Street-to-street combat raged in what Israel described as three Hamas strongholds in the Gaza Strip on Monday, as top Israeli officials warned that increased attacks on northern Israel by Hezbollah, from Lebanon, could prompt a powerful response.
Fighting in “fierce and difficult battles,” the Israeli military said Monday that the number of its soldiers killed in the ground invasion of Gaza had surpassed 100 — a fraction of the death toll among Palestinian civilians and Hamas fighters, but a measure of the intensity of the urban warfare.
At the same, in a sign that the smoldering tensions inflamed across the Middle East by the war in Gaza could be heating up, Israeli leaders hinted at escalating a conflict on another front, with Hezbollah, which like Hamas is backed by Iran.
Increasing Hezbollah strikes on northern Israel “demand of Israel to remove such a threat,” Benny Gantz, a member of the war cabinet and former defense minister, told the American secretary of state, Antony J. Blinken, in a phone call, according to a statement by Mr. Gantz’s office.
The chief of staff of Israel’s military, Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi, said on a visit to the northern border with Lebanon on Sunday that Hezbollah risked pushing his forces to make a “very clear change” in the confrontation. Neither he nor Mr. Gantz elaborated on what additional steps Israel might take, but General Halevi said that on both frontiers, Israel needs a return of “both safety and a sense of security.”
A third Iranian-backed militia, the Houthis, threatened over the weekend to step up attacks on ships bound for Israel that are transiting the Red Sea. The French Navy said on Sunday that one of its frigates there had shot down two drones launched from Yemen, where the Houthis are based.
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