Israel says it has surrounded the largest city in the Gaza Strip and the target of its campaign to annihilate Hamas, while the United States is preparing to pressure Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to accept pauses in the fighting that allow aid to enter the Palestinian enclave.
As the fourth week of conflict approaches, the US Secretary of State, Antony Blinkenhas arrived in Israel, his second visit in a month, to meet with Netanyahu, while the Israeli army fights Hamas militants, who are counterattacking from underground tunnels.
“We are at the height of the battle. We have achieved impressive successes and we have surpassed the outskirts of Gaza City. “We are moving forward,” Netanyahu said in a statement after the army said it had surrounded the coastal enclave’s main city.
As Blinken left Washington for the Middle East, he said he would discuss concrete measures to minimize harm to civilians in Gaza. The White House, for its part, stated that pauses in fighting had to be temporary and localizedand insisted that they would not prevent Israel from defending itself.