasized the importance of exercising the utmost restraint, noting that the escalation could have dangerous regional repercussions.

MOSCOW: Arab League Chief Ahmed Aboul Gheit headed to Moscow on Sunday for talks with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on the situation in Gaza after Hamas launched the most significant attack on Israel in years.

Aboul Gheit, who served as Egypt’s foreign minister during the final seven years of Hosni Mubarak’s rule, will discuss the “ongoing escalation in the Gaza Strip,” said a spokesman for the Cairo-based league of Arab states.

TEHRAN: President Ebrahim Raisi said on Sunday that Iran supports the Palestinians’ right to self-defense and warned Israel must be held accountable for endangering the region.

Hamas, which controls the Gaza strip, penetrated Israel at dawn on Saturday under the cover of a massive rocket barrage.

Almost 1,000 people have been killed in the conflict so far, with Israel reporting more than 600 lives lost and Gaza’s Health Ministry putting its toll at 370 dead.