Middle-East
Blinken meets Palestinian leader in West Bank, stepping up Mideast diplomacy as Gaza war escalates
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken brought his frenetic Mideast diplomatic push on the Israel-Hamas war to the occupied West Bank on Sunday, meeting with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in his latest bid to ease civilian suffering in the Gaza Strip and begin to sketch out a post-conflict scenario for the territory.
Blinken traveled to Ramallah for his previously unannounced visit in an armored motorcade and under tight security just hours after Israeli warplanes struck a refugee camp in the Gaza Strip, killing at least 40 people and wounding dozens, health officials said. Despite the secrecy and the State Department refusing to confirm the trip until after Blinken had physically left the West Bank, protests erupted against his visit and U.S. support for Israel as word of his arrival leaked.
Warplanes strike Gaza refugee camp as Israel rejects US push for a pause in fighting
Aside from pleasantries, neither man spoke as they greeted each other in front of cameras and the meeting ended without any public comment. It was not immediately clear if the lack of words indicated the meeting had gone poorly.
State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said Blinken reaffirmed the U.S. commitment to the delivery of life-saving humanitarian assistance and resumption of essential services in Gaza and made clear that Palestinians must not be forcibly displaced.
Israeli strikes kill multiple civilians at shelters in Gaza combat zone
Blinken and Abbas discussed efforts to restore calm and stability in the West Bank, including the need to stop extremist violence against Palestinians and hold those accountable responsible, Miller said, in reference to violence being committed by Israeli settlers.
The meeting with Abbas, whose Ramallah-based Palestinian Authority has not been a factor in Gaza since Hamas took it over by force in 2007, came at the start of Blinken’s third day of an intense Middle East tour – his second since the war began with a surprise Hamas attack on Israel on Oct. 7. Blinken had visited Israel and met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Friday before decamping to Jordan for meetings with senior Arab officials on Saturday.
At each stop, Blinken has offered firm U.S. support for Israel’s right to defend itself but also stressed that it must adhere to the laws of war, protect civilians and increase humanitarian aid supplies to Gaza. To do that, as well as to ease the flow of foreigners fleeing Gaza, he has made the case that Israel should implement rolling humanitarian pauses to its airstrikes and ground operations, something that Netanyahu has thus far flatly rejected.
U.S. officials believe that Netanyahu may soften his opposition if he can be convinced that it is in Israel’s strategic interests to ease the plight of Palestinian civilians in Gaza. The soaring death toll has sparked growing international anger, with tens of thousands from Washington to Berlin taking to the streets over the weekend to demand an immediate cease-fire.
The Arab foreign ministers that Blinken met with on Saturday in Amman – from Jordan, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates – issued the same demand.
But Blinken said the U.S. would not push for one.
“It is our view now that a cease-fire would simply leave Hamas in place, able to regroup and repeat what it did on Oct. 7,” he said. Instead he said that temporary humanitarian pauses in fighting would be critical to protecting civilians, getting aid in and getting foreign nationals out “while still enabling Israel to achieve its objective, the defeat of Hamas.”
Arab officials said it was far too soon to discuss one of Blinken’s main agenda items, Gaza’s postwar future. Stopping the killing and restoring steady humanitarian aid are immediate that must be addressed first, they said.
“How can we even entertain what will happen next?” said Jordanian Foreign Minister Ayman al-Safadi. “We need to get our priorities straight.”
Arab states are resisting American suggestions that they play a larger role in resolving crisis, expressing outrage at the civilian toll of the Israeli military operations but believing Gaza to be a problem largely of Israel’s own making.
But U.S. officials believe Arab backing, no matter how modest, will be critical to efforts to ease the worsening conditions in Gaza and lay the groundwork for what would replace Hamas as the territory’s governing authority, if and when Israel succeeds in eradicating the group.
Blinken tries to cajole wary Arabs on support for post-conflict Gaza as Israel's war intensifies
Still ideas on Gaza’s future governance are few and far between. Blinken and other U.S. officials are offering a vague outline that it might include a combination of a revitalized Palestinian Authority along with international organizations and potentially a peacekeeping force. U.S. officials acknowledge these ideas have been met with a distinct lack of enthusiasm.
Turkey's main opposition party elects Ozgur Ozel as new leader
Turkey’s main opposition party voted for fresh leadership in the early hours of Sunday, five months after a devastating election defeat that saw President Recep Tayyip Erdogan extend his two-decade rule.
Ozgur Ozel replaced Kemal Kilicdaroglu after delegates of the Republican People’s Party, or the CHP, elected him as new leader. The results in a second round of voting — held in a sports hall in Ankara — saw Ozel take 812 of 1,366 delegate votes to become the CHP’s 8th leader.
Speaking from the stage in front of thousands of flag-waving CHP members, Ozel — his voice hoarse with excitement — promised the cheering crowd a brighter political future and “to make people smile.”
Read: Turkey strikes Kurdish militants in Iraq again after warning of retaliation for a bombing in Ankara
Dissent spread among members of the CHP after the party failed to capitalize on dire economic circumstances in Turkey and the fallout from February’s earthquakes to oust Erdogan in parliamentary and presidential elections in May. At the time, pre-election polls had predicted a strong showing for the CHP's former leader Kilicdaroglu in what many saw as the opposition’s greatest chance to unseat Erdogan since he took office in 2003.
But Erdogan secured his third presidential term in a run-off vote.
Ozel said in his winning speech Sunday that he would mobilize the party immediately to “compensate for the great sadness” of May’s election defeat.
Kilicdaroglu, 74, had led the party since 2010, and ever since, the CHP failed to win a single national election although it scored significant victories in local elections in 2019, taking a handful of major cities — including Ankara and Istanbul.
