Israeli airstrikes across Gaza killed scores of people overnight, as fears grow of the military campaign intensifying in the southern city of Rafah, a tiny pocket of the territory where more than a million people are sheltering.
Amid intensifying divisions in Israel’s government over the war, the US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, was expected to arrive in the region on Sunday, his fifth trip since the militant group attacked Israel on 7 October, killing at least 1,200 people and taking about 250 hostage.
Blinken is expected to spend the week visiting Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Qatar, Israel and the West Bank to discuss a deal to secure the freedom of at least 136 remaining hostages in Gaza and a ceasefire intended to calm regional tensions, particularly in the Red Sea.
This is the best summary I could come up with:
Blinken is expected to spend the week visiting Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Qatar, Israel and the West Bank to discuss a deal to secure the freedom of at least 136 remaining hostages in Gaza and a ceasefire intended to calm regional tensions, particularly in the Red Sea.
Fears that Rafah could be in the crosshairs of Israeli forces come amid increasingly fierce divisions within Israel over the direction of the war, and pressure on mediators to reach a swift ceasefire agreement.
Bombardments of Gaza from land, air and sea have so far killed at least 27,000 people since October, according to the Hamas-run health ministry, with more than twice that number reported wounded and thousands more believed to be buried under the rubble.
Osama Hamdan, a member of Hamas’s politburo, told a press conference in Beirut on Saturday night that the group was mulling the proposed deal but was focused on the full withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza, a demand Netanyahu has rebuffed.
“There is a daily struggle here for people to find food, water suitable for human consumption, any piece of wood they can use to light a fire and to keep their families warm as it’s become extremely cold and rainy this week,” he said.
Despite growing criticism of Netanyahu’s leadership and threats from Ben-Gvir to pull out of the governing coalition, Cusnir said she felt the prime minister was capable of making politically difficult decisions and wanted him to do more.
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