The US announced it was sending military support to Israel and strengthening its naval and air force presence in the region amid widespread condemnation of the Hamas attack on Israeli civilians, and as the UN warned the region was on a “dangerous precipice”.
Joe Biden told Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday that “additional assistance for the Israel Defence Forces is now on its way to Israel with more to follow over the coming days”, according to a White House account of the conversation. The US defence secretary, Lloyd Austin, said the military support would include “equipment and resources, including munitions”.
Austin also announced that the USS Gerald Ford aircraft carrier and its strike group of warships including guided missile destroyers would be deployed farther east in the Mediterranean while US air force squadrons of fighter planes around the region would be augmented, in what he portrayed as a show of deterrence.
“The US maintains ready forces globally to further reinforce this deterrence posture if required,” the defence secretary said.
There were reported to be many Americans among the victims. The secretary of state, Antony Blinken, said the administration was trying to verify reports of “several Americans” killed in the fighting and others who were missing. The Israeli ambassador to the US, Michael Herzog, said there were dozens of Americans among the hostages that Hamas militants had taken back into Gaza.
Two Argentinians and a French citizen were reported dead while two Brazilians, two Mexicans and a British man were said to be missing after the Hamas attack on Saturday. Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelenskiy said that two Ukrainian nationals had also died in the violence.
Many of the foreign victims had been attending a music festival near the Gaza border that was overrun by Hamas militants.
An emergency session of the UN security council was called in the hope of a rare moment of unity as the violence threatened to spread. The UN Middle East peace envoy, Tor Wennesland, said: “This is a dangerous precipice, and I appeal to all to pull back from the brink.”
While western countries with many African and Latin American countries focused their response on condemning the Hamas attack, Russia, China and Turkey issued general appeals for restraint, as did several Arab states. But some parts of the Islamic world blamed Israel exclusively.
In the Egyptian city of Alexandria, two Israeli tourists and an Egyptian were reported to have been shot dead by a police officer who opened fire on an Israeli tour group visiting a religious site, in an incident underlining the danger that the conflict could trigger violence beyond the Middle East.
France, Germany, Argentina and the UK were among the countries that said they were taking additional security measures for their Jewish communities.
“We have stepped up security at places of worship and at schools. There is no specific threat at this stage, but we will remain extremely vigilant,” France’s prime minister, Élisabeth Borne, told the BFMTV channel.
Germany’s interior minister, Nancy Faeser, told the Bild newspaper that federal and regional authorities were coordinating security measures and also closely watching “potential supporters of Hamas in the Islamist sphere”.
Berlin police posted photos on social media showing “people celebrating the attacks on Israel by passing out pastries” in Berlin, and said they had carried out identity checks and, in some cases, filed charges.
On Saturday night, the city’s most famous landmark, the Brandenburg Gate, was lit up in the colours of the Israeli flag.
Britain’s home secretary, Suella Braverman, said she had consulted the Community Security Trust, a charity dedicated to the safety of British Jews, “to ensure the government is doing everything necessary for the protection of our Jewish communities”.
Braverman also warned that the police would act against open declarations of support for Hamas.
“There must be zero tolerance for antisemitism or glorification of terrorism on the streets of Britain,” she said. “I expect the police to use the full force of the law against displays of support for Hamas, other proscribed terrorist groups or attempts to intimidate British Jews.”
The Arab and Islamic world was split in its reaction between those countries that declared general calls for restraint from both sides, and those who held Israel solely responsible because of the treatment of Palestinians and the indiscriminate nature of the retaliation on residential buildings in Gaza.
The Saudi foreign ministry called for an “immediate cessation of violence”, as did the United Arab Emirates. Egypt warned of “grave consequences” and called for “exercising maximum restraint and avoiding exposing civilians to further danger”. The Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, also called for “restraint from all parties.”
Indonesia, the world’s largest Muslim-majority country, called for all acts of violence to stop but said the “root of the conflict” was the Israeli occupation of Palestinian territories.
The Qatari foreign ministry called for general restraint but declared Israel alone responsible for the escalation of violence against Palestinians. Kuwait also blamed Israel for its “blatant attacks”.
The most emphatic support for Hamas came from Iran, which has long supported the militant movement.
“Iran supports the legitimate defence of the Palestinian nation,” President Ebrahim Raisi said, according to state television. Raisi praised the “resistance” efforts of both Hamas and Islamic Jihad and declared: “The Zionist regime and its supporters are responsible for endangering the security of nations in the region, and they must be held accountable in this matter.”