Read: Erdogan says Turkey may part ways with the EU. He implied the country could ends its membership bid
The former party head was criticized for not standing down after losing May’s election.
A call for change at the top of the CHP was led by Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu, one of the party’s most prominent figures and an outspoken critic of the way the party ran May's election campaign.
Others also complained that the secularist CHP — established by Turkey’s founder Mustafa Kemal Ataturk — had become undemocratic, with too much power in the leader’s hands.
Ozel, 49, is a former pharmacist who was elected to parliament in 2011. He will lead the party in local elections in March in a bid to hold onto the cities it took five years earlier.
“We will not stop, we will work, we will work shoulder to shoulder, we will regain all the municipalities we (currently) have, we will add new ones and together we will win a great victory,” Ozel said.
Palestinian death toll rises to 9,488 as Israel-Hamas conflict rages on
The death toll of Palestinians from Israeli attacks on the Gaza Strip has reached 9,488 on Saturday, as the Israel-Hamas conflict that started four weeks ago shows no sign of ending, according to the Gaza-bases Health Ministry.
Meanwhile, 24,000 others were wounded in the Palestinian enclave, said ministry spokesman Ashraf al-Qedra.
At least six Palestinians were killed by Israeli attacks in the al-Nusairat refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip on Saturday, according to the ministry, adding four Palestinians were killed in the city of Rafah, south of the Gaza Strip, and one in a house west of Gaza City.
Read: US and Arab partners disagree on the need for a cease-fire as Israeli airstrikes kill more civilians
"On Saturday, the Israeli warplanes launched intensive raids on the neighborhoods of Al-Nasr, Sheikh Radwan, and Al-Shati Camp, west of Gaza City, and in Jabalia, Beit Lahia, and Beit Hanoun in the northern Strip," a Palestinian security source who wished to remain anonymous told Xinhua.
Earlier in the day, the Israeli fighter jets attacked Al-Naser Hospital, killing and wounding dozens of Palestinians, most of whom were displaced people in the street, according to the ministry.
Al-Naser Hospital's attack came a day after a similar incident took place in front of the Al-Shifa Hospital, the largest medical complex in Gaza, which left more than 13 dead people and a number of others wounded.
The Israeli army claimed on Friday that it had attacked the ambulance which was being used by Hamas fighters.
Read: Warplanes strike Gaza refugee camp as Israel rejects US push for a pause in fighting
Moreover, several Israeli airstrikes targeted solar energy sources in the vicinity of Al-Shifa Hospital and Al-Quds Hospital on Friday, causing a major fire in the two hospitals and putting the generators out of service, according to Salama Maarouf, the head of the government media office in Gaza.
Palestinian security sources and locals said on Saturday that sounds of clashes and explosions continued to be heard in several areas south, north, and west of Gaza City as the Israeli army forces advanced on the ground for the second week in a row.
The Al-Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of Hamas, published a video clip on Friday showing its fighters damaging a number of Israeli tanks in the south of Gaza City and areas in the northern Gaza Strip.
Meanwhile, the Israeli army confirmed the continuation of the ground attack on Gaza. Avichai Adraee, an Israeli army spokesman, said Israeli forces operated for hours Friday night in the northern Gaza Strip.
Read: The average Palestinian in Gaza is living on 2 pieces of bread a day, UN official says
"During last night's fighting, our forces clashed with 15 armed men in the northern Gaza Strip. The forces eliminated a number of them and directed tanks to destroy three Hamas reconnaissance sites," he said.
About 260 wounded soldiers were transferred to hospitals in Israel on Friday, as part of 150 air and ground rescue operations, according to Adraee.
The Israeli newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth reported on Friday that the ground operation in Gaza was expected to continue for several more weeks and to advance deeper into Gaza City to control Hamas leadership sites and targets.
On Oct. 7, Hamas launched a surprise attack on Israel, firing thousands of rockets and infiltrating Israeli territory, while Israel responded with airstrikes, ground operations and punitive measures that included a siege on the Gaza Strip.
The conflict between Israel and Hamas has killed at least 1,400 Israelis, the vast majority in the Hamas attack on Oct. 7.
Warplanes strike Gaza refugee camp as Israel rejects US push for a pause in fighting
Israeli warplanes struck a refugee camp in the Gaza Strip early Sunday, killing at least 33 people and wounding dozens, health officials said. The strike came as Israel said it would press on with its offensive to crush the territory's Hamas rulers, despite U.S. appeals for a pause to get aid to desperate civilians.
The soaring death toll in Gaza has sparked growing international anger, with tens of thousands from Washington to Berlin taking to the streets Saturday to demand an immediate cease-fire.
Israel has rejected the idea of halting its offensive, even for brief humanitarian pauses proposed by U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken during his current tour of the region. Instead, it said that the besieged enclave’s Hamas rulers were “encountering the full force” of its troops.
“Anyone in Gaza City is risking their life,” Israel’s Minister of Defense Yoav Gallant said.
Large columns of smoke rose as Israel’s military said it had encircled Gaza City, the initial target of its offensive against Hamas. Gaza’s Health Ministry has said more than 9,400 Palestinians have been killed in the territory in nearly a month of war, and that number is likely to rise as the assault continues.
Read: US and Arab partners disagree on the need for a cease-fire as Israeli airstrikes kill more civilians
Early Sunday, airstrikes hit the Maghazi refugee camp in central Gaza, killing at least 33 people and wounding 42, said Ashraf al-Qidra, the spokesman for the Health Ministry.
He said first responders, aided by residents, were still searching the rubble for dead or possible survivors.
