1 of 2 | U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken (L) meets with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday at the end of a third round of shuttle diplomacy in which he met with leaders in Greece, Turkey and several Arab states. Photo by Kobi Gideon/EPA-EFE
Jan. 9 (UPI) -- Fighting between Israeli forces and Hamas raged on in Gaza as U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken sat down for talks with Israel's war leaders Tuesday, with the military saying it had "eliminated" 40 Hamas fighters in Khan Younis.
The militants were killed in a ground assault led by paratroopers of the Israeli army's 98th Division into the heart of the southern Gaza city over the past 24 hours in which "a wide variety of weapons and significant [tunnel] shafts were located," Israel Defense Forces said in an update on X.
The weapons haul included 12 Kalashnikov rifles, four loaded RPG launchers, dozens of hand grenades, ammunition clips and vests.
IDF infantry also went on the offensive in the Maghazi area of central Gaza, engaging with fighters attached to Hamas' Central Camps Brigade and calling in an airstrike to take out "saboteurs," IDF spokesman Avichay Adaree said in a separate post.
Israeli naval forces off the coast also fired on military sites, warehouses and naval vehicles used by Hamas.
Meanwhile, Blinken kicked off his visit with meetings with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Foreign Minister Israel Katz and President Isaac Herzog.
Ahead of his meeting with Herzog, Blinken detailed Washington's "relentless efforts" to free hostages being held by Hamas and added he would be briefing Herzog and Netanyahu on his talks with Turkish and Arab leaders.
Herzog reiterated assurances that Israel was doing everything it could to minimize civilian casualties.
"We are alerting, we are calling, we are showing, we are sending leaflets, we are using all the means that international law enables us in order to move out people, so that we can unravel this huge city of terror underneath, in people's homes, living rooms and bedrooms, mosques and shops and schools," he said.
Herzog's comments came as Gaza's health ministry said 57 people died at the Al-Aqsa hospital in Deir al-Balah in central Gaza in the 24 hours since international medical NGOs, including Médecins Sans Frontières (Doctors Without Borders), pulled their teams out over safety concerns due to Israeli military action in the vicinity.
Israel responded by announcing a temporary four-hour "suspension of military activities for humanitarian purposes in the southeast of Deir al-Balah from 10 a.m. until 2 p.m. local time, for the purpose of supply," together with a seven-hour opening of a new one-way humanitarian corridor via Al-Rashid Street from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. that will permit civilians to evacuate north-to-south only.
Meanwhile, to the north, clashes between Israeli forces and Iran-backed Hezbollah fighters continued along the Lebanon border with an IDF drone strike killing three of the group's members traveling in a car near the village of Ghandouriyeh in response to attacks on an army post at al-Malkia and al-Baghdadi.
The drone strike came a day after the killing of senior Hezbollah commander Wissam Tawil on Monday and a Jan. 2 airstrike on the Beirut stronghold of Hezbollah last week, which killed Hamas' deputy leader Saleh al-Arouri, boosting fears that the Israel-Gaza conflict could suck in Lebanon.
