President Joe Biden said Friday that it’s a priority of his administration to address the unfolding humanitarian crisis in the Gaza Strip. The U.N. Security Council met behind closed doors on Friday to discuss the Israel-Hamas war as Palestinians stream out of northern Gaza on orders from the Israeli military, according to the Associated Press:
Biden: Addressing humanitarian crisis in Gaza is a priority
Newslooks- WASHINGTON
President Joe Biden said Friday that it’s a priority of his administration to address the unfolding humanitarian crisis in the Gaza Strip.
Speaking at an event in Philadelphia to promote a $7 billion program to kickstart development and production of hydrogen fuel in the U.S., Biden paused to note the deteriorating situation for Palestinians as Israel continues to bombard the strip in retaliation for last weekend’s attacks on Israel.
Biden said he’s directed his team to work with the governments in Israel, Egypt, Jordan, and other Arab nations and the United Nations to surge humanitarian relief to those impacted by the war.
“We can’t lose sight of the fact that the overwhelming majority of Palestinians had nothing to do Hamas,” Biden said. “And they’re suffering as a result as well.”
Biden again lashed out at Hamas, saying the militant group in control of Gaza makes the terrorist group Al-Qaida “look pure.”
UN SECURITY COUNCIL MEETING BEHIND CLOSED DOORS
UNITED NATIONS — The U.N. Security Council met behind closed doors on Friday to discuss the Israel-Hamas war as Palestinians stream out of northern Gaza on orders from the Israeli military.
Friday’s meeting was scheduled before the evacuation order, which added still more urgency to the discussion. The U.N. has said the order affects about half Gaza’s population and could turn an already dire humanitarian crisis into a calamity.
“Moving more than 1 million people across a densely populated war zone to a place with no food, water, or accommodation, when the entire territory is under siege, is extremely dangerous — and, in some cases, is simply not possible,” Secretary-General António Guterres said, heading into the meeting.
He implored all parties “and those with influence over them” to do their utmost to enable humanitarian access to the besieged Gaza Strip, to release all hostages immediately and to protect civilians.
The council emerged without any collective message or action from another private session Sunday on the Israel-Hamas fighting. Divisions in the council, the U.N.’s most powerful body, have sharpened amid Russia’s war in Ukraine.
SYRIA CALLS ON WORLD TO STOP ISRAEL’S ‘CRIMES’ AGAINST PALESTINIANS
DAMASCUS, Syria — Syria’s president on Friday called on countries of the world to stand together to stop “the crimes that Israel is committing against the Palestinian people.”
Bashar Assad made his comments during a meeting in Damascus with Iran’s foreign minister, Hossein Amirabdollahian, who is on a regional tour that has taken him to Baghdad and Beirut.
Assad said the reason behind the latest wave of violence is that the Palestinian people have been prevented by Israel and Western countries from setting up their own state.
Assad said Syria stands by the “legitimate” rights of the Palestinian people.
Amirabdollahian later told reporters that Israel should stop the “war crimes it is committing before it’s too late.”
Israel has been bombarding the Gaza Strip since the militant group Hamas launched a bloody incursion into the country’s south on Saturday, killing hundreds.
NETANYAHU VOWS TO DESTROY HAMAS, SAYS GAZA OFFENSIVE IN EARLY STAGES
JERUSALEM — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed to destroy Hamas as the army prepares for an expected ground invasion of the Gaza Strip.
Netanyahu delivered the threat in a nationally televised address late Friday.
Israel has been pounding Gaza with airstrikes since Hamas militants carried out an unprecedented cross-border attack last Saturday, killing over 1,300 people in a brutal rampage. Early Friday, Israel ordered half of Gaza’s population to evacuate their homes.
“This is just the beginning,” Netanyahu said. “We will end this war stronger than ever.”
“We will destroy Hamas,” he added, saying Israel has widespread international support for the operation.
UN AGENCY SHIFTS OPERATIONS BUT SOME STAYING IN THE NORTH
UNITED NATIONS — The U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees has shifted its Gaza center of operations and some staffers to the territory’s south, but many of the world body’s 13,000 Gaza workers have chosen to remain in the north to continue helping people there, U.N. spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric said Friday.
The world body earlier warned of “devastating humanitarian consequences” after the Israeli military told the entire population of northern Gaza to leave. Dujarric said Secretary-General António Guterres and other U.N. officials have been working the phones to try to get humanitarian aid into the sealed-off territory and to ensure that civilians are protected.
Asked what it would take for aid to start flowing, the spokesperson said, “what we need is the green light from the Israelis.”
PRO-PALESTINIAN STUDENTS BRIEFLY CLASH WITH POLICE AT RALLY IN ROME
ROME — A few hundred pro-Palestinian students clashed briefly with police in Rome on Friday as they tried to detour from a rally route that had been approved by authorities.
Helmeted police, using shields and batons, pushed back the surging students near Sapienza University when the protesters, many waving or clutching Palestinian flags, tried to head toward a rally being held by right-wing students, Italian news outlets reported.
A rally in Milan — with some participants holding a giant, rainbow-colored peace flag, and others carrying Palestinian flags — went forward without any issues.
70 PEOPLE KILLED IN ISRAELI AIRSTRIKE ON CONVOYS FLEEING GAZA CITY, HAMAS PRESS OFFICE SAYS
GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip — Hamas officials say 70 people, mostly women and children, have been killed in Israeli airstrikes on convoys fleeing Gaza City.
Hamas’ media office says the cars were struck in three places as they headed south from Gaza City. It was not immediately clear who the target of the airstrikes was, or whether militants were among the passengers.
The army ordered residents to evacuate the city early Friday ahead of an expected ground invasion.
ISRAELI MILITARY LAUNCHES DRONE AT HEZBOLLAH TARGETS
JERUSALEM — The Israeli military has announced that an Israeli drone is currently striking Hezbollah targets in Lebanon.ISRAELI SHELLING ALONG LEBANON BORDER KILLS 1 JOURNALIST, WOUNDS 6
ALMA Al-SHAAB, Lebanon — An Israeli shell landed in a gathering of international journalists covering clashes on the border in southern Lebanon on Friday, killing one and wounding six.
An Associated Press photographer at the scene saw the body of the dead journalist and the six who were wounded. Some of them were rushed to hospitals in ambulances. One nearby car was charred.
Al-Jazeera identified two of its employees among the wounded. The Lebanon-Israel border has been witnessing sporadic acts of violence since Saturday’s attack by the militant Palestinian group Hamas on southern Israel.
