 "Israel")
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, in his strongest public criticism of Israel’s conduct of the war on Hamas in south Gaza, said there was a gap between the government’s declared intentions to protect civilians and the casualties.
“As we stand here almost a week into this campaign into the south... it remains imperative that Israel put a premium on civilian protection,” Blinken told a press conference after meeting British Foreign Secretary David Cameron in Washington on Thursday. “And there does remain a gap between... the intent to protect civilians and the actual results that we’re seeing on the ground.”
US President Joe Biden spoke separately by phone with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Jordan’s King Abdullah on Thursday. Biden “emphasized the critical need to protect civilians and to separate the civilian population from Hamas including through corridors that allow people to move safely from defined areas of hostilities,” the White House said. Gaza’s health ministry reported 350 people killed on Thursday, bringing the death toll from Israel’s two-month campaign in Gaza to 17,487, with thousands more missing and presumed buried under rubble. More strikes were reported on Friday morning in Khan Younis in the south, the Nusseirat camp in the centre and Gaza City in the north.
The Israeli military said on Friday it had struck more than 450 targets in Gaza from land, sea and air over the past 24 hours -- the most since a truce collapsed last week and about double the daily figures typically reported since then.
With most Gazans now displaced and unable to access any aid, hospitals overrun and food running out, the main UN agency there said society was “on the verge of a full-blown collapse” and its ability to protect people there was “reducing fast”.
Also Read
Israel’s military said 94 Israeli soldiers had been killed fighting in Gaza since its ground invasion of the enclave began.An Israeli commander, Brig Gen Dan Goldfuss, said in a video message recorded in Khan Younis that his forces were fighting house to house and “shaft to shaft”, a reference to tunnel shafts. As he spoke, gunshots rang out in the background.
Israel started its campaign to destroy the Hamas group that rules Gaza after Hamas fighters attacked Israeli towns on October 7, killing 1,200 people.
‘Will turn Beirut into Gaza if...’, Netanyahu warns
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu threatened devastation in Beirut and southern Lebanon if Hezbollah opens a second front in Israel’s war with Hamas.“If Hezbollah decides to open an all-out war, then with its own hands it will turn Beirut and southern Lebanon, which are not far from here, into Gaza and Khan Yunis,” Netanyahu said.
President Joe Biden, who has made a priority of containing the Israel-Hamas conflict, spoke to both Netanyahu and King Abdullah II of Jordan regarding “the latest developments in Gaza,” the White House said on Thursday.
Netanyahu delivered the warning during a visit to the headquarters of the Israel Defense Forces’ northern command, which oversees units that have traded fire with Hezbollah along the border with Lebanon in the weeks since Hamas militants attacked Israel on October 7. He praised military reservists’ “great spirit in their readiness for battle.”
His threat referred to the widespread destruction that Israel’s military has unleashed in the northern Gaza Strip in retaliation to the attack by Hamas, which is labeled a terrorist group by the US and the European Union. Israel has now turned its focus to the south of Gaza, with troops reportedly entering Khan Yunis.
Why Hezbollah Is a Wild Card in New Mideast Fighting: QuickTake
Hezbollah has expressed solidarity with Hamas, and as the fighting in the Gaza Strip has escalated, cross-border fire between Israel and Hezbollah has become a daily occurrence. At the same time, Hezbollah has held off from launching a full-blown military campaign, helping to ease fears that the Hamas conflict would erupt into a wider regional war.
In his conversation with Netanyahu, Biden expressed concerns for the hostages in Gaza, about attacks on Palestinians in the West Bank and how crucial it was for a steady supply of humanitarian assistance into Gaza, the White House said in an account of the call, which didn’t mention Netanyahu’s warning to Hezbollah.
