The head of American diplomacy plans to urge Israel to agree to establish pauses in hostilities in the Gaza Strip in order to allow the delivery of humanitarian aid and make evacuations possible. American Secretary of State Antony Blinken is expected in Israel on Friday, his second visit since the start of the fighting between the Jewish state and Hamas, where he is due to meet Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other officials. The Israeli army announced late Thursday evening that it had surrounded Gaza City. Residents described scenes of urban guerrillas led by Hamas and its ally Islamic Jihad, with fighters emerging from tunnels to attack Israeli tanks, before returning. “We are at the height of the battle. We are achieving impressive successes and we have crossed the outskirts of Gaza City. We are moving forward,” Benjamin Netanyahu said in a statement. As he left Washington for the Middle East, Antony Blinken said he would discuss concrete ways to minimize the suffering of civilians in Gaza during his visit to Israel. Calls for humanitarian pauses in the fighting are increasing internationally in the face of the large number of Palestinian civilian victims and while Gazans are virtually deprived of water, medicine, fuel and essential products. Israel has rejected the calls, saying it only targets Hamas and accusing the Islamist movement of using civilians as human shields. More than 9,000 people, including a large number of women and children, have been killed in the unprecedented offensive led by Israel in the Gaza Strip since the Hamas attack on October 7 which left 1,400 dead on Israeli territory. Two U.S. officials speaking anonymously said the United States had flown drones over Gaza to help locate the hostages. One of these officials specified that such operations had been taking place for more than a week. Antony Blinken is also scheduled to travel to Jordan, where he will meet Jordanian Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi on Saturday. The latter declared in a statement that Israel must end the conflict in Gaza, believing that the siege imposed there and the bombings affecting civilians constituted war crimes. Antony Blinken said he would also address the future of Gaza during his talks, including the question of a future Palestinian state. (Reporting Nidal al-Mughrabi in Gaza, Ali Sawafta in Ramallah, Dan Williams, Emily Rose, Maytaal Angel in Jerusalem, Clauda Tanios in Dubai, Patricia Zengerle, Phil Stewart and Idrees Ali in Washington, with contributions from the Reteurs editorial staff, written by Cynthia Osterman; French version Camille Raynaud)
2023-11-03 02:52:26
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