The latest:

• Israel’s military strikes a West Bank mosque where it says Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad were planning an “imminent attack.”
• No consensus at the Cairo Summit on the Israel-Palestinian violence.
• The Rafah crossing between Gaza and Egypt opened Saturday, allowing the transportation of humanitarian aid.
• Clashes between Israel and Hamas continue, with Israeli airstrikes killing 19 people in Gaza, according to Palestinian media.
• Israel issued a warning advising its citizens against traveling to Egypt, Jordan and Morocco, and to leave as soon as possible if they are in those countries.

Israel says its aircraft have struck a compound beneath a mosque on the West Bank where members of Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad were planning an “imminent terror attack.”

Wafa, the Palestinian Authority’s official news agency, said at least one person was killed in the strike and several others were injured in the compound beneath al-Ansar Mosque in Jenin refugee camp.

The Israeli air strike is at least the second in recent days to hit the occupied West Bank, where violence between Jewish settlers and Palestinians has surged since Hamas gunmen from Gaza carried out a deadly Oct. 7 rampage in Israel.

Israeli fighter jets also struck Hezbollah targets in Lebanon. The Iran-backed Lebanese group and Israel’s military have been trading fire at the frontier almost daily. Hezbollah said that six of its fighters were killed Saturday on the border, raising to 19 the number of its fighters killed in the last two weeks.

The Israeli military said one of its soldiers on the border was hit by an anti-tank missile and severely wounded. It said two other soldiers were lightly injured in the incident.

The fighting along the Lebanon-Israel border is the worst since the 2006 war between Israel and Hezbollah.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken cautioned Lebanon’s prime minister, Najib Mikati, in a call Saturday that the Lebanese people would be affected if his country were drawn into the war, the State Department said.

Asked about an expected invasion of the Gaza Strip, Israeli Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari told reporters that Israel will intensify its attacks in northern Gaza to prepare for the next stage of the war.

“We are going to increase the attacks, from today,” he said – a move he said is designed to minimize the danger to Israeli forces.

He repeated Israel’s previous call for residents of Gaza to move south.

US to ‘increase force posture’

Meanwhile, U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin on Saturday announced the U.S. is taking steps to strengthen its military posture in the Middle East, to counter what he called “recent escalations by Iran and its proxy forces.”

Austin said he redirected the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower aircraft carrier strike group to the Middle East, where it will join another carrier group currently in the eastern Mediterranean.

Austin said the U.S. is also deploying a high-altitude anti-ballistic missile defense system to the region, in addition to more Patriot anti-missile systems.

“These steps will bolster regional deterrence efforts, increase force protection for U.S. forces in the region, and assist in the defense of Israel,” read a statement from Austin.

Cairo summit

A summit hosted by Egypt on Saturday failed to reach an agreement on how to contain the violence between Israel and Hamas. Arab leaders condemned the Israeli bombardment of Gaza while mostly Western countries said civilians should be shielded. Israel and senior U.S. officials did not attend.

At the summit in Cairo, Jordan’s King Abdullah II decried what he called global silence about Israel’s attacks, which have killed more than 4,000 people in Gaza, the Gaza Health Ministry said Saturday, and made more than 1 million homeless.

He urged an even-handed approach to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

“The message the Arab world is hearing is that Palestinian lives matter less than Israeli ones,” he said, adding he was outraged and grieved by acts of violence waged against innocent civilians in Gaza, the Israeli-occupied West Bank, and in Israel.

France called for a humanitarian corridor into Gaza that it said could lead to a cease-fire. Britain and Germany both urged Israel’s military to show restraint and Italy said it was important to avoid escalation.

The United States, Israel’s closest ally and a vital player in all past peace efforts in the region, sent its Cairo charge d’affaires, who did not address the summit in public.

Limited aid arrives

The Rafah crossing between the Gaza Strip and Egypt opened Saturday morning for the first time since the Oct. 7 Hamas attack. A convoy of about 20 trucks delivered food, water, medicine, and other necessities to Gaza residents.

Palestinian officials expressed disappointment that Gaza did not receive supplies of fuel.

“Excluding the fuel from the humanitarian aid means the lives of patients and injured will remain at risk. Gaza hospitals are running out of the basic requirements to pursue medical interventions,” the Gaza Health Ministry said, adding that the aid was only 3% of what it used to get in Gaza before the crisis.

The United Nations has been pressing Israel and Egypt to allow aid to flow freely into Gaza, where hundreds of thousands need assistance after two weeks of bombing and a strict blockade of food and fuel by Israel.

Martin Griffiths, the U.N. undersecretary-general for humanitarian affairs, said Saturday that he is “confident that this delivery will be the start of a sustainable effort to provide essential supplies – including food, water, medicine and fuel – to the people of Gaza, in a safe, dependable, unconditional and unimpeded manner.”

The United Nations said the aid would be received and distributed by the Palestinian Red Crescent, with the consent of Hamas, which controls Gaza.

Meanwhile, Israel issued a warning advising its citizens against traveling to Egypt, Jordan and Morocco, and if they are in those countries to leave as soon as possible. The warning advises Israelis to avoid traveling to any Middle Eastern countries. It also warned against traveling to Malaysia, Bangladesh, Indonesia and the Maldives, countries with large Muslim populations.

Some information for this report came from The Associated Press, Agence France-Presse and Reuters.