Israel Faces Pressure over Gaza Deaths as Attack Rages Near Hospitals
Editor
11 November 2023 21:57 WIB
TEMPO.CO, Gaza - Israel faced mounting international pressure, including from its main ally the United States, to do more to protect Palestinian civilians in Gaza as the death toll rose and attacks intensified near and around hospitals.
The number of Palestinians killed during the bombardment of the coastal enclave in the past five weeks rose above 11,000, according to Gaza health officials, as Israeli forces waged war on Hamas militants who carried out the deadly Oct. 7 rampage in southern Israel.
In his strongest comments to date on the plight of civilians caught in the crossfire, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken told reporters on a visit to India on Friday: "Far too many Palestinians have been killed; far too many have suffered these past weeks."
But Blinken reaffirmed U.S. support for Israel's campaign to ensure that Gaza can no longer be used "as a platform for launching terrorism."
French President Emmanuel Macron, in a BBC interview published late on Friday, said Israel must stop bombing Gaza and killing civilians. France, he said, "clearly condemns" the "terrorist" actions of Hamas, but that while recognizing Israel's right to protect itself, "we do urge them to stop this bombing" in Gaza.
In response, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said world leaders should be condemning Hamas, and not Israel. "These crimes that Hamas (is) committing today in Gaza will be committed tomorrow in Paris, New York, and anywhere in the world," Netanyahu said.
Israel has said that Hamas militants, who are holding as many as 240 hostages of different nationalities taken in last month's attack, would exploit a truce to regroup if there were a ceasefire.
Saudi Arabia will host an extraordinary joint Islamic-Arab summit in Riyadh on Saturday, the Saudi foreign ministry said. The joint meeting "will be held in response to the exceptional circumstances taking place in the Palestinian Gaza Strip as countries feel the need to unify efforts and come out with a unified collective position," it said.
OVERCROWDED HOSPITALS HIT BY EXPLOSIONS, GUNFIRE
Fighting intensified overnight into Saturday near Gaza City's overcrowded hospitals, which Palestinian officials said were hit by explosions and gunfire.
"Israel is now launching a war on Gaza City hospitals," said Mohammad Abu Selmeyah, director of Al Shifa Hospital.
He said later that at least 25 people were killed in Israeli strikes on Al-Buraq school in Gaza City, where people whose homes had been destroyed were sheltering.
