GAZA: An Israeli air strike on an condo in southern Gaza killed six individuals on Tuesday (Feb 6), Palestinian well being officers mentioned, as the highest US diplomat arrived in Egypt to pursue a quest for a truce deal within the shattering four-month-old struggle.
Israel mentioned its forces had killed dozens of Palestinian gunmen all through Gaza previously 24 hours with preventing targeted on Khan Younis within the south and a threatened assault looming on a close-by border city teeming with displaced individuals.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken arrived in Egypt for talks after a cease in Saudi Arabia throughout his newest trouble-shooting Center East swing that Palestinians hope will nail down a ceasefire earlier than Israeli forces storm Gaza’s southern fringes the place over one million of Gaza’s individuals are sheltering.
It was Blinken’s fifth journey to the area since Hamas militants’ lightning assault on Israel from Gaza on Oct 7 triggered the struggle, and his first go to since Washington brokered a proposal, with Israeli enter, for the primary prolonged ceasefire of the battle. Hamas says it’s nonetheless weighing the proposal.
State Division spokesperson Matthew Miller mentioned Blinken and Saudi Arabia’s ruling crown prince mentioned regional steps to attain a permanent finish to the struggle, tackling the humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza and limiting regional spillovers of the disaster.
Blinken departed Riyadh simply after dawn and arrived in Cairo the place he started talks with President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi. He’s then attributable to fly on to Qatar and Israel.
Washington has for weeks sought an elusive deal to safe the discharge of remaining hostages amongst these Hamas kidnapped in its Oct 7 assault, as key to creating headway on broader challenges such because the governance of post-war Gaza.
The ceasefire provide, delivered to Hamas final week by Qatari and Egyptian mediators, awaits a reply from militants who say they need extra ensures it’ll cease Israel’s blitz on Gaza, in opposition to Israeli vows to maintain preventing till Hamas is worn out.
Washington additionally goals to forestall additional escalation elsewhere within the Center East, after days of US airstrikes on armed proxies of Iran, a significant backer of Hamas, and additional assaults on Purple Sea delivery by Yemen’s Tehran-aligned Houthi militia.
In an replace on Tuesday, Gaza’s Well being Ministry mentioned no less than 27,585 Palestinians had been confirmed killed in Israel’s navy marketing campaign, with hundreds extra feared buried below huge tracts of rubble throughout the densely populated enclave. Some 107 had been killed previously 24 hours, the ministry mentioned.
Israel says 226 of its troopers have been killed in its offensive, launched after militants from Hamas-ruled Gaza burst by means of the border fence and killed 1,200 individuals and took 253 hostages in a rampage by means of close by Israeli communities.