Middle East updates: Deaths in Gaza as Hamas heads to Cairo

The top United States military general has arrived in Jordan as Washington tries to prevent the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza escalating into a broader Middle East conflict.

Air Force General CQ Brown, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said he would also visit Egypt and Israel in the coming days to hear the perspectives of military leaders.

He said that multi-nation efforts to clinch a cease-fire in Gaza would "help bring down the temperature" if successful.

"At the same time, as I talk to my counterparts, what are the things we can do to deter any type of broader escalation and ensure we're taking all the appropriate steps to (avoid) ... a broader conflict," Brown told Reuters news agency before landing in Jordan.

The US has recently strengthened its forces in the Middle East to guard against major new attacks by Iran or its allies, including sending the Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier strike group, alongside an Air Force F-22 Raptor squadron and a cruise missile submarine.

"We brought in additional capability to send a strong message to deter a broader conflict ... but also to protect our forces should they be attacked," Brown said, noting that safeguarding American forces was "paramount."

Iran and the Lebanese militia Hezbollah have threatened retaliation for the killings of senior Hamas and Hezbollah leaders, which were blamed on Israel.

Brown did not speculate about what Iran and its allies might do but said he would discuss different scenarios with his Israeli counterpart.

Israeli attacks on the Gaza Strip in the past 48 hours have killed 69 Palestinians and injured 212 more, the health ministry of the Hamas-run enclave said.

The latest death toll since the fighting started on October 7 is now 40,334 killed and 93,356 injured, said the health ministry, which does not differentiate between civilians and militants. 

The UN and other organizations consider the ministry's tolls reliable and say the majority of those killed in over 10 months of conflict are women and children.

A Hamas delegation is arriving in the Egyptian capital of Cairo on Saturday evening to hear from mediators regarding the latest round of cease-fire negotiations, Hamas officials told news agencies.

The militant group, however, will not attend the cease-fire talks in the Egyptian capital, a senior Hamas official told the French AFP news agency.

"The delegation will meet with senior Egyptian intelligence officials to be briefed on developments in the ongoing round of Gaza ceasefire talks... but this does not mean it will take part in the negotiations," the Hamas official told AFP on condition of anonymity as he was not authorized to talk publicly on the issue.

"Hamas has said from the beginning that it will not participate in this round of negotiations, which began last week in Doha."

Israel's troop presence on Gaza's southern border with Egypt remains one of the main points of contention.

Hamas official Hossam Badran earlier told AFP that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's insistence that Israeli troops remain on the Philadelphi border strip reflects the politician's "refusal to reach a final agreement."

Mediators Egypt, Qatar and the United States aim to reach a cease-fire and hostage release deal between Israel and Hamas. On Friday, the White House said the latest round of talks has seen some "progress" toward a possible cease-fire.

An oil tanker attacked by Yemen's Iran-backed Houthi rebels and later abandoned by its crew has caught fire in the Red Sea, the British military's United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations information center said.

The Greek-flagged Sounion was first damaged by repeated Houthi attacks on Wednesday, prompting a fire and a loss of engine power. An analysis by the Associated Press suggests it was destroyed by planted explosives rather than strikes. 

Its crew were later rescued by a European warship.

"UKMTO have received a report that three fires have been observed on [the] vessel," the center said. "The vessel appears to be drifting."

The Houthis later shared a video purportedly showing them setting the vessel ablaze, the Reuters news agency reported.

The tanker is carrying some 150,000 metric tons of crude oil and its presence in the water poses a significant environmental hazard.

The vessel is now anchored between Eritrea and Yemen. It had sailed from Iraq and was headed for a port near Athens, where many refineries are based.

Houthis have been targeting vessels passing through the Red Sea since last November, in solidarity with Palestinians amid the war in Gaza.

At least 11 Palestinians were killed in Israeli attacks east of Gaza's Khan Younis area and the Al-Nuseirat camp area, Palestinian media reported.

Those killed included two children and a woman, the official Palestinian news agency Wafa said.

The attack also injured at least 15 others, Wafa added.

The Israeli military operations in the Gaza Strip, ongoing for over ten months now, have killed more than 40,000 Palestinians, health authorities in the Hamas-run enclave say. 

Israel's military campaign began after the militant Hamas group attacked Israel on October 7 last year. The attack resulted in 1,200 deaths and militants also took around 250 people hostage. Just under half of the hostages were released during a temporary cease-fire last November. 

Hamas is designated as a terrorist group by Israel, the US, Germany and others.

rmt/rc (AFP, AP, dpa, Reuters)