The camp, a built-up residential area, is located in the evacuation zone where Israel’s military had urged Palestinian civilians in Gaza to seek refuge as it focuses its military offensive in the northern areas.
Despite such appeals, Israel has continued its bombardment across Gaza, saying it is targeting Hamas fighters and assets everywhere. It has accused Hamas of using civilians as human shields.
Critics say Israel’s strikes are often disproportionate, considering the large number of women and children killed in such attacks.
Blinken met with Arab foreign ministers in Jordan on Saturday after talks in Israel with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who insisted there could be no temporary cease-fire until all hostages held by Hamas are released.
Jordan’s Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi said Arab countries want an immediate cease-fire, saying “the whole region is sinking in a sea of hatred that will define generations to come.”
Blinken, however, said “it is our view now that a cease-fire would simply leave Hamas in place, able to regroup and repeat what it did on Oct. 7," when the group launched a wide-ranging attack from Gaza into southern Israel, triggering the war.
He said humanitarian pauses can be critical in protecting civilians, getting aid in and getting foreign nationals out, "while still enabling Israel to achieve its objective, the defeat of Hamas.”
Senior Hamas official Osama Hamdan told reporters in Beirut that Blinken “should stop the aggression and should not come up with ideas that cannot be implemented.” The spokesman of the Hamas military wing, who goes by Abu Obeida, said in a speech that fighters had destroyed 24 Israeli vehicles and inflicted casualties in the past two days.
Egyptian officials said they and Qatar were proposing humanitarian pauses for six to 12 hours daily to allow aid in and casualties to be evacuated. They were also asking for Israel to release a number of women and elderly prisoners in exchange for hostages, suggestions Israel seemed unlikely to accept. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to brief the press on the discussions.
Read: The average Palestinian in Gaza is living on 2 pieces of bread a day, UN official says
Israel has repeatedly demanded that northern Gaza’s 1.1 million residents flee south, and on Saturday it offered a three-hour window for residents to do so. An Associated Press journalist on the road, however, saw nobody coming. The head of the government media office in Gaza, Salama Maarouf, said no one went south because the Israeli military had damaged the road.
Israel asserted that Hamas “exploited” the window to move south and attack its forces. There was no immediate Hamas comment on that claim, which was impossible to verify.
US and Arab partners disagree on the need for a cease-fire as Israeli airstrikes kill more civilians
The United States and Arab partners disagreed Saturday on the need for an immediate cease-fire in the Gaza Strip as Israeli military strikes killed civilians at a U.N. shelter and a hospital, and Israel said the besieged enclave’s Hamas rulers were “encountering the full force” of its troops.
Large columns of smoke rose as Israel’s military said it had encircled Gaza City, the initial target of its offensive to crush Hamas. Gaza's Health Ministry has said more than 9,400 Palestinians have been killed in the territory in nearly a month of war, and that number is likely to rise as the assault continues.
“Anyone in Gaza City is risking their life," Israel’s Minister of Defense Yoav Gallant said.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken met with Arab foreign ministers in Jordan a day after talks in Israel with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who insisted there could be no temporary cease-fire until all hostages held by Hamas are released.
Jordan’s Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi said Arab countries want an immediate cease-fire, saying “the whole region is sinking in a sea of hatred that will define generations to come.”
Blinken, however, said “it is our view now that a cease-fire would simply leave Hamas in place, able to regroup and repeat what it did on Oct. 7.” He said humanitarian pauses can be critical in protecting civilians, getting aid in and getting foreign nationals out, "while still enabling Israel to achieve its objective, the defeat of Hamas.
As he left church in Delaware on Sunday, U.S. President Joe Biden hinted at progress in efforts to convince Israel to agree to a humanitarian pause, responding “Yes,” to reporters’ questions about any forward movement on the subject. He did not elaborate.
Senior Hamas official Osama Hamdan told reporters in Beirut that Blinken “should stop the aggression and should not come up with ideas that cannot be implemented.” The spokesman of the Hamas military wing, who goes by Abu Obeida, said in a speech that fighters had destroyed 24 Israeli vehicles and inflicted casualties in the past two days.
Egyptian officials said they and Qatar were proposing humanitarian pauses for six to 12 hours daily to allow aid in and casualties to be evacuated. They were also asking for Israel to release a number of women and elderly prisoners in exchange for hostages, suggestions Israel seemed unlikely to accept. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to brief the press on the discussions.
Israel has repeatedly demanded that northern Gaza’s 1.1 million residents flee south, and on Saturday it offered a three-hour window for residents to do so. An Associated Press journalist on the road, however, saw nobody coming. The head of the government media office in Gaza, Salama Maarouf, said no one went south because the Israeli military had damaged the road.
But Israel asserted that Hamas “exploited” the window to move south and attack its forces. There was no immediate Hamas comment on that claim, which was impossible to verify.
Read: Israel-Hamas war: Why India’s Congress is facing backlash over ‘support for Palestine’
Some Palestinians said they didn’t flee because they feared Israeli bombardment.
“We don’t trust them,” said Mohamed Abed, who sheltered with his wife and children on the grounds of al-Shifa hospital, one of thousands of Palestinians seeking safety at medical centers in the north.
Swaths of residential neighborhoods in northern Gaza have been leveled in airstrikes. U.N. monitors say more than half of northern Gaza’s remaining residents, estimated at around 300,000, are sheltering in U.N.-run facilities. But deadly Israeli strikes have also repeatedly hit and damaged those shelters. The U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees has said it has lost contact with many in the north.
