Blinken is doing his groundhog day routine with Netanyahu
Blinken and Netanyahu discuss efforts to release hostages and increase Gaza aid, US State Department says
A meeting between US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu began Wednesday at 11:50 a.m. local time (4:50 a.m. ET) in Tel Aviv and lasted for about an hour, according to a pool of reporters traveling with the secretary.
Blinken and Netanyahu “discussed the latest efforts to secure the release of all remaining hostages and the importance of increasing the amount of humanitarian assistance reaching displaced civilians throughout Gaza,” according to a US State Department readout of their meeting.
Blinken “reiterated the United States’ support for the establishment of a Palestinian state as the best way to ensure lasting peace and security for Israelis and Palestinians alike and greater integration for the region,” according to the statement.
Blinken also stressed to Netanyahu “the urgent need to de-escalate tensions in the West Bank and prevent the conflict from expanding.”
So nothing new apart from
Blinken said Tuesday he would discuss Hamas' response to a proposal meant to secure the freedom of the remaining hostages and a sustained cessation of the fighting in Gaza with Israeli officials.
Starts to sound like another delay tactic
"A lot of work to be done" on deal between Israel and Hamas, top US diplomat Blinken says
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Wednesday said, “there is a lot of work to be done” to achieve a deal that would see the release of the hostages held in Gaza, “but we are very much focused on doing that work and hopefully, being able to resume the release of hostages that was interrupted so many months ago.”
The US and Israel are looking at the Hamas response to the proposal "intensively," he said in remarks at a meeting with Israeli President Isaac Herzog. The full Hamas response proposes three phases, each lasting 45 days, including the withdrawal of Israeli troops from Gaza, a massive humanitarian effort, and freedom of movement for people throughout Gaza, according to a copy obtained by CNN.
Herzog noted that Blinken’s visit to Tel Aviv “comes at a very critical time in the conflict.” “We are yearning and praying for the immediate release of our hostages. We want to see them back as soon as possible,” the Israeli President said. “The hostages are foremost on our minds and in our hearts,” Blinken said.
You know, maybe you could stop bombing and shooting every male that moves and bring food, water and medical aid in before the rest of the hostages die as well...
The hostages have been taken hostage by politics to keep the war going. We must put more pressure on Hamas by bombing more civilians and they'll release the hostages... any day now...
'Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.' - Albert Einstein.
Top Israeli general says there is no plan in place yet for how to minimize civilian deaths in Rafah
The top commander in charge of Israel’s military operation in southern Gaza has said that there is no plan in place yet for how to minimize civilian deaths in Rafah, as fears mount that an Israeli offensive in what is now the enclave’s most populous city could result in mass casualties.
Brig. Gen. Dan Goldfuss, who oversees the Israel Defense Forces’ 98th Division, said on Sunday he would work on such a plan “if and when” he receives the order to maneuver his forces into the area, and that as of Sunday, the order had not been issued yet. An IDF spokesperson told CNN that as of Wednesday, the information was still accurate – an order to move into Rafah has not been issued yet.
As the IDF pushed on with its ground operation from the north, it has consistently instructed civilians across the Gaza Strip to evacuate south, first to Khan Younis and then to Rafah, creating what it calls “safer zones.” Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant vowed last week that the IDF would move into Rafah.
CNN has previously reported on Palestinian civilians who followed evacuation orders being killed by Israeli strikes, underscoring the reality that evacuation zones and warning alerts from the Israeli military haven’t guaranteed safety for civilians in the densely populated Gaza Strip, where Palestinians have no safe place to escape Israeli bombs. The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs estimated that 1.3 million people had been displaced to Rafah. But there is nowhere to go from Rafah, a city that sits right at Gaza’s southern border with Egypt, which is closed to refugees.
I guess the original plan was to secure the Philadelphia corridor and then drive the population into Egypt. Egypt won't have it though.
Civilians shot near hospital in Khan Younis, according to local reports and witnesses
Video and witness accounts from across Gaza indicate significant combat in several areas, including in Gaza City and Khan Younis in the south of the enclave. Injuries were reported among people in the vicinity of Nasser medical complex in Khan Younis. Local reports said several people had been shot by Israeli forces, which have surrounded the hospital.
CNN cannot confirm the details of the shooting, but social media video showed several apparently injured people being removed from a street adjacent to the complex.
A doctor inside the hospital, Dr. Ahmad Al Moghrabi, posted a video on Instagram showing people waiting at its main gate, claiming that if anyone goes outside the gate, "they will be killed." He said Israeli snipers were standing on the roofs of some buildings. CNN has asked the Israeli Defense Forces about the presence and purpose of snipers in the vicinity of the hospital.
The Hamas-run health ministry said the Nasser and Al-Amal hospitals in Khan Younis are running out of oxygen, with the Palestine Red Crescent Society also saying Al-Amal has had "a severe oxygen shortage for days."
In Rafah: Further south, the Hamas-run Civil Defense directorate said its crews recovered a number of bodies after Israeli airstrikes targeted three properties that had been crowded with displaced people.
In Gaza City: A journalist in Gaza told CNN that crowds of people had fled after coming under fire while waiting for a distribution of humanitarian aid in the Al-Zaytoun neighborhood.
