2023-11-05 03:51:10
The Israeli army entered the fifth week on Saturday of a campaign that has already left thousands dead to root out Hamas from Gaza, ignoring calls for “humanitarian pauses” reiterated by the head of US diplomacy in a meeting with Arab countries. .
The Israeli chief of staff carried out an inspection of troops inside the Gaza Strip, for the first time since the start of the war. And Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant promised that the offensive will allow “finding and eliminating” Yahya Sinwar, head of the Islamist movement in power in that Palestinian territory.
Israeli soldiers continue the ground offensive and bombing campaign launched on October 7, in response to the attack in which Islamists killed more than 1,400 people, mostly civilians, and kidnapped some 240 in southern Israel, according to the balance of the Jewish State.
The Israeli offensive, according to Hamas authorities, claimed the lives of almost 9,500 people, including 3,900 children.
US President Joe Biden said progress had been made toward achieving a “humanitarian pause,” although he did not offer further details.
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The head of American diplomacy, Antony Blinken, reiterated in a meeting with peers from five Arab countries in Amman Washington’s support for establishing “humanitarian pauses” to distribute aid to Palestinian civilians.
Blinken arrived in the Jordanian capital after meeting the day before with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who rejected any “temporary truce” without the release of the hostages kidnapped by Hamas.
Jordanian Foreign Minister Ayman Al Safadi urged all parties to work together to “stop a catastrophe that will haunt the region for generations.”
Suspended evacuation
An Israeli attack on an ambulance convoy on Friday left 15 dead and 60 injured, according to a Hamas report confirmed by the Palestinian Red Crescent.
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That attack generated international condemnation and concern for the safety of health workers.
“The images of the bodies scattered on the street outside the hospital are heartbreaking,” reacted UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres.
Hamas claimed that the convoy was evacuating wounded to Egypt through the Rafah gate, the only crossing in the Strip that is not controlled by Israel.
Israel assured for its part that the ambulance it targeted was “used by a Hamas terrorist cell.”
Hamas on Saturday suspended the evacuation of people with foreign passports through Rafah, after Israel refused to authorize the departure of wounded Palestinians to be treated in Egyptian hospitals.
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“No foreign passport holder will be able to leave the Gaza Strip until the wounded who need to be evacuated from hospitals in the northern Strip can be transported through the Rafah crossing” to Egypt, said a border official, who requested the anonymity.
The Israeli army is also tightening the siege of Gaza City, in the north of the enclave, with the stated objective of destroying weapons depots, tunnel networks and Hamas command centers.
Thousands of people demonstrated on Saturday in several cities, including London, Paris, Berlin and Washington, to denounce the bombings of the civilian population in Gaza.
In Israel, thousands of protesters increased the pressure on Netanyahu.
In Tel Aviv, a protest by the families and supporters of the hostages kidnapped by Hamas asked the leader for more efforts to free the captives.
And in Jerusalem, hundreds of people gathered outside Netanyahu’s residence calling for his resignation and blaming him for the bloody October 7 attack.
Regional tensions
The conflict increased tensions between Israel and its neighbors.
Blinken met in Amman with his counterparts from Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Egypt, the United Arab Emirates and Jordan, in a context of fear of an escalation of the conflict.
The United States reiterated its call for the creation of a Palestinian state, but after decades of stalled negotiations, observers see little chance of progress in that direction in the current context.
Turkey, where Blinken will arrive on Sunday, indicated on Saturday that it withdrew its ambassador to Israel.
“Netanyahu is no longer someone we can talk to. We cross it out,” declared Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
The head of the Lebanese pro-Iran movement Hezbollah, Hassan Nasrallah, stated the day before in his first speech since the beginning of the conflict that the possibility of “a total war” was something “realistic.”
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