Blinken urges Israel to take steps to avoid civilian casualties as Gaza death toll soars.

Secretary of State of the United States Antony Blinken urged Israel on Friday to take action to safeguard people in Gaza as Israeli troops continued to attack the Palestinian territory and the number of citizens dying increased.

After surrounding Gaza City to eradicate the Islamist organization that rules the tiny, heavily populated region, the Israeli military announced that its soldiers were engaging in close-quarters battles with Hamas terrorists in the destroyed streets.

During the night, Israeli forces also bombarded Gaza from the air, sea, and land as concern over shortages, failing healthcare systems and the now-over 9,000 civilian deaths worldwide increased.

Blinken was making his second trip to the area in less than a month to assist Israel, a close friend, in responding to the Hamas militant onslaught on southern Israeli villages on October 7, which claimed the lives of almost 1,400 people and started the conflict.

Blinken reaffirmed that Israel has the right to “do everything possible” to make sure that an assault of this nature never occurs before meeting with Israeli President Isaac Herzog.

However, he stated: “It is very important when it comes to the protection of civilians who are caught in the crossfire of Hamas’s making that everything be done to protect them and to bring assistance to those who so desperately need it, who are not in any way responsible for what happened on October 7.”

Although the conflict is now on its 28th day, Washington has rejected pleas from the Arab world and several other countries for a complete truce. Instead, Washington wants more brief, localized pauses in the fighting to enable humanitarian assistance into Gaza and the release of hostages held by Hamas.

In Gaza, thousands of people have fled their homes to avoid the constant bombing; buildings have been destroyed; and food, gasoline, water, and medication are running low.

Aid organizations have issued warnings that the longest-running Israeli-Palestinian conflict is entering its deadliest episode in decades and that a humanitarian disaster is developing.

Before meeting with members of Israel’s emergency cabinet, which was established in the wake of the Hamas attack, Blinken also had a nearly hour-long conversation with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

According to Gaza health officials, since Israel began its onslaught on the 2.3 million-person enclave in retribution for Hamas’s assault in southern Israel, at least 9,227 people—many of them women and children—have died.

According to Israel, the worst day in the organization’s 75-year existence saw 1,400 deaths, primarily among civilians, and more than 240 captives taken by the Iran-backed Hamas.

ENDANGERED
According to the Israeli military, when its forces and tanks moved into Gaza, they came across explosives and booby traps. Hamas gunmen were using a vast network of underground tunnels to carry out hit-and-run attacks.

Mustafa Dalul, a Hamas leader who was allegedly in charge of overseeing warfare in Gaza, was among the terrorists killed as Israeli warplanes, artillery, and navy bombarded Hamas sites throughout the night. Hamas did not immediately provide confirmation.

The traditional Hamas stronghold in Gaza City was encircled, said military spokesman Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari.

“The soldiers are advancing in battles, during which they are destroying terror infrastructure above and below ground and eliminating terrorists,” he stated in a briefing.

Lieutenant Colonel Richard Hecht, another spokesperson, stated that they were engaged in a convoluted urban conflict. “It’s very, very close-quarter combat between our troops and Hamas operatives.”

Israel claims that the attack has cost it 23 troops.

Hamas and its affiliate Islamic Jihad claimed that its militants engaged in furious urban warfare around collapsed houses and piles of rubble, detonating bombs against advancing troops, dropping grenades from drones, and firing mortars and anti-tank rockets.

A local journalist for the official Palestine TV and at least nine members of his immediate family were murdered in their home after an Israeli airstrike in Khan Younis, southern Gaza, according to family members and health authorities.

One of the few Arab nations with diplomatic links to Israel, the United Arab Emirates, declared on Friday that it was working “relentlessly” for a rapid ceasefire and issued a warning about the possibility of regional spillover and additional escalation.

Israel has refused these requests, claiming that it targets Hamas fighters, who it believes are hiding among Gaza’s civilian buildings and population.

On Saturday in Amman, Blinken is scheduled to meet with Ayman Safadi, the foreign minister of Jordan. In a statement, Safadi demanded that Israel halt its attack on Gaza, claiming that by bombing people and enforcing a siege, Israel was committing war crimes.

BRICKING
Under an agreement mediated by Qatar, the Rafah gate between Gaza and Egypt was scheduled to reopen for limited evacuations on Friday. The purpose of the accord was to allow some foreign passport holders, their families, and a few injured Gazans to leave the enclave.

Seven hundred foreign nationals departed for Egypt via Rafah during the two preceding days, according to border officials. Numerous Palestinians with severe injuries were also scheduled to cross.

Additionally, Israel returned some 7,000 Palestinian laborers who had been employed in Israel and the West Bank before October 7 to Gaza via the southern Kerem Shalom border. Employees said Israeli officials had imprisoned and mistreated them.

In addition, Hagari said that Israel was “extremely ready” along its northern border with Lebanon, where terrorists supported by Iran were waging war to deflect attention away from the Gaza conflict.

The UN human rights office deemed the situation in the occupied West Bank “alarming” on Friday. It noted that Israeli authorities were increasingly using military tools and methods in their efforts to enforce the law.

It stated that 124 Israeli soldiers and 8 Israeli settlers murdered at least 132 Palestinians, including 41 children, in the West Bank. There were also two Israeli troops slain.

The Palestinians confined to Gaza City hoped for an early peace.

One person replied, “Does the world wait for Israel to massacre hundreds of thousands of people who refuse to leave their homes, who have no guilt but don’t want to leave their country?”