An injured man is transferred to a hospital in the southern Gaza Strip city of Khan Younis, on Jan 5, 2024. (PHOTO / XINHUA)

GAZA - Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh on Friday urged the US Secretary of State Antony Blinken to put the focus of his tour in the Middle East on ending Israel's "aggression" on the Gaza Strip.

In a statement, Haniyeh said he expected Blinken to "glean lessons from the past three months and recognize Washington's mistakes in supporting the occupation".

The Palestinian resistance movement's leader urged Arab and Islamic countries to emphasize to Washington that the stability of the Middle East is linked to the necessity of resolving the Palestinian issue.

Haniyeh's remarks came as Blinken started Friday a tour in the Middle East, during which he will visit Israel and the West Bank, in addition to Türkiye and five Arab countries, mainly to discuss the developments of the Gaza conflict and its spillover in the region.

The Palestinian enclave has been under massive Israeli bombardment and siege since Oct 7, 2023, which came in retaliation for a surprise attack by Hamas on the same day on southern Israel that killed about 1,200 people

The Palestinian death toll from Israeli strikes on the Gaza Strip rose to 22,600 since the onset of the conflict, the Gaza-based Health Ministry said on Friday

The remarks also came at a time when the Israeli army issued new evacuation orders to residents in the central Gaza Strip, demanding them to relocate southward.

The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs mentioned in a press statement that the Israeli army, in the past hours, issued evacuation orders in two additional residential areas in the north and west of the Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza through leaflets dropped by aircraft.

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The new evacuation orders cover an estimated 1.2-square-kilometer area, inhabited by approximately 4,700 people and housing a UN-supported health center, according to the statement.

The UN estimates that 1.9 million people, or nearly 85 percent of Gaza's total population, have become displaced, including many who have been displaced multiple times for safety.

The southern Gazan city of Rafah and its environs have sheltered the majority of the displaced, with over a million living in extremely overcrowded conditions, since Israel has intensified attacks on the central areas of the Gaza Strip and Khan Younis in the south.

A man stands in a destroyed building after an Israeli airstrike in the southern Gaza Strip city of Rafah, on Jan 5, 2024. (PHOTO / XINHUA)

Israeli airstrike

On Saturday, at least 13 Palestinians were killed in an Israeli air raid which targeted an inhabited house in the southern Gaza Strip city of Khan Younis, Palestinian media reported.

Most of the dead were women and children, and many others were injured in the airstrike, according to the official Palestinian news agency WAFA.

Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati warned Friday of Lebanon being dragged into a regional conflict as the ongoing violence in the region is escalating

Local sources told Xinhua that the Israeli warplanes also launched an attack on Deir el-Balah in the central Gaza Strip early Saturday morning, leaving a number of people dead or injured.

The Palestinian death toll from Israeli strikes on the Gaza Strip rose to 22,600 since the onset of the conflict, the Gaza-based Health Ministry said on Friday.

The ministry said in a statement that the Israeli army, within the past 24 hours, launched 15 attacks on Gaza, resulting in 162 deaths and 296 injuries.

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Lebabon PM warns of conflict expansion

Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati warned Friday of Lebanon being dragged into a regional conflict as the ongoing violence in the region is escalating.

Mikati made the remarks in a phone call with his Qatari counterpart Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, according to a statement from the Lebanese Council of Ministers.

"The expansion of violence and conflict in the region will have dire consequences on Lebanon and neighboring countries," Mikati told his Qatari counterpart, underscoring the need for the international community to act immediately to stop Israeli violations of international laws.

The Israeli army on Friday intensified air strikes on several southern Lebanese villages, with one of them hitting a Lebanese army's military site, causing only material damage, according to Lebanese military sources.

The sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity, added that the Israeli forces fired about 120 shells on dozens of villages and towns along Lebanon's southern border, destroying five houses and damaging 25 others.

Hezbollah said its fighters carried out attacks using Burkan missiles on several Israeli sites, including Dhahira, Motella, Kiryat Shmona, Al-Marj, and Birkat Risha, in addition to spy equipment and a gathering of Israeli soldiers at the Al-Manara settlement.

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People mourn a victim after an Israeli airstrike in the southern Gaza Strip city of Rafah, on Jan 5, 2024. (PHOTO / XINHUA)

UN's call for end to conflict 

On Friday, UN Undersecretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs Martin Griffiths called for an end to the conflict in Gaza.

Three months since the horrific Oct 7 attacks, Gaza has become a place of death and despair, he said in a statement.

Medical facilities are under relentless attack. The few hospitals that are partially functional are overwhelmed with trauma cases, critically short of all supplies, and inundated by desperate people seeking safety, said UN Undersecretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs Martin Griffiths

"It is time for the parties to meet all their obligations under international law, including to protect civilians and meet their essential needs, and to release all hostages immediately. It is time for the international community to use all its influence to make this happen," he added.

The humanitarian community has been left with the impossible mission of supporting more than 2 million people in Gaza, even as its own staff members are being killed and displaced, as communication blackouts continue, as roads are damaged and convoys are shot at, and as commercial supplies vital to survival are almost non-existent, said Griffiths.

Medical facilities are under relentless attack. The few hospitals that are partially functional are overwhelmed with trauma cases, critically short of all supplies, and inundated by desperate people seeking safety, he said.

Gaza's healthcare system 

Meanwhile, the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies warned of an "imminent collapse" of the healthcare system in the southern Gaza Strip.

In a statement sent to Xinhua, the IFRC's Middle East and North Africa office said most hospitals in the north of Gaza have stopped operating due to a lack of fuel, medicines, and medical equipment, while Al-Amal Hospital, one of the few still operational in the south, is about to stop operations due to the same reason amid Israel's persistent shelling, even though it is duly marked with the red crescent emblem.

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The IFRC said it was appalled by Israel's continuous shelling of the Palestinian Red Crescent Society headquarters and the PRCS-affiliated Al-Amal Hospital in Khan Younis.

The global humanitarian organization also urged protection for all medical facilities and workers in Gaza under international humanitarian law, calling for "rapid and unimpeded passage for humanitarian aid and safe and unhindered access for humanitarian workers".