On October 15, Iran issued a stinging public ultimatum to its arch-enemy Israel: Halt your onslaught on Gaza or we'll be forced to take action, its foreign minister warned
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Agencies
Mon Oct 23, 2023 12:00 AM
Last update on: Mon Oct 23, 2023 02:02 AM
266 killed in Gaza in 24 hours
Israel keeps pounding the enclave; US sees significant risk of attacks on Mideast interests
Members of a medical team transport a boy injured in an Israeli strike at a makeshift emergency ward set up outside the Kuwait hospital, in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip yesterday. Israel yesterday stepped up strikes on Gaza killing at least 266 Palestinians as fears of a wider conflict grew.
Washington yesterday said it was increasing military readiness in the Middle East warning of a significant risk to US interests in the region.
Iran said the region could spiral "out of control" and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned Lebanon's Hezbollah that if it got involved, it would be "the mistake of its life".
Amid this war of words, Gaza's Health Ministry yesterday said 266 Palestinians, including 117 children, had been killed by Israeli air strikes in the past 24 hours in the enclave.
Israel has laid "total siege" to Gaza after a mass infiltration into Israel by Hamas gunmen on Oct 7.
Hamas fighters also took 212 hostages.
Since Oct 7, Israel's air and missile strikes have killed at least 4,741 Palestinians and wounded 15,898, with over a million of the densely populated enclave's 2.3 million people displaced.
More than 40 percent of Gaza's housing has been damaged or destroyed, according to the UN. US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said on Saturday that Washington would send more military assets to the Middle East in support of Israel and strengthen the US defence posture in the region after "recent escalations by Iran and its proxy forces" - a reference to Hezbollah, Palestinian and other militants.
Washington has deployed a significant amount of naval power to the Middle East, including two aircraft carriers, support ships and about 2,000 Marines, to help deter attacks by Iran-affiliated forces.
Austin said a Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) system and extra Patriot air defence missile system battalions will be sent to the region and more troops put on standby.
Iranian security officials told Reuters Iran's strategy was for Middle East proxies like Hezbollah to pursue limited strikes on Israeli and US targets but to avoid a major escalation that would draw in Tehran, a high-wire act for the Islamic Republic.
Israel has amassed tanks and troops near the fenced border around Gaza for a planned ground invasion aiming to annihilate Hamas.
With Israel keeping up daily bombings, Palestinians said they received renewed Israeli military warnings to move from Gaza's north to the south to avoid the deadliest theatre of the war.
They said military leaflets dropped on the territory, just 45 km (28 miles) long, contained the added warning that they could be identified as sympathisers with a "terrorist organisation" if they stayed put.
Gaza's Health Ministry said most of the dead from air strikes over the past 24 hours were in Gaza's south. Israel says it is only targeting militants and that they often use residential buildings as cover.
The first humanitarian aid convoy allowed into Gaza since the war erupted arrived in southern Gaza from Egypt yesterday after days of negotiations. The UN said the 20-truck convoy brought life-saving medical supplies and some food.
A second convoy of around 19 trucks loaded with medical and food supplies entered the Egyptian side of the Rafah crossing on Sunday and was being inspected before proceeding into Gaza, sources said.
The United Nations estimates that about 100 trucks per day are required to meet the needs of Gaza's 2.4 million residents given the "catastrophic" humanitarian situation.
That definitely boosted something. 
