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Biden urges pause in Gaza fighting as Hamas says refugee camp death toll nearing 200
Egypt says it will help evacuate about 7,000 foreign passport holders in Gaza
(about 5 hours later)
US president says pause will allow time to rescue hostages, amid fresh Israeli airstrikes on enclave’s Jabalia refugee camp
Egypt preparing to receive people through Rafah crossing, as US calls for ‘pause’ in fighting to bring out hostages
Joe Biden has said there should be a “pause” in the fighting in Gaza to enable the release of hostages, as Hamas said nearly 200 people had been killed in two days of Israeli airstrikes on the enclave’s Jabalia refugee camp.
Egypt has said it will help to evacuate approximately 7,000 foreigners and dual-national Palestinians from Gaza amid a call by the US for a “pause” in fighting to extricate hostages.
The US president was speaking at a campaign fundraiser in Minneapolis on Wednesday when a woman shouted: “Mr President, if you care about Jewish people, as a rabbi, I need you to call for a ceasefire.”
Egypt was preparing to receive “about 7,000” people representing more than 60 nationalities through the Rafah crossing that borders Gaza, the foreign ministry said in a statement on Thursday, without specifying a timeline.
Biden responded: “I think we need a pause. A pause means give time to get the prisoners out.” White House officials later clarified he was referring to hostages being held by Hamas.
Officials on both sides of the border expected about 400 people to cross on Thursday, with ambulances lined up in expectation of ferrying dozens of casualties to Egyptian hospitals, AFP reported.
The White House has previously called for “humanitarian pauses” to allow aid to be delivered into Gaza or to carry out evacuations, but has so far refused to discuss a ceasefire, believing it would exclusively play into the hands of Hamas. A pause is generally considered less formal and shorter than a ceasefire.
A total of 361 foreigners and dual nationals left Gaza on Wednesday after Rafah opened for the first time after more than three weeks of brutal conflict. The evacuees included 31 Austrians, four Italians, five French nationals and several Germans, their governments said.
The call was a subtle departure for Biden and top White House aides, who throughout the crisis have been steadfast in stating they will not dictate how the Israelis carry out their military operations in response to the 7 October attack by Hamas that killed 1,400 people, most of whom were Israeli civilians. Israel’s retaliatory attacks have killed 8,796 Palestinians, including 3,648 children, the health ministry in Gaza has said.
A trickle of aid has flowed into Gaza from Rafah since the conflict began but until this week no one was allowed to leave the territory. Foreign governments say there are passport holders from 44 countries, as well as 28 agencies, including UN bodies, in Gaza. The United Arab Emirates said it planned to treat 1,000 children but did not specify how they would travel to the Gulf state.
Fresh strikes on Gaza’s biggest refugee camp, in Jabalia, on Wednesday saw the camp’s death toll rise to 195, with a further 120 still missing under the rubble, a Hamas-run government media office said. At least 777 more were wounded, the office said.
The latest planned limited evacuation came after another night of intense fighting, with Israeli troops pushing towards Gaza City in the north of the strip. “We are at the gates of Gaza City,” Brig Gen Itzik Cohen said.
The Israel Defence Forces (IDF) said it targeted and killed Muhammad A’sar, the commander of Hamas’s anti-tank guided missile array, in Wednesday’s attack. The IDF said Tuesday’s attack was to kill Ibrahim Biari – a key Hamas commander linked to the 7 October attacks. IDF spokesperson Daniel Hagari said Biari had been leading fighting in northern Gaza from a network of tunnels under the camp.
Israel Defence Forces (IDF) killed dozens of Hamas militants overnight and fought off an attempted ambush by Hamas units that emerged from tunnels and fired missiles and threw grenades, Israeli Army Radio reported. The IDF said it had lost a total of 17 soldiers since ground forces entered Gaza on 27 October.
“Scores” of Hamas fighters had been killed in the strike along with Biari, Hagari said, but declined to give an exact number or comment on civilian casualties.
Unicef described “horrific and appalling” scenes of carnage after two rounds of Israeli airstrikes on the Jabalia refugee camp on Tuesday and Wednesday. “People’s homes have been leveled, hundreds apparently injured and killed, with many children reportedly among the casualties.”
Hamas said that seven hostages – including three foreign passport holders – were killed in Tuesday’s attack. On Wednesday the UN human rights office said Israel’s airstrike on the Jabalia camp could amount to a war crime.
