Top EU, and US diplomats renew push to halt Gaza war spillover
text_fields
Jeddah: In a fresh diplomatic attempt to stop Israel's war on Gaza from spreading to the occupied West Bank and Lebanon, the top diplomats from the US and the EU arrived in the Middle East on Friday.
During his week-long trip, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken will stop in the West Bank in addition to Saudi Arabia, Turkiye, Israel, Jordan, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Egypt, and Greece, Arab News reported.
“It is in no one’s interest, not Israel’s, not the region’s, not the world’s, for this conflict to spread beyond Gaza,” State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said. “We don’t expect every conversation on this trip to be easy.”
The head of EU foreign policy, Josep Borrell, visited Lebanon on Friday to talk about the situation around the Israeli border. Hassan Nasrallah, the head of Hezbollah, announced his arrival and said that since October 8, the militia supported by Iran had carried out over 670 combat actions on the Israeli border, destroying numerous Israeli military vehicles.
The diplomatic flurry follows an attack on Israel by Hamas about three months ago, which set off a retaliatory bombardment that killed 22,600 Palestinians and destroyed the enclave.
On Friday, Israeli tanks and aircraft increased their attacks on the crowded Gaza Strip areas of Al-Maghazi, Al-Bureij, and Al-Nusseirat. In a single day, over 160 people lost their lives. Six people lost their lives in an airstrike on Khan Younis, a city in the south where hundreds of thousands of Palestinians have been forced to flee. Four more people died in an airstrike on a street in Al-Nusseirat.
“The Israeli government claims democracy and humanity, but is inhumane,” Abdel Razek Abu Sinjar stated while crying over the shrouded bodies of his wife and kids who were killed in an attack on his home in Rafah near Egypt's border
There was continuous shelling near the Al-Amal hospital in Khan Younis. Medecins Sans Frontieres, a relief organisation, reported that its personnel were trapped in southern Gaza and unable to deliver much-needed assistance.
People picked their way through trash- and sewage-filled ruined streets in extensively damaged Jabalia, in northern Gaza. There is an increase in hunger and fatal illnesses.
According to the World Health Organisation, since the conflict began, attacks on Gaza's hospitals and other medical facilities have occurred about 600 times. It stated that 613 persons had passed away at medical facilities.
In the occupied West Bank, the conflict has also increased violence. In the town of Beit Rima, four Palestinians were injured and a 17-year-old boy was killed by gunfire from the Israeli army. Since the start of the conflict, around 300 Palestinians have been killed in the West Bank.
