GAZA CITY: Israel’s armed forces stepped up air strikes on Gaza’s far-southern Rafah city on Thursday as fears of a ground offensive grew among the over one million Palestinians crowded into the city, AFP reported.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken left Israel without securing a pause in the bombardment, wrapping up his fifth crisis tour of the Middle East since the Israeli bombardment started on October 7.
Heavy Israeli bombardment continued despite international efforts towards a ceasefire in the bloodiest-ever Gaza war.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he had ordered the military to “prepare to operate” in Rafah after rejecting Hamas’s demands in truce talks.
Netanyahu announced the order despite UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres’s warning that a military push into Rafah “would exponentially increase what is already a humanitarian nightmare.”
Israel carried out at least seven air strikes overnight in the Rafah city, terrifying Palestinian civilians crowded into shelters and makeshift camps.
Israeli strikes and ground offensive continued across the Gaza Strip, where the health ministry said another 130 people were killed in 24 hours.
Gaza Ceasefire Efforts
US top diplomat ended his fifth tour of the region, where US forces have been drawn into related conflicts from Iraq to Yemen.
Blinken stopped short of calling on Israel not to move on Rafah, but warned that any “military operation that Israel launches needs to put civilians first and foremost”.
On the ceasefire talks, Blinken maintained he still saw “space for agreement to be reached” to stop the fighting and bring home hostages.
Egypt was set to host fresh talks on Thursday with Qatari and Hamas mediators hoping to achieve “calm” in Gaza and a prisoner-hostage exchange, an Egyptian official said. “While there are some clear non-starters in Hamas’s response, we do think it creates space for agreement to be reached, and we will work at that relentlessly until we get there,” he said.
Hamas said a delegation led by a leading member of the group’s political bureau, Khalil al-Hayya, was travelling to Cairo.
Since October 7, Israel launched air strikes and a ground offensive that have killed at least 27,840 Palestinian people, mostly women and children, the Gaza health ministry reported.
Months of Israeli bombardment and siege have deepened a humanitarian crisis in the Palestinian territory, especially in southern Gaza.
