US To Push For Humanitarian Pauses In Gaza As Israel Tightens Siege

Reuters

New Delhi:- The top U.S. diplomat was set to persuade Israel to accept several pauses on Friday [ in its war on Hamas militants in Gaza, so that humanitarian aid could reach the people and help them escape safely. Meanwhile, Israel announced that it had encircled the biggest city in the Palestinian territory. The conflict between Hamas and Israel was close to entering its fifth week. U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken planned to visit Israel on Friday for the second time in a month and hold talks with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other officials.

Israel's military said late on Thursday that it had surrounded Gaza City, the main city on the coast and the target of Israel's campaign to wipe out the Islamist group. Hamas terrorists resisted with surprise attacks from underground tunnels. "We are at the peak of the battle. We have achieved remarkable successes and reached the outskirts of Gaza City. We are moving forward," Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a statement.

Blinken left Washington for the Middle East, saying he would discuss with Israel concrete steps to reduce harm to civilians in Gaza. The rising casualties among Palestinian civilians - along with the worsening lack of food, water, medicine and fuel - have triggered global calls for a humanitarian pause in the fighting.

Israel has rejected those calls, saying it only aims at the Hamas terrorists who it claims deliberately hide among the people and civilian structures. The latest conflict started when Hamas militants crossed Israel's border on Oct. 7. Israel says they killed 1,400 people, mostly civilians, and took more than 240 hostages in the most deadly day of its 75-year-old history.

Israel's subsequent shelling of the small Palestinian enclave of 2.3 million killed at least 9,061 people, according to Gaza health officials.

While repeating its opposition to a full ceasefire, the White House said on Thursday it was considering a series of pauses in the conflict. U.S. national security spokesperson John Kirby told reporters that such pauses should be brief and localised, and he stressed they would not prevent Israel from defending itself.

"What we're trying to do is explore the possibility of as many pauses as might be needed to continue to deliver aid and to continue to work to get people out safely, including hostages," he told reporters.

Two U.S. officials, speaking anonymously, said the U.S was flying drones over Gaza to gather intelligence and help find hostages. One of the officials said they had been doing the drone flights for more than a week.

On his trip, Blinken was also due to meet Jordan's Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi in Amman on Saturday. In a statement, Safadi said Israel must stop the war on Gaza, where he said it was committing war crimes by bombing civilians and enforcing a blockade.

In Geneva, a group of seven U.N. special rapporteurs, independent experts who monitor human rights, issued a statement calling for a ceasefire, saying Palestinians were facing "grave risk of genocide". The Israeli mission to the U.N. in Geneva called the comments "disgraceful and deeply worrying" and blamed Hamas for civilian deaths.

Stéphane Dujarric, spokesperson for the U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, said only a relevant U.N. judicial body could make a determination of genocide. In his meetings, Blinken said he would also discuss the future of Gaza and laying the foundation for future Palestinian statehood.

As Gaza was rocked by heavy blasts, Israeli military spokesperson Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari told reporters that his country's "troops completed the siege of Gaza City, which is the hub of the Hamas terror organization." Brigadier General Iddo Mizrahi, chief of Israel's military engineers, said troops were facing mines and booby traps. "Hamas has learned and prepared itself well," he said/