Clouds of smoke mark the impact of the Israeli bombings this Monday in Gaza City.MOHAMMED SALEM (Portal)
At least nine American citizens died in the war between Israel and Hamas this weekend, a spokesman for the White House National Security Council confirmed Monday. Most, if not all, of them had dual American and Israeli citizenship, according to Democratic government sources. In statements to the information portal Axios, a senior official, who wished to remain anonymous, said that the authorities are operating on the hypothesis that the victims were kidnapped and taken to Gaza during the Hamas offensive that triggered the war this Saturday. Asked about the possibility that there were Americans among the Hamas hostages, the spokesman said: “American citizens are missing.” “We are closely following information about hostage-taking by Hamas.”
Members of Congress were informed late Sunday of the existence of “several” dead compatriots, while more circumspect government sources put the death toll at four. The department, led by Secretary of State Antony Blinken, devoted almost all of Sunday to completing the count and determining the circumstances and identities of the victims, which were not made public.
The existence of deaths involving U.S. passports poses a crucial week for Washington to address the institutional crisis in Congress due to the power vacuum created by the firing of its president, Republican Kevin McCarthy, by his own party colleagues was driven out, has arisen to be questioned even more directly. While Washington announced on Sunday the deployment of ships and warplanes to the Eastern Mediterranean to strengthen Israel’s security, this Monday it redoubled diplomatic pressure to prevent violence from spreading in the region. During an official visit to Beijing, Senator Chuck Schumer, leader of the Senate’s Democratic majority, called on Chinese President Xi Jinping to “use China’s influence in Iran” to prevent violence in Israel and Gaza from spreading elsewhere spreading in Iran region.
Schumer, who is Jewish, is in China leading a bipartisan congressional delegation. His appeal to Xi, who he said was “disappointed” by China’s lack of sympathy toward Israel in its official response to the Hamas attacks, comes hours after an urgent closed-door meeting of the U.N. Security Council failed to produce a unanimous condemnation Hamas ended. “I call on you and the Chinese people to stand with the people of Israel and condemn the cowardly and reckless attacks,” Schumer urged Xi.
As for the hypothetical involvement of Iran, which would seek to advance diplomatic normalization efforts between Tel Aviv and Riyadh through the Hamas offensive, the Wall Street Journal reported in a lengthy exclusive on Sunday that Revolutionary Guard officials had been helping to plan the surprise attack since August Hamas participated “with attacks on land, sea and in the air” and “at a meeting in Beirut last Monday they gave the green light for the attack.” The alleged Iranian support for the Hamas offensive was criticized by the government of President Joe Biden immediately, if only half-rejected. White House officials assured Axios that they had no intelligence to support the report, while Secretary of State Blinken told ABC: “We have not yet seen any direct evidence that Iran is behind this particular attack… But the support for many years.” Clear.” Tehran finances the resistance against Israel and thus also against the United States through logistical and material support for armed Islamist groups in Gaza, Lebanon, Syria, Iraq and Yemen.
As television networks, including local ones, focus on monographic coverage of the war, security measures have been increased around Jewish places of worship and cultural centers, particularly in New York, home to the largest Jewish population outside of Israel. The street has become a reflection of tensions in the Middle East. This Sunday, two opposing demonstrations, one pro-Israel and one pro-Palestinian, shook the streets of New York, while the second was criticized by some state lawmakers, Democrats and Republicans, for deeming it inappropriate.
Join EL PAÍS to follow all the news and read without restrictions.
Subscribe to
Follow all international information on Facebook and Xor in our weekly newsletter.