Arab leaders press US for Gaza ceasefire as 68 dead in fresh Israeli strikes
Egypt and Jordan on Saturday (local time) pressed US Secretary of State Antony Blinken for an immediate ceasefire.
In Gaza even as fresh bombardments by Israeli forces hit a UN-run school being used as a shelter, a hospital and a refugee camp, killing 68 people.
At a press conference, Blinken, who was flanked by his Egyptian and Jordanian counterparts, echoed Israel’s call, saying a ceasefire meant allowing Hamas, the Palestinian terror group controlling Gaza, to regroup, news agency Reuters reported.
The UN and world powers are yet to arrive at a consensus on how to deal with the war, which broke out on October 7, when Hamas launched a multi-pronged attack on Israel by air, land and sea, killing more than 1,400 people and taking 240 civilians as hostages.
Israel has responded with a brutal counteroffensive, striking Gaza from the air, imposing a blockade and subsequently, widening its ground operations in the densely populated Palestinian enclave. The deadly strikes have claimed nearly 9,500 lives.
According to the Palestinian news agency WAFA, 51 people, mostly women and children, were killed and several others were injured after Israel bombed Maghazi camp in central Gaza Strip on Saturday night.
Hamas-run Gaza health ministry spokesperson Ashraf al-Qidra said earlier that several people were killed and scores were injured and lay on the ground of a hospital’s emergency ward, according to Reuters.
A fresh Israeli airstrike killed 15 people at a UN-run school in Gaza City that was being used as a shelter for refugees and people displaced due to the ongoing war. An official from the UN Palestinian Refugee Agency (UNRWA) confirmed that the school was targeted.
“At least one strike hit the schoolyard where there were tents for displaced families. Another strike hit inside the school where women were baking bread,” Juliette Touma, director of communications for UNRWA, was quoted as saying by Reuters.
In Amman, Jordan, Blinken met with his counterparts from Saudi Arabia, Qatar, the UAE, Egypt and Jordan. But, there were differences between the Arab leaders and the US over an immediate ceasefire in Gaza.
“Right now, we have to make sure that this war stops,” Jordanian Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi said at a press conference.
However, Blinken, who arrived in Israel for the second time since the war began and met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, said, “A ceasefire now would simply leave Hamas in place, able to regroup and repeat what it did on October 7.”
Netanyahu had rejected calls from Blinken for a ceasefire in Gaza during their meeting in Tel Aviv.
US President Joe Biden replied “yes” when asked about any progress made on achieving a humanitarian pause and gave a thumbs-up as he left a church in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware.
Meanwhile, Hamas said an Israeli strike hit the home of its leader Ismail Haniyeh, which was being used by two of his sons.
According to the Gaza health ministry, two women were killed in an Israeli missile strike at the door of the Nasser Children’s Hospital. The ministry said several others were injured.
Last week, Israel bombed parts of the Jabalia refugee camp, the largest of such settlements in Gaza, killing 195 people, according to Palestinian authorities.
Hama’s armed wing said over 60 hostages were missing due to the Israeli airstrikes on Gaza. In a statement on Telegram, Abu Ubaida, the spokesperson for the Izz el-Deen al-Qassam Brigades, said 23 bodies of the 60 missing hostages were trapped under the debris of fallen buildings, The Times of Israel reported.
The terror group has so far released four civilians among the 240 believed to be held.
Amid Israel’s offensive on Gaza, Hamas fired rockets on Saturday, targeting Sderot and Ashkelon in southern Israel. The group also said it launched an Ayyash 250 rocket, which is believed to have a range of 250 kilometres, at Eilat.
That rocket was intercepted by the Israeli military’s Arrow air defence system.
Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant said the country’s forces would eliminate Hamas’s Gaza chief Yahya Sinwar and asserted that troops were “taking apart battalion after battalion”, according to The Times of Israel.
He said the Israeli military were striking terror targets in Gaza City from both the south and north and had entered urban areas.
IDF Arabic spokesperson Avichay Adraee said Israel will reopen a corridor on Sunday for civilians in northern Gaza to escape south despite the route coming under attack the previous day.
In a tweet in Arabic, Adraee said the Salah-al-Din Street would be opened for southward traffic between 10 am (local time) and 2 pm (local time). “For your safety, take advantage of the time to move south beyond Wadi Gaza,” he said.