The Israeli Defense Forces are Investigating the Attacks on a Hamas-Al-Shi Fa Hospital in Rafah
An Israeli official told NPR on Thursday that Blinken will meet with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and ministers from the Israeli war cabinet. The group is likely to discuss Netanyahu’s plans to launch a military operation in Rafah, which has been the location of some of the displaced population.
Israel launched a raid on the largest hospital in Gaza for the second time in a week on Monday as President Barack Obama’s deputy arrived in Cairo.
The Israeli military is calling the raid a “precise” operation, but with the humanitarian crisis in Gaza continuing to spiral, the attack is adding new urgency to cease-fire calls ahead of Blinken’s arrival in Israel on Friday.
The United States objected to some of the resolutions because they could affect negotiations and defend Israel from Hamas in Gaza. In each of those earlier Security Council votes, the United States was the only vote against the resolutions. Russia and Britain were absent from the votes in October and December and February.
Many women and children were forced to flee further south due to the Israeli military’s attacks on Al-Shi Fa, a partially functioning hospital in Gaza.
A witness, who wished to remain anonymous due to their safety concerns, told NPR that the upper floors of the surgical ward had caught fire. Ezzeddine Lulu, a medical student at Al-Shifa, posted a video on Instagram from inside the facility, and said the hospital is without water, electricity and food.
The Israeli military said no civilians have been killed since the start of the operation, and that troops have supplied food, water and generators for the hospital.
More than 250 people have been identified as being from Hamas and Islamic Jihad, and over 140 of them have been killed, according to Daniel Hagari, spokesman for the Israel Defense Forces. Israeli authorities say weapons have also been uncovered and that “hundreds of Hamas and Islamic Jihad terrorists” were found hiding in the hospital, including “senior officials” of the terrorist groups.
News reports say that the man captured is a senior Hamas leader linked to the kidnapping and murder of three Israeli teens. He was arrested and brought back to Israel for questioning, the Israeli intelligence agency Shin Bet said.
But as the death toll has mounted in Gaza, where the health authorities say more than 30,000 people have been killed, and as hunger and disease worsen around the territory, President Biden and other U.S. officials have grown increasingly critical of Israel’s prime minister and his handling of the war. In his speech, Mr. Biden told the prime minister to allow in more aid to Gaza and also to protect the civilians in the area.
Schumer criticized Netanyahu in a speech last week. In his remarks, Schumer, the highest-ranking Jewish American leader, criticized Netanyahu’s handling of the war and called for a new election in Israel.
Republicans, however, are embracing Netanyahu, who spoke to Senate Republicans via video conference this week during the party’s weekly closed lunch meeting. Netanyahu has also been invited to address Congress by House Speaker Mike Johnson.
One of the biggest points of tension between Democrats and Netanyahu is the prime minister’s intention to carry out military operations in Rafah, where more than one million Palestinians have been forced to take refuge.
Biden and Netanyahu spoke on Monday, with Biden urging his counterpart to not attack Rafah.
President Biden requested to give us proposals from his side in the humanitarian sphere, as well as on other topics. “There have been times when we have agreed with our friends and other times when we have not,” Netanyahu said in a statement about the call he had with Biden. “In the end, we have always done what is vital for our security, and this is what we will do this time as well.”
In the next week, Israeli Minister of Defense Yoav Gallant is heading to Washington, D.C. at U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin’s invitation, his office announced. Gallant and others will also meet with White House officials and members of Congress.
Israel’s Security Council demands an immediate cease-fire and the release of hostages in a conflict of interest: a statement by Netanyahu and Nebenzya
The ministry said in a statement that there hasn’t been any real results from the work of Blinken and that Israel has more time to act against the people of Gaza.
The Mothers of IDF Soldiers organization, which represents moms of service members currently fighting in the war, launched a new campaign targeting Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris. A group that reads “Don’t Run With Sinwar” has put up a new banner that depicts Biden, Harris and Sinwar together in order to highlight how the administration’s actions are benefiting Hamas.
Jaclyn Diaz reported from Tel Aviv. Four people contributed to this report: Anas Baba, Daniel Estrin, Aya Batrawy and Michele Kelemen.
The office of Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel’s Prime Minister, says that a group of international mediators were in Doha on Friday to discuss the release of hostages still being held in Gaza. A U.S. official confirmed that William Burns, the director of the Central Intelligence Agency, would travel to Qatar on Friday for negotiations.
The urging of an “immediate” cease-fire was a shift from a draft Security Council resolution that the United States circulated last month, which had called for a temporary cease-fire “as soon as practicable.”
After the vote, Linda Thomas-Greenfield defended the resolution, saying that it was brought forward after consulting with all Council members and after multiple rounds of edits.
But international divisions, including over Washington’s own use of its veto power in the Council and its refusal to call for a permanent cease-fire, appeared to doom the resolution on Friday.
He stated that the United States had tried to show asense of urgentness about getting a cease-fire connected to the release of hostages in order to appease the countries that objected to the resolution.
Russia’s ambassador to the United Nations, Vasily Nebenzya, had denounced the U.S.-backed measure before the vote, calling it a “hypocritical initiative” and “a diluted formulation” regarding a cease-fire.
“To save the lives of peaceful Palestinians, this is not enough,” he said. The draft, he asserted, was written with U.S. political interests in mind, to “ensure the impunity of Israel” and to undermine the authority of the Council.
He said that the Security Council couldn’t be used as a tool for Washington’s “destructive policy” in the Middle East.
France will work with other nations, including Jordan, to get China and Russia to support a French Security Council resolution, according to the country’s president. Speaking at a news conference in Brussels shortly after the U.S. resolution failed, he said the effort was a positive sign of Washington’s shifting priorities.