The Hamas-run health ministry called the strikes a “heinous massacre” that killed 195 people, including seven hostages. Israeli officials said the bombing killed senior Hamas commanders who sought to shield behind civilians. Israel’s targeting sought to minimise civilian casualties, said Daniel Hagari, an IDF spokesperson. “We try to build a picture, we try to understand,” he said. “This is how we do it. It’s war.”
Meanwhile, hundreds of foreign nationals and dozens of seriously injured Palestinians were allowed to leave Gaza after more than three weeks under siege.
The conflict began on 7 October when Hamas launched an onslaught on southern Israel that killed more than 1,400 people and swept up hundreds more as hostages. The current Israeli estimate of the number of hostages is 242.
By late Wednesday, at least 335 dual nationals and 76 injured seriously wounded and sick people had crossed the border, with more expected to follow. Only a handful of Americans crossed, all employed by international organisations. Biden has said he “expect[ed] to see more depart over the coming days”.
Israeli bombardments have killed at least 8,796 people in Gaza, including 3,648 children, according to the Hamas-run ministry, and left the densely packed population of 2.3 million trapped in a humanitarian disaster with insufficient food, water and medicine.
Those cleared to leave on Wednesday included citizens and dual passport holders from Australia, Austria, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Finland, Indonesia, Japan and Jordan, as well as staff members from several aid organisations. It is understood that initially only two of the 500 people on a list of those eligible to leave were British nationals.
Joe Biden called for a temporary halt in fighting to facilitate the extraction of hostages. The US president was speaking at a campaign fundraiser in Minneapolis on Wednesday when a woman shouted: “Mr President, if you care about Jewish people, as a rabbi, I need you to call for a ceasefire.” Biden replied: “I think we need a pause. A pause means give time to get the prisoners out.”
Philippe Lazzarini, the commissioner general for UNRWA, the main UN agency in Palestine, said “the scale of tragedy in Gaza is unprecedented”, after visiting the besieged territory for the first time since 7 October. Lazzarini described his visit to the Gaza Strip as “one of the saddest days in my humanitarian work” and urged a “meaningful” humanitarian response to prevent people in Gaza from dying.
The White House has previously called for “humanitarian pauses” to facilitate aid and evacuations but opposed a ceasefire as benefiting Hamas. The secretary of state, Antony Blinken, was to hold talks in Israel on Friday and visit nearby countries to seek “urgent mechanisms” to reduce regional tensions, his office said.
“The levels of distress and the unsanitary living conditions were beyond comprehension,” he said. “Everyone was just asking for water and food. Instead of being at school, learning, children were asking for a sip of water and a piece of bread. It was heart-wrenching. Above all, people were asking for a ceasefire. They want this tragedy to end.”
Germany has said it will ban activities linked to Hamas, already a designated terrorist organisation in the country, as well as those of the pro-Palestinian group Samidoun, which was accused of handing out baked goods in Berlin to celebrate the 7 October attack.
White House national security council spokesperson John Kirby said earlier on Wednesday that Biden’s newly confirmed ambassador to Israel, Jack Lew, would soon be sent to the Middle East and would be tasked in part with “supporting US efforts to create the conditions for a humanitarian pause to address the worsening humanitarian conditions facing Palestinian civilians”.
Some Israeli commentators and analysts said that behind the government’s continued rhetoric of vanquishing Hamas and total victory there was a rethink, prompted in part by the prospect of mounting IDF casualties and waning international support for Israel amid carnage in Gaza.
On Wednesday, Biden engaged further with the woman who interrupted the event in Minneapolis. “I’m the guy that convinced Bibi [Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu] to call for a ceasefire to let the prisoners out. I’m the guy that talked to [Egyptian president Abdel Fattah El-Sisi] to convince him to open the door” along Gaza’s border with Egypt to allow freed hostages to leave.
“Defeating Hamas has evolved from an immediate tactical objective into a long-term Israeli strategy, one that will include establishing a security zone, mining the border with Gaza and applying ongoing pressure,” Nadav Eyal wrote in Yedioth Ahronoth. “I’m sorry to say, but to me that sounds like another southern Lebanon.”
“This is incredibly complicated for the Israelis,” Biden went on. “It’s incredibly complicated for the Muslim world as well. ... I supported a two-state solution, I have from the very beginning. The fact of the matter is that Hamas is a terrorist organisation. A flat-out terrorist organisation,” he said.
