Middle East: Israeli strikes kill over 300 children — UN

The United States has ordered the deployment of additional warplanes to the Middle East.

"Additional squadrons and other air assets" will reinforce US warships in the Middle East, said a defense department statement released on Tuesday.

The move comes amid a US bombing campaign targeting Iranian-backed Houthis in Yemen, which saw more air attacks early Tuesday morning.

It also comes as US President Donald Trump increases threats on Iran to curb its nuclear program.

"The United States and its partners remain committed to regional security in the CENTCOM (area of responsibility) and are prepared to respond to any state or non-state actor seeking to broaden or escalate conflict in the region," Pentagon spokesperson Sean Parnell said in the statement.

CENTCOM refers to the US Central Command, which comprises a region stretching across northeast Africa, the Middle East and Central and South Asia.

What military planes are the US sending to Middle East?

The Pentagon's statement made no mention of specific aircraft.

However, at least four B-2 stealth bombers were relocated last week to a US-British military base on the tiny Indian Ocean island of Diego Garcia in the Chagos archipelago, according to according to US officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, and reported on by Reuters.

The B-2 bombers are capable of carrying nuclear weapons and, with only 20 such aircraft in the Air Force's inventory, are usually used sparingly. 

UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk has slammed Israel's attack on an emergency convoy in Gaza that left 15 aid workers and medics dead.

"I condemn the attack by the Israeli army on a medical and emergency convoy on 23 March resulting in the killing of 15 medical personnel and humanitarian workers in Gaza," Türk said in a statement.

"The subsequent discovery of their bodies ... buried near their clearly marked destroyed vehicles, is deeply disturbing," Türk said. 

The dead included eight Red Crescent workers, six members of Gaza’s Civil Defense emergency unit and a staffer from UNRWA, the UN's agency for Palestinians. 

On Monday, Jonathan Whittall, head of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in Gaza, described the site as a ''mass grave."

The IDF said on Friday it had fired on ambulances and fire engines after having identified them as "suspicious vehicles."

Far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said Israel was "here to stay" while on a tour of the occupied West Bank with Defense Minister Israel Katz.

Katz and Smotrich vowed to crack down on what they called "illegal" construction by Palestinians and said it represented a threat to Israeli expansion in the West Bank.

"Judea and Samaria," Smotrich said, using the Biblical name Israel uses for the West Bank, are "the cradle of our homeland, the land of the Bible. We are here to stay.

"The Israeli government is working to develop the settlements in Judea and Samaria and will not allow the unchecked illegal Arab construction that has become a national plague in recent decades," Smotrich said, adding that settlers "are not second-class citizens" and are entitled to Israeli security guarantees.

Israel occupied the West Bank in 1967, though parts of it are governed by the Palestinian Authority.

The overwhelming majority of the international community has never recognized Israeli claims over the territory, but Israelis started building settlements there in the 1970s and 1980s.

Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank are classified by the International Court of Justice and the United Nations as illegal under international law.

The United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) said at least 322 children had been killed and 609 injured since the breakdown of the ceasefire and the Israeli military's resumption of bombardments in Gaza on March 18.

"Most of these children were displaced, sheltering in makeshift tents or damaged homes," UNICEF said in a statement.

The agency went on to say that the "resurgence of relentless and indiscriminate bombardments" coupled with three weeks of a "complete block on supplies entering Gaza" had put the humanitarian response under severe strain. 

"The ceasefire in Gaza provided a desperately needed lifeline for Gaza's children and hope for a path to recovery," said UNICEF Executive Director Catherine Russell.

The UN said more than 15,000 children had been reported killed since the start of the war nearly 18 months ago.

The war began after Hamas and other extremist groups attacked Israel on October 7, 2023, killing around 1,200 people and seizing 251 hostages.

Lebanon's Health Ministry has revised the death toll of an Israeli airstrike on the capital to four people, including one woman, they said.

The strike on a multi-story building in south Beirut was the second such assault during what is supposed to be a ceasefire between the Israeli military and the Lebanon-based militant group Hezbollah.

Israel had earlier said that one of the four people killed was Hezbollah official Hassan Bdeir.

