The China Mail - Israel pounds Gaza as Iran accuses it of seeking to 'expand war'

Western governments pressed efforts to defuse tensions in the region, sky-high after the killing of two top militant leaders in attacks blamed on Israel that the militants and their Iranian backers have vowed to avenge.

Gaza's civil defence agency said Israeli strikes hit two schools in Gaza City, killing more than 18 people. The Israeli military said it struck Hamas command centres.

"The Israeli occupation killed more than 18 citizens in strikes on two schools," senior agency official Mohammad al-Mughayyir told AFP, referring to Al-Zahra and Abdel Fattah Hamoud schools in Gaza City.

Mughayyir said 60 people were also wounded and more than 40 still missing.

"This is a clear targeting of schools and safe civilian facilities in the Gaza Strip," he said.

The Israeli military said the schools housed Hamas command centres.

At least 13 people were killed elsewhere in Gaza, rescuers and medics reported, as the Israeli military issued its latest evacuation order, for parts of the main southern city of Khan Yunis.

- 'Strategic mistake' -

Iran's acting foreign minister, Ali Bagheri, told AFP that Israel had committed "a strategic mistake" by killing Hamas's political leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran last week -- hours after the assassination in Beirut of Hezbollah's military chief.

Although Israel has not admitted to killing Haniyeh, Iran and its allies have vowed to retaliate, setting the region on edge as the Gaza war raged on into its 11th month.

Israel seeks "to expand tension, war and conflict to other countries", but has neither "the capacity nor the strength" to fight Iran, Bagheri said.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, speaking at a military base on Wednesday, said Israel was "prepared both defensively and offensively" and "determined" to defend itself.

- 'Cycle of reprisals' -

The front pages of some of Israel's leading newspapers on Thursday cited "assessments" that Iran may be rethinking its course of action, reportedly in part due to US pressure.

Officials and leaders in the Middle East and beyond have called for calm, with Britain's minister for international development, Anneliese Dodds, telling AFP on a visit to Jordan: "We must see a de-escalation."

The United States, which has sent extra warships and jets to the region, has urged both Iran and Israel to avoid an escalation.

France's President Emmanuel Macron spoke Wednesday with his Iranian counterpart Masoud Pezeshkian and later with Israel's Netanyahu, telling both to "avoid a cycle of reprisals", according to the French presidency.

Israel's military chief Herzi Halevi told troops "we are not stopping" targeting the leaders of "our most dangerous enemies", vowing to "find" and "attack" Hamas's newly-appointed chief Yahya Sinwar too, according to an army statement.

Bagheri said OIC members voiced support for Iranian retaliation.

"Western countries, who claim they have asked Iran to restrict its response... are not in the position to advise the Islamic Republic of Iran."

The Israel-Hamas war in the Gaza Strip has already drawn in Tehran-aligned militants in Syria, Lebanon, Iraq and Yemen.

Lebanese Hamas ally Hezbollah, which has traded near-daily cross-border fire with Israeli troops throughout the Gaza war, has vowed retaliation for military chief Fuad Shukr's killing.

Defence Minister Yoav Gallant said Israel would fight Hezbollah "with all its might" if it continues its attacks across the border.

"We will not allow the Hezbollah militia to destabilise the border and the region. If Hezbollah continues its aggression, Israel will fight it, with all its might," he said.

- Israel PM 'sorry' -

The Hamas attack that triggered the war in Gaza resulted in the deaths of 1,198 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli official figures.

Palestinian militants seized 251 hostages, 111 of whom are still held in Gaza, including 39 the Israeli military says are dead.

Israel's retaliatory military campaign in Gaza has killed at least 39,699 people, according to the Hamas-run territory's health ministry, which does not give details of civilian and militant deaths.

Netanyahu, who has resisted making an apology for security failures over Israel's worst-ever attack, said in an interview published Thursday that he was "sorry, deeply, that something like this happened".

"You always look back and you say, 'Could we have done things that would have prevented it?'" Netanyahu told Time magazine.

On the diplomatic front, an Israeli decision to revoke the diplomatic status of Norway's envoys to the Palestinian Authority over "anti-Israel behaviour" drew anger from Oslo.

"Today's decision will have consequences for our relationship with the Netanyahu government," said Norwegian Foreign Minister Espen Barth Eide.

The European Union condemned the Israeli move, while Washington described it as unhelpful given the "productive role" Norway had played in the secret talks that led to the Oslo Accords of the 1990s.

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