On Saturday, two strikes hit a U.N. school sheltering thousands just north of Gaza City, killing several people in tents in the schoolyard and women who were baking bread inside the building, according to the U.N. agency. Initial reports indicated that 20 people were killed, said spokeswoman Juliette Touma. The health ministry in Gaza said 15 people were killed at the school and another 70 wounded.
Also Saturday, two people were killed in a strike by the gate of al-Nasser Hospital in Gaza City, according to Medhat Abbas, health ministry spokesman. And a strike hit near the entrance to the emergency ward of al-Quds Hospital in Gaza City, injuring at least 21, the Palestinian Red Crescent said.
The World Health Organization called attacks on health care in Gaza “unacceptable.”
Also hit was the family home of Hamas’ exiled leader Ismail Haniyeh in the Shati refugee camp on the northern edge of Gaza City, according to the Hamas-run media office in Gaza. It had no immediate details on damage or casualties.
Israel has continued bombing in the south, saying it is striking Hamas targets.
An airstrike early Saturday destroyed a home in the southern town of Khan Younis, with first responders pulling three bodies and six injured people from the rubble. Among those killed was a child, according to an AP cameraman at the scene.
“The sound of explosions never stops,” said Raed Mattar, who was sheltering in a school in Khan Younis after fleeing the north.
Read: Bangladesh urges Security Council to take urgent measures to end Israel’s illegal occupation in Palestine
At least 1,115 Palestinian dual nationals and wounded have exited Gaza into Egypt, but on Saturday authorities in Gaza didn’t allow foreign passport holders to leave because Israel was preventing the evacuation of Palestinian patients for treatment in Egypt, said Wael Abu Omar, a spokesman for the Palestinian Crossings Authority.
The U.N. said about 1.5 million people in Gaza, or 70% of the population, have fled their homes
Food, water and the fuel needed for generators that power hospitals and other facilities is running out.
Anger over the war and civilian deaths in Gaza sparked large demonstrations in Paris, Washington, London, Pakistan and elsewhere on Saturday. “Against apartheid, free Palestinians,” a banner in Rome read.
Turkey said it was recalling its ambassador to Israel for consultations, and Turkish media reported that President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said he could no longer speak to Netanyahu in light of the bombardment.
Thousands of Israelis protested outside Netanyahu’s official residence in Jerusalem, urging him to resign and calling for the return of roughly 240 hostages held by Hamas. Netanyahu has refused to take responsibility for the Oct. 7 attack in southern Israel that killed more than 1,400 people.
"I find it difficult to understand why trucks with humanitarian aid are going to monsters,” said Ella Ben Ami, whose parents were abducted. She called for aid to be halted until the hostages are released.
Thousands of people also joined a demonstration of hostages' families in Tel Aviv.
Air raid sirens sounded Saturday evening in southern Israel as Hamas launched rockets into Ashkelon. Rocket fire has continued in the area throughout the conflict, forcing tens of thousands of people to evacuate their homes.
Read more: 31 killed as Israel-Palestine fighting continues, Egypt pushes truce
Fears continued of a new front opening along Israel's border with Lebanon. The Israeli military said it had struck militant cells in Lebanon trying to fire at Israel, as well as an observation post for Hezbollah, an ally of Hamas. Throughout the war, Israel and Hezbollah have traded fire almost daily. Hezbollah and Israel fought a monthlong war in 2006 that ended in a tense stalemate.
“We are not interested in a northern front, but we are prepared for any task,” Gallant, Israel's defense minister, said after touring the border. He said the Air Force is "preserving most of its might for the Lebanon front,” according to a video statement.
Among the Palestinians killed in Gaza are more than 3,900 Palestinian children, the Gaza Health Ministry said, without providing a breakdown of civilians and fighters.
The Israeli military said four more soldiers have died during the Gaza ground operation, bringing the confirmed death toll to 28.
Israeli strikes kill multiple civilians at shelters in Gaza combat zone
Israeli military strikes killed multiple civilians Saturday at a U.N. shelter and hospital in the main combat zone in the Gaza Strip as the assault intensified on the besieged enclave’s Hamas rulers, while the United States and Arab partners disagreed on the need for an immediate cease-fire.
Large columns of smoke rose from Gaza as Israel’s military said it had encircled Gaza City, the target of its offensive to crush Hamas.
Blinken tries to cajole wary Arabs on support for post-conflict Gaza as Israel's war intensifies
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken met with Arab foreign ministers in Jordan a day after talks in Israel with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who insisted there could be no temporary cease-fire until all hostages held by Hamas are released.
Jordan’s Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi said Arab countries seek an immediate cease-fire. “The whole region is sinking in a sea of hatred that will define generations to come,” Safadi said.
The average Palestinian in Gaza is living on 2 pieces of bread a day, UN official says
Blinken, however, said that “it is our view now that a cease-fire would simply leave Hamas in place, able to regroup and repeat what it did on Oct. 7.” He said the U.S. believes that humanitarian pauses can be a “critical mechanism in protecting civilians, in getting aid in and getting foreign nationals out, while still enabling Israel to achieve its objective, the defeat of Hamas.”
Egyptian officials said they and Qatar were proposing humanitarian pauses for six to 12 hours daily to allow aid in and casualties to be evacuated. They were also asking for Israel to release a number of women and elderly prisoners in exchange for hostages held by Hamas, suggestions Israel seems unlikely to accept. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to brief the press on the discussions.
Israel resists US pressure to pause the war to allow more aid to Gaza, wants hostages back first
On Saturday, Israel offered a three-hour window for trapped residents to flee south, but as the window closed, there was no immediate information on how many fled. The Israeli military asserted that Hamas “exploited” the window to move south and attack its forces. There was no immediate Hamas comment on that claim, which was impossible to verify.
