The US is discussing the possibility of creating a safe passage for Gaza’s civilians as Israel’s air force continued to pound the enclave and the Israeli death toll from the Hamas offensive – the deadliest militant assault in its history – reached 1,200.
US national security adviser Jake Sullivan said on Tuesday talks on safe passage were being held with Israel and Egypt. “We are focused on this question, there are consultations going on. But the details of that are something that are being discussed among the operational agencies and I don’t want to share too much of that publicly at this time.”
It follows pleas from humanitarian groups for the creation of corridors to get aid into Gaza and warnings that hospitals overwhelmed with wounded people were running out of supplies. Israel has stopped entry of food, fuel and medicines into Gaza, and the sole remaining access from Egypt, at Rafah, shut down on Tuesday after airstrikes hit near the border crossing.
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The World Health Organization (WHO) said there had been 11 attacks on Gaza healthcare sites in the first 36 hours of the conflict. “There is an urgent need to establish a humanitarian corridor for unimpeded, life-saving patient referrals and movement of humanitarian personnel and essential health supplies,” the WHO said.
On Saturday, on the morning of a Jewish holiday, militant organisation Hamas launched a surprise attack from the Gaza Strip that saw gunmen crossing the border, raiding Israeli cities and gunning down civilians in their homes, cars and at a desert music festival. As many as 150 hostages are believed to have been taken.
Amid mounting expectations that Israel will launch a ground invasion of Gaza within days, the air force continued to batter the enclave with deadly strikes late on Tuesday, using dozens of fighter jets to hit more than 70 targets, according to Israeli military officials.
Lieutenant Colonel Jonathan Conricus, spokesperson for the Israel Defence Forces (IDF), said on Wednesday morning that 300,000 reservists had been sent south, close to Gaza, and were getting ready “to execute the mission we have been given by the Israeli government … to make sure that Hamas, at the end of this war, won’t have any military capabilities by which they can threaten or kill Israeli civilians”.
In Gaza’s Rimal neighbourhood, Palestinian Civil Defence forces pulled Abdullah Musleh out of his basement together with 30 others after their apartment building was flattened. “I sell toys, not missiles,’’ the 46-year-old said, weeping. “I want to leave Gaza. Why do I have to stay here? I lost my home and my job.”
In a new tactic, Israel is warning civilians to evacuate neighbourhood after neighbourhood, and then inflicting devastation, in what could be a prelude to a ground offensive. On Tuesday, the military told residents of the al-Daraj neighbourhood to evacuate. New…
2023-10-10 23:49:56
Link from www.theguardian.com