Israel launched new attacks Thursday, vowing there would be no letup in its bombardment of Gaza until Hamas militants release the estimated 150 hostages they are holding.
“Humanitarian aid to Gaza? No electrical switch will be lifted, no water hydrant will be opened, and no fuel truck will enter until the Israeli hostages are returned home,” Israeli Energy Minister Israel Katz posted on X, formerly Twitter. “Humanitarian for humanitarian. And nobody should preach us morals.”
On Thursday, Human Rights Watch claimed that Israel used white phosphorus in military operations in Gaza on Wednesday in what constitutes a violation of international humanitarian law. White phosphorus can cause severe burns and long-term health issues.
“There was no use of white phosphorus in the Gaza Strip. Period,” IDF spokesman Lt. Colonel Amnon Sheffler told reporters Thursday.
A campaign of Israeli airstrikes that began hours after Saturday’s Hamas incursion has killed at least 1,500 people in Gaza. Israel says it has dropped 6,000 bombs over six days of bombardment.
“The numbers of casualties are increasing every hour,” Bashar Murad, director of the humanitarian group the Palestinian Red Crescent, told Alhurra, an Arabic language satellite TV sister organization of the Voice of America. “The number of dead and injured that arrived to the hospitals is much more than the capacity of these hospitals.”
The U.S. said that 27 Americans were killed in the Hamas attack and 14 are missing.
The United Nations said nearly 340,000 Palestinians have been displaced from their homes in Gaza, with more than two-thirds of them taking shelter in U.N. schools. It launched a humanitarian appeal Thursday for $294 million to meet immediate needs in Gaza and the West Bank.
Humanitarian organizations have expressed alarm about the fast-dwindling supplies of food, water, fuel and medicine in Gaza amid an Israeli blockade of the narrow strip of land along the Mediterranean Sea.
Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian said, “The continuation of war crimes against Palestine and Gaza will receive a response from the rest of the axis. And naturally, the Zionist entity and its supporters will be responsible for the consequences of that.” Amirabdollahian was speaking through a translator upon his arrival in Beirut.
Iran and Israel are enemies, and Iran supports Hamas, but Iranian officials have denied any involvement in the recent Hamas rampage.
Meanwhile, the chief of staff for Israel’s military, Herzi Halevi, acknowledged Thursday that the military had failed to protect people living near Gaza when Hamas launched its attack.
He said the Israel Defense Forces are “responsible for the security of the country and its citizens, and on Saturday morning in the area surrounding the Gaza Strip, we did not,” Halevi said. “We will learn, we will investigate, but now is the time for war.”
Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi highlighted the need to “ensure the regularity of humanitarian and relief services, as well as aid to the people in the Gaza Strip.”
Sissi’s office said in a statement that he told British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak in a phone call Thursday that Egypt is pushing for calm to prevent “sliding into a bloody path” where civilians will pay the price.
The World Health Organization said it has documented 34 attacks on health centers in Gaza since Saturday that have led to the deaths of 11 health care workers on duty, as well as 16 injuries.
Meanwhile, the Committee to Protect Journalists has documented at least seven journalists killed in Gaza since Saturday.
Blinken makes rounds
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Friday met with Jordanian King Abdullah in Amman, a day after holding talks with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Israel.
Blinken, who is also scheduled to meet with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas while in Amman, has expanded his trip from Israel and Jordan to include all of the Gulf Arab countries and Egypt, making it his largest tour of the region since taking office in January 2021.
On Friday alone, the top American diplomat is set to visit Qatar, Bahrain and Saudi Arabia, where he will spend the night before departing for Doha.
Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin arrived in Israel Friday for meetings with senior government leaders and to see firsthand some of the U.S. weapons and security assistance that Washington rapidly delivered to Israel in the first week of its war with the militant Hamas group.
Also on Friday, the U.N. Security Council will hold a closed-door meeting to discuss developments.
At the White House, President Joe Biden reaffirmed Washington’s support for Israel and assured a group of Jewish leaders Wednesday that his administration was “working on every aspect of the hostage crisis in Israel.”
VOA White House correspondent Anita Powell and United Nations correspondent Margaret Besheer contributed to this report. Some information for this article came from The Associated Press, Agency France-Presse and Reuters.
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