U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken arrived in Israel Friday to press for more humanitarian aid to be allowed into besieged Gaza, while the Israeli military said its troops tightened their encirclement of Gaza City, the focus of Israel’s campaign to crush the enclave’s ruling Hamas group.
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On the northern border with Lebanon, tensions continued to escalate ahead of a speech planned later Friday by Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, his first public comments since Hamas attacked Israel last month, stoking fears the conflict could widen into a regional one.
On Thursday, Hezbollah, an ally of Hamas, attacked Israeli positions in the north with drones, mortar fire and suicide drones. The Israeli military said it retaliated with warplanes and helicopter gunships.
Since the Gaza war began Oct. 7, Hezbollah has been taking calculated steps to keep Israel’s military busy on its border with Lebanon, but so far nothing of the extent that it would ignite an all-out war.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said Israeli troops killed another Hamas commander Friday, Mustafa Daloul, who the IDF said “played a central role in managing the fight against the IDF forces in the Gaza Strip.”
The IDF said Friday Israeli forces have completely encircled Gaza City, a densely packed cluster of neighborhoods that Israel says is the center of Hamas military infrastructure and includes a vast network of underground tunnels, bunkers and command centers.
Israeli troops are “fighting in a built-up, dense, complex area,” said the military’s chief of staff, Herzi Halevy.
Israel military spokesman Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari said Israeli forces were in “face to face” battles with militants, calling in airstrikes and shelling when needed. He said they were inflicting heavy losses on Hamas fighters and destroying their infrastructure with engineering equipment.
Casualties on both sides are expected to rise as Israeli troops advance toward the dense residential neighborhoods of Gaza City.
On Thursday, Israeli planes dropped leaflets warning residents to immediately evacuate the Shati refugee camp, which borders Gaza City’s center.
“Time is up,” the leaflets read, warning that strikes “with crushing force” against Hamas fighters were coming.
Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians remain in the path of fighting in northern Gaza, despite Israel’s repeated calls for them to evacuate. Many have crowded into U.N. facilities, hoping for safety.
Still, four U.N. schools-turned-shelter in northern Gaza and Bureij were hit in recent days, killing 24 people, according to Philippe Lazzarini, general-secretary of the U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees, known as UNRWA.
Rocket fire from Gaza into Israel, and daily skirmishes between Israel and Lebanon’s Hezbollah militants, have also disrupted life for millions of Israelis and forced an estimated 250,000 to evacuate border towns.
More than 9,000 Palestinians, mostly women and children, have been killed in Gaza, according to the Hamas-controlled Gaza Health Ministry, and Israeli authorities say another 1,400 people have died in there, mainly civilians killed during Hamas’ initial attack.
Blinken is making his third trip to Israel since the Hamas attack. This trip takes him to Tel Aviv and Amman, Jordan, and follows President Biden calling for a humanitarian “pause” in the fighting. The aim would be to let in aid for Palestinians and let out more foreign nationals and wounded.
Israel didn’t immediately respond to Mr. Biden’s suggestion. But Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who has previously ruled out a cease-fire, said Thursday that, “We are advancing. … Nothing will stop us.” He vowed to destroy Hamas rule in the Gaza Strip.
The U.S. has pledged unwavering support for Israel after Hamas militants killed hundreds of men, women and children on Oct. 7 and took some 240 people captive.
Before Blinken departed, the U.S. State Department reiterated American “support for Israel’s right to defend itself.”
At the same time, the Biden administration has pushed for Israel to let more aid into Gaza amid growing alarm over the humanitarian crisis.
Around 800 people have entered Egypt through the Rafah border crossing from Gaza over the past two days.
Egypt has said it will not accept an influx of Palestinian refugees, fearing Israel will not allow them to return to Gaza after the war.
President Biden, during a brief exchange with journalists at the Oval Office, said 74 Americans who are dual citizens got out of Gaza on Thursday. A list released by Gaza’s Hamas-run Interior Ministry Friday had the names of 367 American nationals approved to cross over the border. At least five American nongovernmental organization workers were confirmed in statements by their respective groups to CBS News to have crossed into Egypt Wednesday.
More than 3,700 Palestinian children have been killed in 25 days of fighting, according to the Health Ministry in Hamas-run Gaza. Bombardment has driven more than half the territory’s 2.3 million people from their homes. Food, water and fuel are running low under Israel’s siege, and overwhelmed hospitals warn they are on the verge of collapse.
Israel has allowed more than 260 trucks carrying food and medicine through the crossing, but aid workers say it’s not nearly enough. Israeli authorities have refused to allow fuel in, saying Hamas is hoarding fuel for military use and would steal new supplies.
White House national security spokesman John Kirby said the U.S. was not advocating for a general cease-fire but a “temporary, localized” pause.
Israel and the U.S. seem to have no clear plan for what would come next if Hamas rule in Gaza is brought down – a key question on Blinken’s agenda on his visit, according to the State Department.
Earlier in the week, Blinken suggested that the Palestinian Authority govern Gaza. Hamas drove the authority’s forces out of Gaza in its 2007 takeover of the territory. The authority now holds limited powers in some parts of the Israeli-occupied West Bank.
