President Joe Biden will make a landmark trip to Israel
Wednesday, a show of “ironclad” support as Washington tries to prevent the
escalating war in Gaza from spilling over into regional conflict.
The trip comes just days after Gaza-based Hamas fighters
broke through Israel’s heavily fortified border, shooting, stabbing and burning
to death more than 1,400 people, most of them civilians.
Shell-shocked Israel has responded with withering air
strikes on Hamas-controlled Gaza and by deploying tens of thousands of troops
to the border in preparation for a full-scale ground offensive.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Biden’s visit would be a statement of “solidarity with Israel” and an “ironclad commitment to its security”.
Washington has already sent two aircraft carrier strike
groups to the eastern Mediterranean “to deter hostile actions against Israel.”
Iran on Monday warned of a possible “pre-emptive action”
against Israel “in the coming hours” and has repeatedly warned against a ground
invasion of Gaza.
“The resistance leaders” will not allow Israel “to do
whatever it wants in Gaza” said Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian.
On Tuesday, Israel said its troops had killed four militants
attempting to infiltrate from Lebanon and launched strikes on Hezbollah “terrorist”
targets in the country.
– ‘Real catastrophe’
–
While signalling support, Biden will also try to quietly steer
Israeli’s military response, as critism grows about the devastating impact of
the war on Palestinian civilians.
Israeli air strikes have killed several senior Hamas figures
and targeted the organisation’s headquarters, according to the military.
But at least 2,750 Palestinians — mostly civilians — have
also been killed, entire neighbourhoods have been razed and survivors are left
with dwindling supplies of food, water and fuel.
Israel has demanded that residents of north Gaza leave for
the south, hoping to clear the area of civilians in preparation for a perilous
urban ground assault.
An Israeli military spokesman said it was unclear how
Biden’s visit might change the timing of that operation.
UNRWA, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, says more
than one million Palestinians have fled their homes since the conflict began 10
days ago.
World Health Organization regional director Ahmed
Al-Mandhari told AFP that Gaza was barrelling towards “real catastrophe”.
“There are 24 hours of water, electricity and fuel left,” he
said.
Speaking after marathon talks with Prime Minister Benjamin
Netanyahu in Tel Aviv, Blinken signalled there was no firm agreement yet on
humanitarian relief.
But there was a “commitment” to work on a plan ahead of and
during Biden’s visit, he said.
“At our request, the United States and Israel have agreed to
develop a plan that will enable humanitarian aid from donor nations and
multilateral organisations to reach civilians in Gaza,” Blinken said.
He said the two sides were discussing the “possibility of
creating areas to help keep civilians out of harm’s way.”
Blinken said the US president hopes to “hear from Israel how
it will conduct its operations in a way that minimises civilian casualties and
enables humanitarian assistance to flow to civilians in Gaza in a way that does
not benefit Hamas.”
Shortly after Blinken’s comments, officials in Egypt said
relief convoys which have been waiting for days were headed towards the Rafah
border crossing.
Still, the scale of the crisis is only slowly coming into
view.
Since Israel’s evacuation order in north Gaza, entire
families, young children and the elderly have gathered belongings and fled to
southern Gaza, bedding down in any available space, indoors and out.
In the city of Khan Yunis in southern Gaza the normal
population of 400,000 has roughly doubled.
Thousands more Palestinians have gathered at the Rafah
border crossing with Egypt in an effort to flee.
“The situation is catastrophic beyond what I could have
imagined,” said Jamil Abdullah, a Palestinian-Swede who is hoping to leave
after being forced to sleep on the street.
“There are corpses in the streets. Buildings are crashing
down on their inhabitants. Blood is everywhere. The smell of the dead is
everywhere.”
AFP reporters in Gaza said mortuaries were overflowing, and
corpses wrapped in white body bags were even being stored in an ice cream
truck.
But Gazans are effectively trapped, with neighbouring Arab
nations fearful that if Palestinians leave the Strip they could be permanently
exiled.
– Missing –
In Israel, about 500,000 people have been displaced or
evacuated from communities around the Gaza Strip and along the northern border
with Lebanon, the military said.
Across the country, Israelis are still reeling from what is
the worst attack in the country’s 75-year history, and one that shattered faith
in the country’s government and much-vaunted security forces.
Merav Leshem Gonen is among those still anxiously waiting
for news of loved ones.
Her daughter was kidnapped at a music festival near the Gaza
border on October 7, one of at least 199 hostages Israel says were taken by
Hamas or other groups.
“We don’t know anything else. She’s missing. That’s all we
know, and we want her back alive. We want her to come back healthy,” she said.
Hamas’s military wing has said the group was holding 200
people, with about 50 more held by other “resistance factions and in other
places”.
A video on Hamas’s official Telegram channel purported to
show “one of the prisoners in Gaza” — a young woman speaking Hebrew and
receiving treatment for an arm injury.
According to the caption, she was abducted on October 7. The
video has not been verified by AFP.
AFP
Click to signup for FREE news updates, latest information and hottest gists everyday
Advertise on NigerianEye.com to reach thousands of our daily users
No comments
Post a Comment
Kindly drop a comment below.
(Comments are moderated. Clean comments will be approved immediately)
Advert Enquires - Reach out to us at NigerianEye@gmail.com