Israel vs Hamas Live: Blinken calls for protection of civilians in Gaza
Israel-Hamas at war: All the updates on Day 8
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken called Saturday for protecting civilians in the Gaza Strip and Israel as the Israeli military ordered half of the Palestinian territory's population to evacuate in advance of an expected ground assault.
Blinken met with Saudi Arabian Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan as America's top diplomat held a third day of talks across the Mideast aimed at preventing the Israel-Hamas war from expanding into a regional conflict and worsening the humanitarian crisis.
Both officials stressed the importance of minimizing the harm to civilians as Israel prepared for an anticipated incursion against Hamas a week after the militant group's unprecedented attack against Israel.
“As Israel pursues its legitimate right, to defending its people and to trying to ensure that this never happens again, it is vitally important that all of us look out for civilians, and we're working together to do exactly that,” Blinken said before heading to the United Arab Emirates for further discussions.
"None of us want to see suffering by civilians on any side, whether it's in Israel, whether it's in Gaza, whether it's anywhere else," Blinken said.
Egypt, Israel, and the United States have reached an agreement to permit foreigners in Gaza to cross the Rafah border into Egypt, according to a senior Egyptian official. Israel has committed to avoiding strikes in areas where these individuals would pass through while leaving the besieged Palestinian territory.
Qatar played a role in the negotiations, and the agreement received approval from Palestinian militant groups Hamas and Islamic Jihad.
Earlier Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed to destroy Hamas as the Army prepares for an expected ground invasion of the Gaza Strip. Netanyahu delivered the threat in a nationally televised address late Friday (October 14).
Israel has been pounding Gaza with airstrikes since Hamas militants carried out an unprecedented cross-border attack last Saturday, killing over 1,300 people in a brutal rampage. Early Friday, Israel ordered half of Gaza's population to evacuate their homes.
“This is just the beginning,” Netanyahu said. “We will end this war stronger than ever.” “We will destroy Hamas,” he added, saying Israel has widespread international support for the operation.
Meanwhile, US President Joe Biden has said Hamas is worse than al-Qaeda.
"The more we learned about the attack, the more horrifying it becomes. More than 1,000 innocent lives lost, including at least 27 Americans," Biden said.
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Live Updates
- 14 Oct 2023 5:14 AM GMT
‘Even wars have rules’: UN chief Guterres on Israel’s ultimatum for Gaza evacuation
Israel's ultimatum that over one million people in northern Gaza should relocate within 24 hours is "extremely dangerous" and "simply not possible", UN chief Antonio Guterres has said, asserting that "even wars have rules.”
UN officials in Gaza on Thursday (October 12) were informed by their liaison officers in the Israeli military that the entire population of northern Gaza, approximately 1.1 million, should relocate to the southern part within the next 24 hours.
The same order applied to all UN staff and those sheltered in UN facilities – including schools, health centres, and clinics.
“Moving more than one million people across a densely-populated warzone to a place with no food, water, or accommodation, when the entire territory is under siege, is extremely dangerous – and in some cases, simply not possible,” Guterres told reporters on Friday (October 13).
The UN Secretary-General made those remarks before heading to a Security Council meeting on the situation in the Middle East.
Voicing his deep concern, the UN chief said that the “hospitals in the south of Gaza are already at capacity and will not be able to accept thousands of new patients from the north. The health system is also on the brink of collapse and morgues are overflowing,” he said.
Guterres said 11 healthcare staff have been killed while on duty and there have been 34 attacks on health facilities in the past few days.
Describing the situation in Gaza as reaching a “dangerous new low,” he said the entire territory faces a water crisis as infrastructure has been damaged and there is no electricity to power pumps and desalination plants.
Asserting that “even wars have rules”, Guterres said there is an immediate need for humanitarian access throughout Gaza for the UN to "get fuel, food and water to everyone in need."
"International humanitarian law and human rights law must be respected and upheld; civilians must be protected and never used as shields. All hostages in Gaza must be released immediately,” he said.
Guterres underscored that it is imperative that all parties – and those with influence over them – do everything possible to achieve these steps.
- 14 Oct 2023 2:25 AM GMT
Hamas is worse than al-Qaeda, says Biden
Palestinian militant group Hamas is worse than al-Qaeda, US President Joe Biden has said.
"The more we learned about the attack, the more horrifying it becomes. More than 1,000 innocent lives lost, including at least 27 Americans," Biden said at the top of his remarks on Hydrogen Hubs in Philadelphia.
"These guys make -- they make al-Qaeda look pure. They're pure evil. Like I said from the beginning, the United States, make no mistake about it, stands with Israel. The United States stands with Israel," Biden said.
"Secretary of State Antony Blinken was in Israel yesterday, and Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin is there today," the President said.
"We're making sure Israel has what it needs to defend itself and respond to these attacks. It's also a priority for me to urgently address the humanitarian crisis in Gaza," he said.
Biden said at his direction, his teams are working in the region, including communicating directly with the governments of Israel, Egypt, Jordan and other Arab nations, and the United Nations to surge support and humanitarian consequences for Hamas attack to help Israel.
"We can't lose sight of the fact that the overwhelming majority of Palestinians had nothing to do with Hamas and Hamas's appalling attacks, and their suffering as a result, as well. This morning, I spoke with the family members of all those Americans who are still unaccounted for, on a Zoom call, for about an hour and 10, 15 minutes," he said.
"They're going through agony not knowing what the status of their sons, daughters, husbands, wives, children are. You know, it's gut wrenching. I assured them my personal commitment to do everything possible -- everything possible to return every missing American to their families," he said.
"We're working round the clock to secure the release of Americans held by Hamas, in close cooperation with Israel and our partners around the region, and we're not going to stop till we bring them home," Biden said at the event.
- 14 Oct 2023 1:29 AM GMT
Trump changes stance, says he stands with Israel
Former President Donald Trump has said that he stood with Israel and its prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, as his GOP rivals continued to pointedly denounce his lashing out at Netanyahu days after Hamas' deadly attacks.
Referring to Netanyahu by his nickname, Trump posted “#IStandWithIsrael” and “#IStandWithBibi” on his Truth Social network Friday afternoon.
That stood in stark contrast to comments earlier this week, when Trump told a rally crowd in Florida that Netanyahu had "let us down" before the US killed a top Iranian general. Trump further faulted the country's intelligence agencies, saying they needed to "step up their game," and referred to Hezbollah, the group Israel fears may launch a large-scale attack from the country's north, as "very smart." The comments drew widespread condemnation from the White House as well as Trump's GOP rivals, who have generally avoided directly attacking the former president and GOP front-runner because he remains deeply popular with the party's base.
