- LATEST DEVELOPMENTS:
- Qatar: Israel should not be given carte blanche to kill
- Qatar: Conflict threatens global security
- French President Macron arrives in Tel Aviv and says 30 nationals have been killed and nine are still missing
GAZA/JERUSALEM, Oct 24 (Portal) – Israel said on Tuesday it had killed dozens of Hamas militants in attacks on Gaza overnight and that it had no intention of easing its bombardment of the besieged Palestinian enclave.
The United States called on Israel to allow more aid to the Gaza Strip, which is in a humanitarian crisis after two weeks of fierce Israeli attacks.
But in the bloodiest episode of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in decades, there appeared to be little prospect of an imminent ceasefire.
According to the Palestinian Health Ministry, the death toll in Gaza from two weeks of Israeli airstrikes in response to a Hamas attack in which the Islamist militant group killed more than 1,400 people – mostly civilians – has passed 5,000 in a single day .
Hamas on Monday released two Israeli women who were among more than 200 hostages taken during the group’s Oct. 7 attack on southern Israel. They were the third and fourth hostages to be released.
Israeli tanks and troops are gathered on the border between Israel and the Hamas-ruled enclave, awaiting orders for an expected ground invasion – an operation complicated by concerns about the hostages.
The Israeli military said it struck more than 400 militant targets in Gaza overnight, killing dozens of Hamas fighters, including three deputy battalion commanders.
Targets hit included a tunnel that allowed Hamas to enter Israel from the sea and Hamas command centers in mosques, it said. Portal could not immediately verify the report.
Large parts of the Gaza Strip were leveled by Israeli bombs, forcing more than a million residents to seek shelter elsewhere in the territory.
With food, clean water, medicine and fuel quickly running out, the United Nations and aid groups have warned of a humanitarian catastrophe and called for supplies to be allowed in.
Earlier, Israel’s Chief of General Staff, Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi, indicated that Israel had no intention of curbing its attacks.
“We want to completely dismantle Hamas,” Halevi said in a statement.
[1/12]A general view of a gas station hit in an Israeli attack amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip, October 24, 2023. Portal/Ibraheem Abu Mustafa Acquires LICENSE RIGHTS
“We are well prepared for ground operations in the south,” he added. “Troops that have more time are better prepared, and that’s what we’re doing now.”
Medical officials in Gaza said dozens of Palestinians were killed or injured overnight across the enclave, mostly in southern Gaza, due to Israeli bombing. At least 15 houses were destroyed.
NO GREEN LIGHT
Foreign governments have expressed concern that the conflict could throw the entire Middle East into turmoil. Clashes have already broken out in the West Bank and along the Lebanese-Israeli border.
Qatar’s ruling emir, who has tried to mediate between Israel and Hamas, called on the international community to rein in Israel in its fight against Hamas.
“We say enough. Israel should not be given an unconditional green light and unrestricted authorization to kill,” Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani said in a speech to the Gulf state’s Shura Council.
Support for Israel came from French President Emmanuel Macron, who landed in Tel Aviv on Tuesday and will meet with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other members of Israel’s War Cabinet.
“We are bound to Israel by grief,” Macron said on social media, saying 30 French people were killed in the Oct. 7 attacks and nine were still missing or held hostage.
US President Joe Biden welcomed the release of the two hostages and also stressed the need to maintain a “continuous flow” of humanitarian aid to Gaza in a phone call with Netanyahu, the White House said.
Publicly, the United States said Israel had the right to defend itself, but two sources said the White House, Pentagon and State Department had increased caution in talks with the Israelis.
A U.S. priority is to buy time for negotiations to release more hostages, the sources said, speaking ahead of Monday’s announcement of the hostage releases.
Asked about the possibility of a ceasefire, Biden said: “We should release the hostages and then we can talk.”
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken planned to attend a U.N. Security Council meeting on the Middle East on Tuesday, although it was unclear what action, if any, the council, whose five veto powers are the United States, Russia, China, Britain and France, might take. are shared.
Reporting by Nidal al-Mughrabi in Gaza and Ari Rabinovitch in Jerusalem; Additional reporting by Matt Spetalnick, Steve Holland, Rami Ayyub and Humeyra Pamuk in Washington; Dan Williams and Emily Rose in Jerusalem; Moaz Abd-Alaziz in Cairo; writing by Michael Perry and Angus MacSwan; Edited by Miral Fahmy and Toby Chopra
Our standards: The Thomson Portal Trust Principles.
Acquire license rights, opens new tab