Israel has repeatedly demanded that northern Gaza’s 1.1 million residents flee south as it escalates bombardment of the north. However, some of those traveling south were killed in recent days, and Israel has continued bombing in the south, saying it is striking Hamas targets.
With wide swaths of residential neighborhoods leveled in airstrikes, most of northern Gaza’s remaining residents, estimated at around 300,000, have sought shelter in U.N.-run schools and in hospitals where they hope they’ll be safe. But deadly Israeli strikes have also repeatedly hit and damaged those shelters. The U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees has said it has lost contact with many in the north.
On Saturday, two strikes hit a U.N. school-turned-shelter sheltering thousands just north of Gaza City, killing several people in tents in the schoolyard and women who were baking bread inside the building, according to the U.N. agency.
Initial reports indicated that 20 people were killed, but the agency has not yet been able to verify the figure, said spokeswoman Juliette Touma.
The Health Ministry in Gaza reported that 15 people were killed at the school and another 70 wounded.
Also Saturday, two people were killed in a strike by the gate of Nasser Hospital in Gaza City, according to Medhat Abbas, Health Ministry spokesman.
The World Health Organizaton on Saturday called attacks on health care in Gaza “unacceptable.”
About 1.5 million people in Gaza, or 70% of the population, have fled their homes, according to the U.N.
With food, water and the fuel needed for generators that power hospitals and other facilities running out, U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres late Friday urged an immediate cease-fire to allow aid in, calling the humanitarian situation in Gaza “horrific.” He also said civilians must not be used as human shields, and called upon Hamas to release all of the roughly 240 hostages it has.
Incoming aid trucks in recent days have contained far more body bags than canned food, said Wael Abu Omar, a spokesperson for the Rafah crossing, Gaza’s only portal to the outside world.
The family home of Hamas' exiled leader Ismail Haniyeh, in the Shati refugee camp on the northern edge of Gaza City, was hit Saturday morning by an airstrike, according to the Hamas-run media office in Gaza. It had no immediate details on damage or casualties.
Another strike hit near the entrance to the emergency ward of Al-Quds Hospital in Gaza City on Saturday afternoon, injuring at least 21, the Palestinian Red Crescent said.
In the town of Khan Younis in southern Gaza, an airstrike early Saturday destroyed the home of a family, with first responders pulling three bodies and six injured people from the rubble.
Among those killed was a child, according to an Associated Press cameraman at the scene.
Raed Mattar, who was sheltering in a school in Khan Younis after fleeing the north, said he regularly heard explosions.
“People never sleep,” he said. “The sound of explosions never stops.”
The Israeli military said ground forces were also now operating in the south, with an armored and engineering corps working to remove booby traps from buildings.
Anger over the civilian deaths in Gaza sparked large demonstrations in Paris, London, Pakistan and elsewhere. “Against apartheid, free Palestinians,” a banner in Rome read.
Skirmishes along Israel’s northern border continued Saturday as the Israeli military said it had struck militant cells in Lebanon trying to fire at Israel, as well as an observation post for Hezbollah, an ally of Hamas.
Throughout the war, Israel and Hezbollah have traded fire almost daily along the Lebanese border, raising fears of a new front opening there.
After touring Israel’s northern border, Minister of Defense Yoav Gallant said that “we are not interested in a northern front, but we are prepared for any task. The Air Force is preserving most of its might for the Lebanon front,” according to a video statement released by his office Saturday.
DIPLOMACYOn Friday in Tel Aviv, on his third trip to Israel since the war began on Oct. 7, Blinken pushed President Joe Biden’s calls for a brief halt in the fighting to address the worsening humanitarian crisis. But Netanyahu said there could be no humanitarian pause until Hamas releases all the hostages it holds.
On Saturday, Blinken held meetings in Amman with diplomats from Jordan, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates and the Palestinian Authority, who remain angry and deeply suspicious of Israel.
Senior Hamas official Osama Hamdan told reporters in Beirut that Blinken “should stop the aggression and should not come up with ideas that cannot be implemented.”
There was consensus among Arab governments involved in discussions with the U.S. to resist “any talks” on the postwar period in Gaza before establishing a cease-fire and allowing the delivery of more humanitarian aid and fuel to Gaza, according to the Egyptian officials.
CASUALTIES RISINGMore than 9,400 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza, including more than 3,900 Palestinian children, the Gaza Health Ministry said, without providing a breakdown between civilians and fighters.
More than 1,400 people have died on the Israeli side, mainly civilians killed during Hamas’ initial attack.
Twenty-four Israeli soldiers have been killed in Gaza since the start of the ground operation.
The overall toll is likely to rise dramatically as the assault on densely built-up Gaza City continues.
More than 386 Palestinian dual nationals and wounded exited Gaza into Egypt on Friday, according to Wael Abou Omar, the Hamas spokesperson for the Rafah border crossing. That brings the total who have gotten out since Wednesday to 1,115.
The average Palestinian in Gaza is living on 2 pieces of bread a day, UN official says
The average Palestinian in Gaza is living on two pieces of Arabic bread made from flour the United Nations had stockpiled in the region, yet the main refrain now being heard in the street is “Water, water,” the Gaza director for the U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees said Friday.
Thomas White, who said he traveled “the length and breadth of Gaza in the last few weeks,” described the place as a "scene of death and destruction.” No place is safe now, he said, and people fear for their lives, their future and their ability to feed their families.
Read: Gaza receives largest aid shipment so far as deaths top 8,000 and Israel widens military offensive
The Palestinian refugee agency, known as UNRWA, is supporting about 89 bakeries across Gaza, aiming to get bread to 1.7 million people, White told diplomats from the U.N.’s 193 member nations in a video briefing from Gaza.
