US Secretary of State Antony Blinken will meet Arab envoys in Jordan on Saturday as heavy fighting rages between Israeli forces and Hamas fighters on the outskirts of Gaza City.
The fighting intensified after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Friday rejected a US plea for a “humanitarian pause” to allow more aid to the blockaded enclave.
After meeting with Blinken, who asked Israel to do more to “protect Palestinian civilians,” Netanyahu linked any temporary ceasefire to the unconditional release of the 242 hostages still held by Hamas.
Blinken is meeting with Arab diplomats, including from Egypt and Jordan, who are outraged by the brutality of the Israeli bombardment and fear the violence will spark a wider conflict.
Palestinians reported a night of intense air and artillery bombardment, including in southern Gaza, where the IDF confirmed it was active.
Amman withdrew its ambassador to Israel this week and condemned the “murder of innocent civilians. . . and a serious and unprecedented humanitarian catastrophe.”
Cairo, meanwhile, worries that Israel will try to use its war with Hamas to push Palestinians from Gaza into the Sinai Peninsula.
Saturday’s meeting will urge Blinken to refocus US diplomacy and push Israel to agree to a ceasefire and curb extremist settler violence in the occupied West Bank, an Arab said diplomat.
The diplomat added that Arab leaders would like to impress on Blinken the urgent need for a “political horizon for the day after” the war ends.
“This is more or less a brainstorming meeting, involving the main parties in the region and the US to find a way forward,” the diplomat said. “The best solution is a political solution [to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict]yesterday, not today.”
International efforts to get more aid into the enclave while creating the conditions for the release of Hamas hostages, many of whom are women, children and the elderly, gathered pace, but there was no sign of a breakthrough in sight .
A senior US government official said intensive discussions are taking place to secure the release of 242 hostages in Gaza, including through indirect cooperation with Hamas.
The official added that the Oct. 20 release of two American hostages — a mother and her teenage daughter — was a test of whether the channel for hostage talks, which included Qatar and Egypt, was feasible and whether the sides could see a pause in the fighting could achieve. the fighting to facilitate their release.
“The discussions were intense, detailed, we proved that it is possible and. . . we are hopeful. . .[but]there is no guarantee,” the official said.
Hamas has demanded a ceasefire, more aid for Palestinian civilians and fuel for the Gaza Strip in exchange for the release of civilians, while it plans to hold captured Israeli soldiers in exchange for more than 6,000 Palestinians living in Israeli prisons are being held.
The overnight fighting included “close combat” between Israeli forces and Hamas militants, and at least one Israeli airstrike on a convoy of ambulances heading to al-Shifa hospital, where the Palestinian Red Crescent says thousands civilians have sought refuge. .
The Israeli military said the convoy was “used by a Hamas operative” and claimed several Hamas militants had been killed. Video from the scene showed dead and injured civilians, including women and children, as well as a woman lying on a stretcher in an ambulance.
It was followed by a second explosion that hit the remaining four ambulances closer to al-Shifa hospital, Palestinian health officials said. Video from the scene showed at least a dozen victims. The entrance to the hospital is usually crowded by civilians seeking refuge and television crews.
“The images of bodies lying on the street in front of the hospital are harrowing,” said UN Secretary-General António Guterres, repeating the call for an immediate ceasefire. “An entire population is traumatized, nowhere is safe.”
Blinken is in Amman to meet with Arab diplomats from Jordan, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates and the Palestinian Authority, a rival of Hamas.
The number of aid convoys from Egypt to Gaza remained at a fraction of pre-war levels, with Israeli security forces examining the contents of each truck before it was allowed into the enclave.
Since the start of hostilities on October 7, 410 trucks have entered the strip, including 36 on Friday, according to an Israeli Defense Ministry document seen by the Financial Times. More than 400 trucks a day entered the enclave before the fighting started.
Israel blamed the delays on “logistical problems among the organizations responsible for receiving the humanitarian aid,” claiming that there was sufficient food and water available at “short notice.”
International organizations including the UN have documented a widespread humanitarian crisis, and Tom White, the Gaza director of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, said on Friday that the average Gazan now lives on two pieces of bread a day, begging for clean water.
Israel is considering a proposal to establish a maritime humanitarian corridor, sending aid to Cyprus that will be examined by Israeli officials. The aid would then be delivered to a small port in Gaza, two people familiar with the discussions said. The port has been damaged by Israeli attacks.
That would take a long time to set up, a senior UN official said, and includes demands by Israel that international observers in Gaza monitor every truck from entry to distribution.
About 9,500 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza since October 7, when Israel began an aerial bombardment followed by a ground invasion a week ago, local health officials said. A US official said Israel could reduce the intensity of its aerial bombardment as it shifts to a “tactical focus on the ground campaign.”
At least 1,400 Israelis were killed in Hamas’ cross-border attack, including 314 soldiers and civilians, Israeli authorities said. Twenty-seven soldiers have been killed by Hamas militants in Gaza.