Sunak follows Biden to Israel to show support ‘in darkest hour’

On Thursday, Israel continued to bombard Gaza with airstrikes. At the same time, Egypt moved to open the border to assistance as British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak accompanied American President Joe Biden on trips to show solidarity for the fight against Hamas.

Sunak used a statement attributed to British wartime commander Winston Churchill when he pledged to support Israel “in its darkest hour” in the wake of the Oct. 7 Hamas shooting rampage that left 1,400 Israelis dead.

Following the bloodiest attack in its 75-year history, Israel vowed to destroy Hamas, imposed a complete closure on the 2.3 million residents of the Gaza Strip, and bombarded the enclave with attacks that left tens of thousands dead and more than a million displaced.

Sunak’s focus was squarely on the former, despite attempts by Western nations to strike a balance between pleas for easing Gazans’ hardship and support for Israel.

“I’m here, above all, to show my support for the Israeli people. Sunak told reporters after arriving in Tel Aviv hours after Biden did. “You have endured a horrible, horrific act of terrorism, and I want you to know that the United Kingdom and I are with you.

Later, when he was seen standing next to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, he declared, “We will support you in this. We’ll support you and your people. We also want you to succeed.

After an eight-hour visit, Biden returned to the United States on Wednesday night. He had promised to support Israel but had had only sporadic success getting supplies to Gaza.

In reaction to a bomb at a Gaza hospital, which Palestinians said was caused by an Israeli air attack but Israel claimed was brought on by a botched rocket launch by terrorists, the second part of his schedule, a planned meeting with Arab allies, was canceled. Biden supported the Israeli story.

According to an agreement Biden reached, 20 relief trucks will be able to travel from Egypt to Gaza in the coming days. This number is still far below the 100 trucks per day U.N. assistance head Martin Griffiths warned the Security Council Gaza required.

According to two Egyptian security sources, equipment was delivered across the border on Thursday to fix the roads on the Gaza side so supplies could pass. On the Egyptian side, more than 100 trucks were waiting, but none were anticipated to pass before Friday.

Israel stated that it would permit some restricted aid from Egypt to reach Gaza, but only if none of it supported Hamas. It reaffirmed that it would only open its checkpoints to allow in aid if the militants had released all 200+ captives they had taken.

A colonel described as the commander of Israel’s Ramat David air base told public television Kan that “in the Gaza Strip, every place where Hamas has touched or is touching will be struck and destroyed.” This was another indication that the bombing assault would not stop.

Palestinian health officials report that more than 3,500 people have died, and more than 12,000 have been injured due to Israeli attacks on Gaza.

Men hurried to the major Nasser hospital in Khan Younis, in the southern Gaza Strip, after a bomb struck a house in broad daylight while carrying dead and injured children in their arms, in ambulances, and on the back of a flatbed truck.

Doctors said four individuals, mostly displaced youngsters from northern Gaza who had been playing soccer in a lot next door, were murdered and several more injured.

A neighbor who witnessed the strike claimed, “I saw body parts, dismembered children, what shall I describe to you?” Hassan Al-Hindi. “They killed children,” he sobbed. It is unlike anything I have ever seen. They are killing children.

The people of Gaza mocked the gesture of promising only 20 truckloads of help for 2.3 million people without access to food, water, fuel, or medical supplies.

El-Awad El-Dali, 65, stood next to the wreckage of destroyed homes when he remarked, “We seek nothing from Arab and other nations except to cease the savage shelling on our dwellings.

In another location, a retail center was reduced to nothing but debris as far as the eye could see, with a toddler’s pink crib on its side on the ground, a clothes store’s windows blasted out, and damaged cars.

Rafat Al-Nakhala, who had arrived there after adhering to Israel’s order for people to leave Gaza City in the north, stated, “I’m over 70 years old, I’ve lived through several wars, it has never been like this, it has never been this brutal.”

Before the body of a young infant covered in a shroud was dropped into a tomb elsewhere in Khan Younis, a man kissed it. Mourners said that four little children were buried there among a family slain when a three-story structure was struck and three at another location.

Residents of the Jabaliya refugee camp in northern Gaza were shown in video footage acquired by Reuters digging with their bare hands inside a destroyed structure to release a little boy and girl buried beneath masonry. Residents attempted to light up the scene with cell phones as a man’s body was brought out of the debris on a stretcher.

According to the U.N., over half of Gaza’s population—one of the world’s densest inhabited regions—has been homeless and is still confined inside the territory.

It is more difficult for Biden and other Western leaders to mobilize Arab friends to stop the war from expanding since the misery of Gazans has incensed the Middle East.

After Israel, Sunak was scheduled to visit Saudi Arabia to meet with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who had just about decided to agree to restore diplomatic ties with Israel before the Hamas assault.

Biden urged Israelis to control their anger before he left: “While you feel that rage, don’t let it overwhelm you. In America, we were furious following 9/11. We erred, even though we sought justice, and were successful in doing so.