Israel-Hamas war: US weighs response to Jordan strike

The three US soldiers who were killed in a drone attack  on Sunday came from a US Army reserve unit based in the state of Georgia, the Pentagon said on Monday.

The Associated Press said one the soldiers killed was a 24-year-old woman.

She was identified by her father, who said she had volunteered to deploy.

The Pentagon also said that the number of injuries from the drone attack has now surpassed 40.

The United States vowed a "consequential" response to a deadly drone strike on a US base in Jordan it said was carried out by Iran-backed militants, but does not want to be drawn into a war against Iran.

White House national security spokesperson John Kirby said President Joe Biden is currently "weighing the options before him."

"As he said yesterday, we will respond. We'll do that on our schedule and our time and we'll do it in the manner of the president's choosing as commander in chief," Kirby said.

"We'll also do it fully cognizant of the fact that these groups, backed by Tehran, have just taken the lives of American troops."

Kirby said the strike was "escalatory" and "requires a response," but he also hinted at the need to be proportionate.

"We are not looking for a war with Iran," Kirby said. 

Pentagon spokesperson Sabrina Singh told reporters that the US does not believe that Iran is seeking a war, but said "we will take action, and respond to attacks on our forces."

Singh blamed Iran for enabling groups attacking the US, adding that the latest attack carried the "footprints" of Iran-backed Kataib Hezbollah.

Iran has denied any involvement in the drone attack and its Foreign Ministry called the US claims "baseless accusations."

A drone that killed three US service members and injured dozens more at the "Tower 22" base in Jordan on Sunday may have been mistaken for an US drone, according to reports.

Two officials, who requested anonymity as they were not authorized to comment, told the Associated Press that a US drone was returning to base at the same an enemy drone was flying nearby at a low altitude.

As a result, there was no effort to shoot down the enemy drone, they said.

The Wall Street Journal also reported that the two drones were flying at the same time, and that this caused confusion.

US President Joe Biden is still "looking at the options" after he vowed to retaliate for a drone attack that killed three US troops on Sunday, White House national security spokesperson John Kirby said Monday. President Biden has pinned blame on Iran-backed forces. 

"We are not looking for a war with Iran, we are not looking to escalate the conflict in the region," Kirby told NBC's "Today" show.

"Obviously, these attacks keep coming. We'll keep looking at the options," he added.

"I can't speak for the supreme leader or what he wants or he doesn't want. I can tell you what we want. What we want is a stable, secure, prosperous Middle East, and we want these attacks to stop," he said. 

A proposal to secure a pause in fighting in Gaza and the release of hostages will soon be presented to Hamas, Qatar's prime minister said on Monday.

Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani said "good progress" had been made during the talks this week.

The talks were attended by officials from Qatar, the US, Israel and Egypt.

The Qatari PM said the parties are "hoping to relay this proposal to Hamas and to get them to a place where they engage positively and constructively in the process."

The US, along with the EU, Germany and other governments, consider Hamas to be a terrorist group.

US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin has said that "all necessary actions" would be taken to defend US troops, following a drone attack Sunday on a base in Jordan that killed three US soldiers and wounded dozens more. 

"Let me start with my outrage and sorrow [for the deaths of three brave US troops in Jordan and for the other troops who were wounded," Austin said Monday at the start of meeting with NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg in Washington. 

President Joe Biden "and I will not tolerate attacks on US forces and we will take all necessary actions to defend the US and our troops," said Austin. 

The US has said Iran-linked forced were behind the attack. Iran has denied having any involvement.

It was the first deadly strike against US forces stationed in the Middle East since the Hamas terror attacks on October 7 sparked a war with Israel in Gaza that threatens to destabilize the region. 

Sirens blared in Tel Aviv, and other Israeli cities, for the first time in several weeks on Monday, warning of incoming rocket fire. 

Muffled explosions were reported heard in Tel Aviv's city center. According to Israeli media reports, about a dozen rockets were fired at Israel from the Gaza Strip, dpa news agency reported. 