But, he said, “now people are beyond looking for bread. It’s looking for water.”
U.N. deputy Mideast coordinator Lynn Hastings, who is also the humanitarian coordinator for the Palestinian territories, said only one of three water supply lines from Israel is operational.
“Many people are relying on brackish or saline ground water, if at all,” she said.
In the briefing, U.N. humanitarian chief Martin Griffiths also said intense negotiations are taking place among authorities from Israel, Egypt, the United States and United Nations on allowing fuel to enter Gaza.
Fuel, he said, is essential for the functioning of institutions, hospitals and the distribution of water and electricity. "We must allow these supplies reliably, repetitively and dependently into Gaza.”
Backup generators, which have been essential to keep hospitals, water desalination plants, food production facilities and other essential services operating “are one by one grinding to a halt as fuel supplies run out,” Hastings said.
White pointed to other major problems.
Sewage is not being treated and instead is being pumped into the sea, he said. “But when you speak to municipal workers, the reality is once their fuel runs out, that sewage will flow in the streets.”
Read: Internet, phone service gradually returns after vanishing for most of Gaza amid heavy bombardment
In addition, he said, cooking gas that was brought into Gaza from Egypt by the private sector before the war is increasingly in short supply. Aid organizations like UNRWA “are not going to be able to step in and replicate the network of distribution by the private sector for this essential item,” he said.
White said close to 600,000 people are sheltering in 149 UNRWA facilities, most of them schools, but the agency has lost contact with many in the north, where Israel is carrying intense ground and air operations following Hamas’ surprise Oct. 7 attacks.
An average of 4,000 displaced people in Gaza are living in the schools without the resources to maintain proper sanitation, he said. “The conditions are desperate,” with women and children sleeping in the classrooms and men sleeping outside in the open, he said.
The U.N. can’t provide them safety, White said, pointing to over 50 UNRWA facilities impacted by the conflict, including five direct hits. “At last count, 38 people have died in our shelters. I fear that with the fighting going on in the north right now, that number is going to grow significantly,” he said.
Griffiths, the humanitarian chief, said 72 UNRWA staff members had been killed since Oct. 7. “I think it’s the highest number of U.N. staff lost in a conflict,” he said.
The Gaza Health Ministry’s total of more than 9,000 people killed in Gaza is four times as many deaths as during the 50-day conflict between Israel and Hamas in Gaza in 2014 when just over 2,200 Palestinians were killed, Griffiths said. He added that the real toll will only emerge once buildings are cleared and rubble is taken away.
Griffiths called for humanitarian pauses to get aid to millions of people. He also urged the immediate release of all hostages and protection of all civilians by both sides as required under international humanitarian law.
U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has repeatedly called for a full cease-fire, and Riyad Mansour, the Palestinian U.N. ambassador, criticized Griffiths for talking about humanitarian pauses, something the United States is also urging.
Read: Parts of Gaza look like a wasteland from space following relentless Israeli bombing raids
This means “Israel continues killing the Palestinians, but gives us few hours every now and then, in order to get food and other stuff,” Mansour said.
He said a cease-fire is essential to save lives, saying that “almost 50% of all the structures in the Gaza Strip” have been destroyed by Israel and the situation for Palestinians “is beyond comprehension and beyond description.”
“It requires from all of us to do everything that we can to stop it,” he said.
Israel resists US pressure to pause the war to allow more aid to Gaza, wants hostages back first
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Friday pushed back against growing U.S. pressure for a “humanitarian pause” in the nearly month-old war to protect civilians and allow more aid into Gaza, insisting there would be no temporary cease-fire until the roughly 240 hostages held by Hamas are released.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken made his third trip to Israel since the war began, reiterating American support for Israel's campaign to crush Hamas after its brutal Oct. 7 attack in southern Israel. He also echoed President Joe Biden’s calls for a brief halt in the fighting to address a worsening humanitarian crisis.
Alarm has grown over spiraling Palestinian deaths and deepening misery for civilians from weeks of Israeli bombardment and a widening ground assault that risks even greater casualties. Overwhelmed hospitals say they are nearing collapse, with medicine and fuel running low under the Israeli siege. About 1.5 million people in Gaza, or 70% of the population, have fled their homes, the U.N. said Friday.
Palestinians are increasingly desperate for the most basic supplies.
The average Gaza resident is now surviving on two pieces of bread per day, much of it made from stockpiled U.N. flour, said Thomas White, Gaza director for the U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees. Demands for drinking water are also growing.
“People are beyond looking for bread,” he told U.N. diplomats in a video briefing from Gaza. "It’s looking for water.”
After talks with Netanyahu, Blinken said a temporary halt was needed to boost aid deliveries and help win the release of the hostages Hamas took during its brutal incursion nearly a month ago.
But Netanyahu said he told Blinken that Israel was “going with full steam ahead," unless hostages are released.
U.S. officials initially said they were not seeking a cease-fire, but short pauses in specific areas to allow aid deliveries or other humanitarian activity, after which Israeli operations would resume. Netanyahu has not publicly addressed the idea and has instead repeatedly ruled out a cease-fire.
On Friday, however, a senior U.S. administration official said policymakers believe a “fairly significant pause” in fighting will be needed to allow for releases. The idea is modeled on a smaller-scale pause that allowed the freeing of two American hostages from Hamas captivity last month.
The official, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss the matter, said that release was a “testing pilot” for how a broader deal could be struck and said negotiations on a “larger package” of hostages are ongoing. The official emphasized it would require a significant pause in fighting to ensure their safety to the Gaza border.
