Israel-Hamas war latest: Hamas chooses Oct. 7 mastermind as their new leader as wider war feared

The Palestinian militant group Hamas said Tuesday it has chosen Yahya Sinwar, its top official in Gaza who masterminded the Oct. 7 attacks in Israel, as its new leader. The choice of the hardliner was a defiant move by Hamas, whose political leader Ismail Haniyeh was killed in Iran last week in a presumed Israeli strike.

Meanwhile, at least 19 people including six soldiers were wounded in northern Israel on Tuesday after Lebanon’s Hezbollah militants launched drone attacks, emergency officials said, as world leaders try to stop tensions in the Middle East from boiling over into a regional war.

Most of the people were hurt by an Israeli interceptor rocket that missed and hit the ground. Local authorities issued sweeping new guidelines in northern Israel for all residents to “avoid all non-vital activity and to stay near a safe area” until further notice. Israel and Hezbollah have exchanged near-daily strikes for the past 10 months during the war in Gaza.

Efforts continue around the region to prevent the war from becoming a wider conflict after the killings last week of a senior Hezbollah commander in Lebanon and Hamas’ top political leader in Iran. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told his Cabinet over the weekend that Israel is already in a “multi-front war” with Iran and its proxies.

Inside Gaza, the only corridor for humanitarian aid to enter the south has been shut down because of fighting in the area. The Palestinian territory faces a severe humanitarian crisis as its Health Ministry says the death toll in the war approaches 40,000.

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Here’s the latest:

Hamas' new political leader has the power to ensure that a cease-fire deal is reached, Blinken says

WASHINGTON — Reacting to Yahya Sinwar, the mastermind of the Oct. 7 attack, becoming Hamas' new political leader, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Sinwar has the power to ensure that a cease-fire deal is reached.

Sinwar “has been and remains the primary decider when it comes to concluding the cease-fire, and so I think this (today’s announcement) only underscores the fact that it’s really on him to decide whether to move forward with a cease-fire that manifestly will help so many Palestinians in desperate need, women, children, men who are caught in a crossfire," Blinken said. "... It really is on him.”

U.S. sends Navy fighter jets to a base in the Middle East to help protect Israel

WASHINGTON — About a dozen F/A-18 fighter jets from the USS Theodore Roosevelt aircraft carrier have flown to a military base in the Middle East, as part of the Pentagon’s effort to help defend Israel from possible attacks by Iran and its proxies and to safeguard U.S. troops, according to a U.S. official.

The F/A-18s and a E-2D Hawkeye surveillance aircraft took off from the carrier in the Gulf of Oman and arrived at the undisclosed base on Monday, said the official.

U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin ordered the increased military presence in the region as officials worry about escalating violence in the Middle East in the wake of the killings last week of a senior Hezbollah commander in Lebanon and Hamas’ top political leader in Iran, in suspected Israeli strikes. Both groups are backed by Iran.

The Navy jets’ land-based deployment is expected to be temporary, because a squadron of Air Force F-22 fighter jets is enroute to the same base from their home station in Alaska. The roughly dozen F-22s are expected to arrive in the Middle East in the coming days, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss troop movements.

It’s not clear how long all of the aircraft will remain together at the base, and that may depend on what — if anything — happens in the next few days.