Hamas's armed wing said in a statement it fired the rockets in response to "massacres against civilians" in Gaza, where Israeli forces have been battling the militant group since it carried out a terror attack on October 7.

According to Israel's Magen David Adom rescue service, there were no immediate reports of casualties.

Since the Hamas terror attacks sparked the ongoing Gaza conflict, thousands of rockets have been fired from the Gaza Strip at Israeli population centers. 

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah al-Sissi spoke on Monday by telephone about how to improve the humanitarian situation in Gaza. 

According to German government spokesman Steffen Hebestreit, both leaders agreed that access for humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip and supplies for the Palestinians must be significantly improved. 

Scholz also stressed that the German government considers a two-state solution to the conflict, in which the Palestinians would be granted their own state, as the way to achieve peace and security for both sides, Hebestreit said in a statement. 

The German chancellor also thanked al-Sisi for Egypt's efforts to mediate in the conflict, and both leaders agreed that a regional expansion of the Gaza war must be prevented, the spokesman said.

Israel's foreign minister said that he had cancelled meetings with the head of the UN refugee agency for Palestinians (UNRWA) and called on him to resign following allegations that some UN staff were involved in the October 7 attacks on Israel.

"I have just cancelled the meetings of UNRWA head Philippe Lazzarini with officials from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Israel," said Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz.

"UNRWA employees participated in the massacre of October 7," he added. "Lazzarini should draw conclusions and resign. Supporters of terrorism are not welcome here."

The UN agency has fired several employees and launched an investigation after Israel released information allegedly linking the employees in question to the October 7 terror attacks carried out by Hamas militants. 

After the allegations were made, a number of countries, including Germany the US, UK and Japan, suspended funding to UNRWA

Meanwhile, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu described the UNRWA as "perforated with Hamas."

"We discovered that there were 13 UNRWA workers who actually participated, either directly or indirectly, in the October 7 massacre," he told Britain's TalkTV.

"In UNRWA schools they've been teaching the doctrines of extermination for Israel — the doctrines of terrorism, lauding terrorism, glorifying terrorism."

Founded in 1948, the UNRWA helps provide education, health care and welfare to some 6 million Palestinian refugees in Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. "[It] is perceived as a lifeline by Palestinian refugees," Lazzarini told DW in 2022. 

At least two people were killed and several wounded in a strike on an area south of Syria's capital, Damascus, Syrian state media reported Monday. 

Syrian state media, citing a military source, said that Israel carried out the strike. There was no immediate comment from Israeli officials. Israel's air force frequently bombs targets in neighboring Syria.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR), an opposition war monitor, reported that seven people were killed, adding that the strike hit a farm housing members of the Iranian-backed Lebanese militant group Hezbollah and other Iran-backed factions. 

Iran's ambassador in Damascus denied reports that Iranian citizens were killed in the strike. Iranian news agency Tasnim had said Israel "attacked an Iranian military advisory center," Reuters reported.  

The strike comes a day after three US soldiers were killed in a drone strike on a military outpost in Jordan, the first time US troops have died under fire since the Israel-Gaza war erupted in October.

Christopher Gunness, director of the Myanmar Accountability Project and former chief spokesman for UNRWA, told DW that the UN agency is determined to continue this life-saving work despite allegations that some of its staff helped Hamas carry out the October 7 terrorist attacks.

He also emphasized that UNRWA proactively dismissed these individuals even before the investigation was completed as part of its zero-tolerance policy toward neutrality violations. According to Gunness, this showed how seriously the agency took the information.

"And let's be clear, this is 12 bad apples in a staff of 13,000 in Gaza. They are working relentlessly," Gunness said. "Some of them have made the ultimate sacrifice for humanity; 152 of them have given their lives."

The former UNRWA spokesman said that Germany and other countries that have suspended funding for UNRWA are acting disproportionately and punitively, urging Berlin to reestablish its aid to the agency.