Read: Israeli airstrikes crush apartments in Gaza refugee camp, as ground troops battle Hamas militants
Israeli troops tightened their encirclement of Gaza City amid continued battles with Hamas militants as airstrikes wreaked havoc around the city, the largest in the tiny Mediterranean territory. Al Jazeera TV reported that a strike late Friday hit a school in Gaza City where many were taking refuge, causing casualties.
Strikes hit near the entrances of three hospitals in northern Gaza just as staff were trying to evacuate wounded to the south, hospital directors said. Footage showed the aftermath outside Gaza's largest hospital, Shifa, where more than a dozen bloodied bodies of men, women and young children were strewn next to damaged cars and ambulances. One bleeding boy screamed as he huddled on top of a woman sprawled on the pavement.
At least 15 people were killed and 60 wounded outside Shifa Hospital, said Health Ministry spokesperson Ashraf al-Qidra. At least 50 others were killed or wounded in a strike outside the Indonesian Hospital, its director said, without providing more precise figures.
The Israeli military said its aircraft Friday hit an ambulance that Hamas fighters were using to carry weapons. The claim could not be independently verified. It was not clear whether the strike was connected to the one by Shifa Hospital. The military said it took place “near a battle zone,” suggesting it was close to ongoing ground battles.
Al-Qidra said a convoy of ambulances left Shifa, carrying wounded to Rafah, when a strike hit a vehicle on the edges of Gaza City. The convoy turned around, and another strike hit another ambulance. He denied that any of the ambulances were used by Hamas fighters.
Read: UN agency in Gaza says urgent cease-fire is `matter of life and death' for millions of Palestinians
FEARS OVER NEW FRONTS
Throughout the war, Israel and Hezbollah have traded fire almost daily along the Lebanon border, raising fears of a new front opening there.
In his first public speech since the war began, Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah said the cross-border fighting showed his group had “entered the battle.”
He suggested escalation was possible: “We will not be limited to this.” But he gave little sign that Hezbollah would fully engage in the fighting. So far, Hezbollah has taken calculated steps to show backing for Hamas without igniting an all-out war that would be devastating for Lebanon and Israel.
Thursday saw one of the heaviest exchanges over the border yet. Hezbollah attacked Israeli military positions in northern Israel with drones, mortar fire and suicide drones, and Israeli warplanes and helicopter gunships retaliated with strikes in Lebanon. Israeli military spokesman Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari said civilians were wounded in the Hezbollah attacks.
“We are in a high state of readiness in the north, in a very high state of alert,” he said.
The exchanges since the start of the war have killed 10 Lebanese civilians and 66 fighters from Hezbollah and other militant groups, as well as seven Israeli soldiers and a civilian in northern Israel.
GAZA CITY ENCIRCLED
More than 9,200 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza so far, two thirds of them women and minors, the Gaza Health Ministry said, without providing a breakdown between civilians and fighters.
More than 1,400 people have died on the Israeli side, mainly civilians killed during Hamas’ initial attack. Rocket fire by Gaza militants into Israel has continued, disrupting life for millions of people and forcing an estimated 250,000 people to evacuate towns in northern and southern Israel. Most rockets are intercepted.
Twenty-four Israeli soldiers have been killed in Gaza since the start of the ground operation.
The toll is likely to rise dramatically. Israeli military officials said their forces have encircled densely built-up Gaza City and began Friday to launch targeted attacks within the city on militant cells.
Read: Gaza receives largest aid shipment so far as deaths top 8,000 and Israel widens military offensive
Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians remain in the city and nearby parts of northern Gaza. Israel says Hamas has extensive military infrastructure in the city, including a network of underground tunnels, bunkers and command centers. It says its strikes target Hamas and the militants endanger civilians by operating among them.
Friday's strike outside Shifa Hospital came after Israel said Hamas has a command center at the facility — a claim that could not be independently verified and that Hamas and hospital officials deny. The Palestinian Red Crescent said a strike damaged one of its ambulances carrying wounded to southern Gaza on the coastal highway. The agency posted images of the vehicle with its hood destroyed and blood on the side.
Since the start of the conflict, Israeli strikes have destroyed 25 ambulances, Qidra said.
The military said its troops have killed numerous Hamas militants exiting tunnels. Footage released by the military showed soldiers and tanks advancing toward bombed out buildings.
Israel has repeatedly told residents of Gaza's north to evacuate to the south for greater safety. But many have been unable to leave or to stay in the south, fearing continued airstrikes there.
The military on Thursday told residents to evacuate the Shati refugee camp on Gaza City’s edge. On Friday, shells hit a convoy of evacuees on the coastal road they were told to use, killing around a dozen people, doctors said. Footage from the road showed dead children lying in the sand.
Further south, workers pulled 17 bodies from the rubble of a building leveled by a strike in Khan Younis, witnesses said. Associated Press images showed rescuers digging with bare hands to save someone completely buried, with one arm protruding from the wreckage. At a hospital, a crying man held up the dead body of a small girl whose lower limbs appeared to be missing.
In the occupied West Bank overnight, Israeli forces killed seven Palestinians in different places and arrested many more, according to the Israeli military and Palestinian health officials.
More than 386 Palestinian dual nationals and wounded exited Gaza into Egypt on Friday, according to Wael Abou Omar, the Hamas spokesman for the Rafah border crossing. That brings the total who have gotten out since Wednesday to 1,115.
Israel has allowed more than 300 trucks carrying food and medicine into Gaza, but aid workers say it’s not nearly enough. Israeli authorities have refused to allow fuel in, saying Hamas is hoarding fuel for military use and would steal new supplies.