The Israeli military confirmed Tuesday that it had killed a Hezbollah and Iran Quds Forces operative in an overnight strike on Beirut's southern suburbs.

"Hassan Ali Mahmoud Bdeir, a terrorist in Hezbollah's Unit 3900 and the Iranian Quds Force, was eliminated in the Dahieh area," the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said on social media.

"Bdeir recently operated in cooperation with the Hamas terrorist organization, assisting them in planning and advancing a significant and imminent terror attack against Israeli civilians."

The IDF said it acted on the advice of Israeli intelligence and struck the apartment building "given the immediacy of the threat."

A source close to Hezbollah, speaking on condition of anonymity as they were not authorized to brief the media, also confirmed the death to the AFP news agency, saying the strike killed Hassan Bdeir, Hezbollah's "deputy head for the Palestinian file" who was "at home with his family."

Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam has said an Israeli strike on south Beirut on Tuesday was a "clear breach" of a ceasefire put in place after more than a year of conflict between Israel and the Iran-backed Hezbollah militia.

Salam's office issued a statement describing the strike as "a clear breach of the arrangements of the cessation of hostilities" and a "flagrant violation of United Nations Resolution 1701." 

That Security Council decision ended a 2006 war between Israel and Hezbollah and served as the basis of the current truce agreed in late November.

Salam also said he has been closely monitoring the aftermath of the strike in coordination with the ministers of defense and the interior.

The office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Tuesday that former navy chief Vice Admiral Eli Sharvit would not be appointed as the new head of the Shin Bet security agency, as was announced a day earlier.   

"The prime minister thanked Vice Admiral Sharvit for his willingness to be called to duty, but informed him that after further consideration, he intends to examine other candidates," Netanyahu's office said in a statement.

Shin Bet has been without a chief since Netanyahu removed Ronen Bar, a former special forces soldier, from the position in March, triggering mass demonstrations.

The Israeli Supreme Court has issued a temporary injunction suspending Bar's dismissal amid doubts about its legality.

Netanyahu cited a "lack of trust" in Bar as the reason for his removal.

The relationship between the two had long been strained.

An Israeli strike on a southern suburb of Lebanon's capital, Beirut, has killed at least three people and wounded seven more, Lebanon's Health Ministry said on Tuesday. 

Photos and videos widely shared on local and social media showed damage to the top three floors of an apartment building following the strike.

The attack came without warning. In contrast, Israel warned residents before it bombed southern Beirut just a few days ago on Friday, March 28.

Israel's military said in a statement that the airstrike targeted a member of Hezbollah who had been helping Hamas in Gaza in attacks against Israel.

Lebanese President Joseph Aoun has condemned the airstrike.

"We must prevent any violation of sovereignty from abroad, or from infiltrators within who provide an additional pretext for aggression," he said on social media.

Tuesday's airstrike is the second time Israel has struck Lebanon since a ceasefire ended fighting between Israeli forces and Hezbollah in November.

The head of the UN's agency for Palestinian aid, Philippe Lazzarini, has condemned the evacuation order that Israel issued for Rafah in southern Gaza on Monday.

Lazzarini said the evacuation order affected more than 140,000 people in a territory that is already suffering form "death, diseases, destruction and hunger."

"People are treated like pinballs with constant military orders playing with their fate and lives," the UNRWA chief wrote on social media.

Since the Israeli military ended its ceasefire deal with Hamas earlier this month, it has again stepped up bombardment in several areas of Gaza.

"Where are people supposed to move?" added Lazzarini.

"Unlike in other conflicts, where populations can find safety, Gaza is being bombarded all across. It is sealed off like a cage with borders shut and basics not allowed in."

Lazzarini reiterated calls for a ceasefire.

Welcome to DW's updates on the situation in Gaza and in the wider Middle East. 

Three people have been killed in Beirut after Israel launched its second strike on the Lebanese capital since its ceasefire with Hezbollah in November.

Meanwhile, Israel on Monday issued an evacuation order for Rafah in southern Gaza. The order affects more than 140,000 Palestinians, according to UNRWA chief Philippe Lazzarini.