"It is punishing the women coming to the UNRWA shelters for food with their newborn, the sick, the elderly, the dying, the wounded," he said.

Though the United Nations does not designate Hamas as a terrorist organization, the United States, the United Kingdom, Japan and other countries that have suspended their funding for the UNRWA do.

The Palestinian Foreign Ministry in Ramallah has strongly condemned calls by some Israeli ministers for the resettlement of the Gaza Strip. 

At the "Conference of Victory" on Sunday, Itamar Ben-Gvir, the far-right Minister of National Security, called not only for the return of Israeli settlers to the coastal enclave and villages in the occupied West Bank but also for "encouraging [Palestinians] to leave." Thousands of demonstrators also marched in Jerusalem, demanding the restoration of Jewish settlements in the Gaza Strip.

"This meeting and its agenda once again reveal the true face of the Israeli right-wing coalition government, including its rejection of peace and persistence in pursuing the occupation, colonialism and apartheid regime," the Palestinian ministry said in a statement.

Israel firmly rejects the accusation of apartheid, cited as one of the reasons why South Africa and its ruling African National Congress party brought a genocide case against Israel at the International Court of Justice.

The ministry called on the international community and the United States to put pressure on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to stop this form of incitement.

Israel withdrew from the Gaza Strip in 2005 and evacuated more than 20 Israeli settlements. About 2.2 million Palestinians live in the territory.

Iran has denied any involvement in the drone attack that killed three American soldiers and injured 34 more on a US base in northeastern Jordan near the Syrian border on Sunday.

US President Joe Biden suggested "radical Iran-backed militant groups operating in Syria and Iraq" were behind the strike on the base known as "Tower 22," while British Foreign Secretary David Cameron called on Tehran "to de-escalate in the region."

In response, Iranian foreign ministry spokesman Nasser Kanani lambasted what he called "baseless accusations" that he said were part of a "conspiracy of those who see their interests in dragging America into a new battle."

He insisted that "the Islamic Republic of Iran does not welcome the expansion of conflict in the region," adding that Tehran "is not involved in the decisions of the resistance groups" when it comes to how they choose to "defend Palestinians or their own countries."

Earlier, a spokesman for Iran's UN mission claimed that "the conflict has been initiated by the US military against resistance groups in Iraq and Syria, and such operations are reciprocal between them." He added that Iran had "nothing to do with the attacks in question."

US military bases across the Middle East have been attacked around 150 times since hostilities broke out between Israel and Hamas following the October 7 attacks. But Sunday's attack marked the first time that US troops had been killed.

Japan and Austria have joined the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany, Australia, Canada and others in suspending additional funding to the United Nations agency for Palestinians in Gaza. 

The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) is currently investigating an allegation that some of its employees were involved in the October 7 attack on Israel. 

Japan, the sixth-biggest donor to the ageny according to 2022 data, said it was "extremely concerned" about the alleged involvement and has been "strongly urging UNRWA to conduct the investigation in a prompt and complete manner", the foreign ministry said in a statement.

The Austrian foreign ministy also said: "We call on UNRWA and the United Nations to conduct a comprehensive, swift and complete investigation into the allegations."

The UNRWA is a critical source of humanitarian support for civilians in Gaza.

Jordan has condemned the drone attack at an outpost near Syria's border which killed three US troops. The Jordanian government spokesman, Muhannad Mubaidin, initially said the attack "did not happen in Jordan."

Jordan "condemned the terrorist attack that targeted an outpost on the border with Syria, killing three US soldiers" and injuring others "from the US forces that are cooperating with Jordan in countering terrorism and securing the border," official news agency Petra reported.

Mubaideen expressed condolences to the US and said the attack "did not result in any casualties among officers of the Jordan Armed Forces."

It marks the first time US military personnel have been killed by hostile fire in the Middle East since the start of the war between Israel and Iran-backed Hamas militants in the Gaza Strip.