Gaza receives largest aid shipment so far as deaths top 8,000 and Israel widens military offensive
Nearly three dozen trucks entered Gaza on Sunday in the largest aid convoy since the war between Israel and Hamas began, but humanitarian workers said the assistance still fell desperately short of needs after thousands of people broke into warehouses to take flour and basic hygiene products.
The Gaza Health Ministry said the death toll among Palestinians passed 8,000, mostly women and minors, as Israeli tanks and infantry pursued what Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called a “second stage” in the war ignited by Hamas’ brutal Oct. 7 incursion. The toll is without precedent in decades of Israeli-Palestinian violence. Over 1,400 people have died on the Israeli side, mainly civilians killed during the initial attack, also an unprecedented figure.
Communications were restored to most of Gaza's 2.3 million people Sunday after an Israeli bombardment described by residents as the most intense of the war knocked out phone and internet services late Friday.
Israel has allowed only a trickle of aid to enter. On Sunday, 33 trucks carrying water, food and medicine entered the only border crossing from Egypt, a spokesperson at the Rafah crossing, Wael Abo Omar, told The Associated Press.
Read: Israeli settler shoots and kills Palestinian harvester as violence surges in the West Bank
After visiting the Rafah crossing, the chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court called the suffering of civilians “profound" and said he had not been able to enter Gaza. “These are the most tragic of days,” said Karim Khan, whose court has been investigating the actions of Israeli and Palestinian authorities since 2014.
Khan called on Israel to respect international law but stopped short of accusing it of war crimes. He called Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack a serious violation of international humanitarian law. “The burden rests with those who aim the gun, missile or rocket in question,” he said.
The Israeli military said Sunday that it had struck more than 450 militant targets over the past 24 hours, including Hamas command centers and anti-tank missile launching positions. Huge plumes of smoke rose over Gaza City. Military spokesman Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari said dozens of militants were killed.
Hagari, who said ground operations were intensifying, also reiterated calls for Gaza residents to move south, saying they'd have better access to food, water and medicine there.
“This is a matter of urgency,” he said.
Read: Internet, phone service gradually returns after vanishing for most of Gaza amid heavy bombardment
Israel says most Gaza residents have heeded its orders to flee to the southern part of the besieged territory, but hundreds of thousands remain in the north, in part because Israel has also bombarded targets in so-called safe zones. More than 1.4 million people in Gaza have fled their homes.
The Hamas military wing said its militants clashed with Israeli troops who entered the northwest Gaza Strip with small arms and anti-tank missiles. Palestinian militants have continued firing rockets into Israel, including toward its commercial hub, Tel Aviv.
The aid warehouse break-ins were “a worrying sign that civil order is starting to break down after three weeks of war and a tight siege on Gaza," said Thomas White, Gaza director for the U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees, known as UNRWA. "People are scared, frustrated and desperate.”
UNRWA spokesperson Juliette Touma said the crowds broke into four facilities on Saturday. She said the warehouses did not contain any fuel, which has been in critically short supply since Israel cut off all shipments. Israel says Hamas would use it for military purposes and that the militant group is hoarding large fuel stocks for itself in the territory. That claim couldn't be independently verified.
One warehouse held 80 tons of food, the U.N. World Food Program said. It emphasized that at least 40 of its trucks need to cross into Gaza daily just to meet growing food needs.
President Joe Biden in a call with Netanyahu on Sunday “underscored the need to immediately and significantly increase the flow of humanitarian assistance to meet the needs of civilians in Gaza,” the U.S. said.
Israeli settler shoots and kills Palestinian harvester as violence surges in the West Bank
A Jewish settler shot dead a Palestinian man harvesting olives near the West Bank city of Nablus, the man’s uncle said Sunday. This brings the number of Palestinians reported killed by settlers to seven since Hamas’s bloody incursion into Israel three weeks ago.
Tayseer Mahmoud said his nephew, Bilal Saleh, was working in the grove in the village of Sawiya with his wife and their four children on Saturday when a group of settlers attacked them. Saleh, concerned about the safety of his children, tried to leave the area, but a settler shot him in the chest, Mahmoud said.
Read:Syria, Lebanon call for immediate stop to deadly Israel-Hamas conflict
Mahmoud said he didn't witness the confrontation but was close by and reached the scene within minutes of the shooting. Saleh died before he could be taken for medical care, he said.
Settler leader Yossi Dagan said in a video posted on the social media p(platform Facebook Saturday that the shooter was accompanied by family members and fired in self-defense after they were “attacked with rocks by dozens of rioting Hamas supporters.”
The deadly shooting took place amid a spike in settler violence since Hamas militants infiltrated Israel on Oct. 7, killing more than 1,400 Israelis and taking over 230 others hostage. The incursion touched off a war that has killed more than 7,700 Palestinians, according to the Gaza Health Ministry.
Read: UNGA adopts resolution with 2/3rd majority calling for humanitarian truce in Gaza
In addition to the killings, Palestinians in the West Bank have reported attacks on people and property, as well as denial of access to their land.
The violence has gotten so intense that it has drawn condemnation from U.S. President Joe Biden. Attacks by extremist settlers, Biden said, amounted to “pouring gasoline” on fires already burning in the Middle East since the Hamas attack.
The Israeli military said it received a report of a “violent confrontation” between Palestinians and Israeli civilians, and that a Palestinian was reported killed. Police have opened an investigation, it said.
Read: Parts of Gaza look like a wasteland from space following relentless Israeli bombing raids
This year has been the deadliest in the West Bank since the second Palestinian uprising against Israel two decades ago.
Since the outbreak of the war alone, more than 100 Palestinians, including civilians, have been killed, most during military arrest raids and violent protests in the West Bank.