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Much more must be done to protect civilians in the Gaza Strip as “far too many” Palestinians have died, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Friday, a day after the White House announced Israel would begin humanitarian “pauses” in its military offensive.
Thousands of Palestinians are fleeing the combat zone in the north after Israel announced a window for safe passage.
But there appeared to be something of a disconnect between the clearly defined four-hour pauses that the White House had described and the reality on the ground, where the Israeli military pushed deeper into dense urban neighbourhoods in its battle with Hamas militants.
Speaking in New Delhi, Mr Blinken said the US “appreciates” Israel’s formalisation of pauses in their military operations to allow Palestinians to move from northern to southern Gaza and its creation of a second safe corridor for them to use to escape harm.
“At the same time, much more needs to be done to protect civilians and to make sure that humanitarian assistance reaches them,” Mr Blinken said.
“Far too many Palestinians have been killed. Far too many have suffered these past weeks.”
Israel launched a military offensive on the Gaza Strip after Hamas militants killed more than 1,400 people in southern Israel on October 7. Gaza authorities say more than 11,000 people have been killed in Israel's war on Hamas.
Israel has reacted coolly to America's detailed announcement of the daily pauses.
Asked if there would be a “stoppage” in fighting, Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told Fox News: “No. The fighting continues against the Hamas enemy, the Hamas terrorists, but in specific locations for a given period of a few hours here or a few hours there, we want to facilitate the safe passage of civilians away from the zone of fight and we're doing that.”
An Israeli official told The National on Friday that the measure “is a tactical, localised pause each day in a specific area, to be announced, to allow people to move to the south, and to get food and medicine”.
Following the White House announcement, Israel's chief military spokesman Admiral Daniel Hagari stressed that “the battle continues” and Israel and the US have repeatedly ruled out any possibility of a ceasefire.
“We continue to fight at this time,” Admiral Hagari said.
“Today [Thursday] we saw over 50,000 Gazan civilians from the north of the Gaza Strip moving southward. They understand very well that we are fighting significantly in Gaza city and its surroundings, and that Hamas has lost control.
“We are now fighting a ground operation that we will only deepen. In the heart of Gaza city, we will reach more and more Hamas strongholds.”
Israel has also agreed to open a second route for people fleeing, the White House said.
President Joe Biden on Thursday called the pauses a “step in the right direction” and noted that Israel is “fighting an enemy embedded in the civilian population, which places innocent Palestinian people at risk”.
Francesca Albanese, the UN special rapporteur on the Palestinian territories, described Israel’s decision to allow a four-hour humanitarian pause each day as “very cynical and cruel”.
“There has been continuous bombings, 6,000 bombs every week on the Gaza Strip, on this tiny piece of land where people are trapped and the destruction is massive. There won’t be any way back after what Israel is doing to the Gaza Strip,” Ms Albanese told reporters in Adelaide, Australia, on Friday.
The Israeli embassy in Washington did not immediately respond to a request for comment on that assessment.
More than 850,000 of the 1.1 people in northern Gaza have left, according to Israeli military spokesman Jonathan Conricus, who called the pauses “quick humanitarian windows” that allow southward movement “while we are fighting”.
The latest from the Israel-Gaza war – in pictures
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Smoke rises as displaced Palestinians take shelter at Al Shifa hospital. Reuters -
A Palestinian girl wounded in Israeli strikes waits for treatment at Al Shifa hospital, in Gaza city. Reuters -
Flames rage in a field near the border village of Burj Al-Mamluk, in southern Lebanon's Khiam plain, after an Israeli bombardment. AFP -
Smoke rises after air strikes during direct combat between the Israeli army and Hamas, near the beach road in Gaza city. EPA -
Palestinians from the Gaza Strip, looking for safety, camp on the grounds of Al Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip. AFP -
People search through buildings, destroyed during Israeli air strikes in Khan Younis, Gaza. Getty Images -
Israeli troops during operations in northern Gaza. AFP -
A photo taken from the Israeli side of the border with Gaza shows the continued Israeli bombardment of the northern Gaza Strip. AFP -
Palestinian men pray over the bodies of members of the Abu Taim family before burial in Khan Younis. AFP -
Israeli soldiers stand amid rubble during the ground invasion against Palestinian militant group Hamas, in the northern Gaza Strip. Reuters -
A woman and two children evacuated from Gaza walk on the tarmac at the Baza 90 air force base in Otopeni, Romania, after arriving from Egypt. AP -
Gazans inspect the Khaled bin Al-Walid Mosque, which was destroyed during Israeli air raids in Khan Younis. Getty Images -
Residents flee from Al Shatea refugee camp during combat between the Israeli army and Hamas in Gaza city. EPA -
An artillery unit moves near the border with Lebanon, in Tel Aviv, Israel. Getty Images -
Smoke rises during direct combat between the Israeli army and militants of the Ezz Al-Din Al Qassam militia, the military wing of the Hamas movement, at the beach road in west-centre Gaza City. EPA -
People search for survivors and bodies after a building was hit by Israeli bombing in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip. AFP -
A boy learns his father has been killed in an Israeli air strike at a hospital in Khan Younis. Reuters -
Israeli soldiers training in the upper Galilee region, near the border with Lebanon. AFP -
Destruction in the northern Gaza Strip, as seen from Sderot in southern Israel. Reuters -
A girl looks on as bodies of Palestinians killed in Israeli strikes are laid out at Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis. Reuters -
Mourners pray next to the bodies of members of the Daher family, who were killed by Israel strikes, at the Indonesian Hospital in the northern Gaza Strip. Reuters -
A satellite image shows the Rafah border crossing between Gaza and Egypt. Reuters -
People search through the rubble of buildings destroyed during Israeli air raids in Khan Younis. Getty Images -
Smoke rises over the northern Gaza Strip, as seen from Sderot. Reuters -
An ambulance transporting injured Palestinians to Egyptian hospitals for treatment waits on the Gaza side of the Rafah crossing. Reuters -
Palestinian doctor Mohammad Abu Namoos, who chose to stay in Gaza to treat patients, says goodbye to his family before they leave. Reuters -
The funeral of three children and their grandmother killed in an Israeli air strike in Blida, Lebanon. EPA -
Palestinian children denouncing the killing of children in Gaza by waving banners and flags during a sit-in protest at the Shatila refugee camp in Beirut. AFP -
Men pray during a rally in support of Palestinians outside Barclays Centre in Brooklyn, New York. AFP -
A teddy bear symbolising hostages and missing children is placed on a bench in Tel Aviv, as people gather for a vigil to mark the one-month anniversary of the October 7 attack by Hamas militants on Israel. Reuters -
A survivor of the Nova Festival attack, May Hayat, takes cover as rocket sirens sound, during her first visit to the scene of the attack, near Re'im, Israel. Reuters -
Palestinians flee Gaza city to the southern Gaza Strip on Salah al-Din street in Bureij. AP -
A satellite picture showing the Rafah border crossing to Egypt. AFP -
People gather in Tel Aviv for a candlelit vigil to mark the one-month anniversary of the October 7 deadly attack by Hamas militants on Israel. Reuters -
Doris Liber, whose son Guy Iluz is being held hostage in Gaza, during a press conference with House Republicans at the Capitol in Washington. AP -
Palestinians flee to the southern Gaza Strip on Salah al-Din Street in Bureij. AP -
Mourners attend the funeral of four Palestinians killed by Israeli troops at Tulkarm refugee camp, in the occupied West Bank. EPA
