Israel-Hamas war: Benjamin Netanyahu rejects ceasefire calls. Latest updates
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Friday rejected any calls for a humanitarian pause in the country’s war with Palestinian militants Hamas.
Blinken told United States Secretary of State Antony Blinken that Israel is “going full steam ahead,” unless the hostages held by Hamas are released.
Blinken is on his third visit to Israel since the war erupted between Hamas and Tev Aviv last month. He is set to meet with leaders in Jordan today, according to Reuters.
The war between Israel and Palestine’s Hamas militant group started after Hamas attacked Israeli towns on October 7, killing at least 1,400 persons.
Tel Aviv, in retaliation, has been carrying out military action in Gaza. According to the Hamas-run Health Ministry in Gaza, at least 9,227 Palestinians and foreigners have been killed in the airstrikes by Israeli forces.
Separately, in the occupied West Bank, more than 140 Palestinians have been killed in violence and Israeli raids.
Israel-Hamas war: Here are some of the top updates
Israeli troops have tightened their encirclement of Gaza City amid continued battles with Hamas militants as airstrikes wreaked havoc around the city, according to Reuters.
An Israeli air strike on an ambulance being used to evacuate the wounded from besieged northern Gaza killed 15 people and injured 60 others on Friday, the Hamas-controlled enclave’s health ministry said.
Israel’s military, on the other hand, claimed that the ambulance was being used by a Hamas terrorist cell. It said Hamas fighters were killed in the strike, and accused the group of transferring militants and weapons in ambulances.
World Health Organization chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said he was “utterly shocked” by reports of the attacks on ambulances evacuating patients close to Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza. “We reiterate: patients, health workers, facilities and ambulances must be protected at all times. Always,” he wrote on X, formerly Twitter.
Besides his meeting with Benjamin Netanyahu, Anton Blinken will also travel to Jordan today to meet Arab leaders.
Blinken will hold talks with the foreign ministers of Jordan, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar. He will also meet a Palestinian Authority, according to AFP.
The White House has said that the US Embassy in Cairo has assisted more than 100 US citizens and family members to leave the Gaza Strip.
“We continue to be focused on getting as many Americans out as quickly as possible and we expect more Americans to depart over the next several days, but again, this is a fluid situation,” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said during a briefing.