The Israeli army has surrounded the city of Gaza, the Israeli Army (IDF) spokesman announced on Thursday, making it clear that “the word ‘ceasefire’ is not off the table.” The advance comes on the eve of a new visit by US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who made it clear before leaving Washington that the US will ask for “concrete measures” to spare civilians in Gaza. This is after US President Joe Biden spoke for the first time about a humanitarian ‘pause’.
“We are at the height of the battle. We have achieved impressive success and have reached the outskirts of Gaza City. We are making progress.” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a statement this afternoon, without providing further details. Early in the evening, IDF spokesman Admiral Daniel Hagari announced that “Israeli soldiers have completely surrounded the city of Gaza, the center of the terrorist organization Hamas.”
According to Hagari it is the army attacked this Thursday “them [do Hamas] outposts, headquarters, launch positions and infrastructure and eliminate terrorists in hand-to-hand combat.” According to the IDF spokesperson, at least 130 militants from the terrorist group have been “neutralized” in the past few hours..
The Ezzedine Al-Qassam Brigades, Hamas’s armed wing, warned that “Gaza will be the bane of history for Israel” and that its soldiers will return home “in black bags.” Since the start of the operation, 19 Israeli soldiers have been killed, the IDF affirmed, speaking of a “painful and difficult price” to be paid for neutralizing Hamas. According to Reuters, which cites witnesses and videos from both sides, fighters from Hamas and Islamic Jihad emerge from tunnels crossing Gaza to fire on Israeli tanks and disappear back into the complex underground system.
The Israeli ground operation was launched a week ago with the aim of destroying the Palestinian terrorist group responsible for the October 7 surprise attack that killed 1,400 people in Israel. The military operation, which has included bombings from the start, also aims to free the 240 hostages that Hamas brought to Gaza that same day. On the Palestinian side, 9,061 people have been killed since the start of the Israeli offensive – more than a third (3,760) of them children – according to data from the Ministry of Health, controlled by Hamas.
Biden talks about ‘pause’
Israel’s progress on the ground comes on the eve of Blinken’s arrival in Tel Aviv for a meeting with Netanyahu. “Let’s talk about concrete actions that can and should be taken to minimize harm to the men, women and children of Gaza,” the US Secretary of State said before leaving for Israel. ‘This is something the US is committed to’he added.
“When I see a Palestinian child, a boy or a girl, being pulled from the rubble of a destroyed building, it hits me in the stomach as much as seeing a child in Israel or anywhere else,” Blinken said, and reiterated that he always respects Israel’s “right and duty” to “defend itself” against Hamas terrorists.
The call for “concrete measures” to stop the deaths of Palestinian civilians comes after the US president himself spoke of a humanitarian “pause” in the fighting to allow the release of hostages and the exit of people from the Gaza Strip. Biden’s statement came after a campaign speech was interrupted Wednesday evening by an activist calling for a ceasefire. In response, the President said: “I think we need a break.”
It was the first time the head of state had used the phrase, after previously insisting that it was not the US that should tell Israel how to respond to the October 7 terrorist attack. The White House and the Secretary of State himself had already said they opposed a ceasefire, believing it would only benefit Hamas, but they supported “humanitarian pauses” to allow aid into Gaza deliver.
National Security Council spokesman John Kirby later specified what Biden meant. “A humanitarian pause is temporary, local and targeted, aimed at a particular goal or objectives, with humanitarian aid coming in and people going out,” he told reporters in Washington. The general idea is that in that geographic space, during that limited space, there would be a cessation of hostilities, sufficient to allow whatever is being tried to allow,” he added.
Biden is under pressure from human rights groups and other Democrats to change his speech. And the Israeli bombing of the Jabalia refugee camp on Tuesday and Wednesday, which reportedly killed Hamas officials but also dozens of civilians, did not help. Israel accuses the terrorist group of using civilians as human shields. The United Nations admits that these attacks may constitute “war crimes.”
In addition to Israel, Blinken will also visit Jordan on this trip – which will then continue to Asia and via Japan, South Korea and India. Amman has already recalled its ambassador to Israel in protest over the “death of innocent people in Gaza and the causing of an unprecedented human catastrophe.” Jordan was the second Arab country to sign peace with Israel in 1994, after Egypt in 1979. Bahrain, which normalized relations with Israel with the signing of the Abraham Accords in 2020, was also named its ambassador. It is not clear whether there will be a break in economic relations.
More and more foreigners are leaving
For the second day in a row, injured people, foreigners and dual nationals were able to leave the Gaza Strip via the Rafah border – the only border with Egypt. The aim is to remove all 7,000 foreigners trapped in Palestinian territory after the Hamas attack prompted Israel to close its borders.. According to data from the Egyptian Ministry of Health, 21 injured Palestinians, in addition to 344 foreigners (72 of them children), crossed the border on Thursday. A number among the list of more than 500 people allowed to leave, published by the Palestinian authorities.
In a meeting with foreign diplomats, Egyptian Deputy Foreign Minister Ismail Khairat said Egypt is preparing “to facilitate the reception and withdrawal of foreign citizens from Gaza.” 60 nationalities are involved. The list of those cleared to leave included dozens of Americans — Biden said 74 with dual citizenship and U.S. passports could leave — as well as Croats, Greeks, Dutch or Belgians. It is unclear what rules are used in drawing up the lists, which are made public on the Facebook page of the Palestinian General Authority for Crosses and Borders.
Source: DN
