Biden used his second-ever Oval Office address to appeal to Americans for their support for tens of billions of dollars of funding for Israel and Ukraine.Biden said he would send an urgent funding request to Congress, which is expected to be roughly $100bn over the next year. The proposal, which will be unveiled on Friday, includes money for Ukraine, Israel, Taiwan, humanitarian aid and border management.
Throughout the address, Biden made comparisons between Israel and Ukraine, Hamas and Putin. He stressed that Israel should not make the same “mistakes” made by the US after 9/11 when, he said, Americans were “blinded by rage”. Biden said, “As hard as it is, we cannot give up on peace, we cannot give up on a two-state solution”, and that, “The US remains committed to Palestinians’ right to dignity and to self-determination. The acts of Hamas don’t take that away.” “Hamas and Putin represent different threats,” Biden said. “But they share this in common. They both want to completely annihilate a neighbouring democracy.”
Israel’s defence minister, Yoav Gallant, has told troops gathered at the Gaza borderthat they will soon see the Palestinian territory“from the inside”. Gallant urged the forces to“get organised, be ready”for an order to move in, suggesting an Israeli ground invasion could be nearing.
Israel is likely to launch a ground assault on the Gaza Strip in the coming days, the former prime minister Ehud Barak said in an NBC interview. The Israeli military has a “green light” to move into Gaza whenever it’s ready, Israel’s economy minister, Nir Barkat, said in an interview with the US’s ABC network.
Gaza hospitals have ‘hours’ of fuel, says doctor. The Gaza Health Ministry pleaded with gas stations to give fuel to hospitals and a UN agency donated some of its last fuel. The agency’s donation to Gaza City’s Shifa Hospital, the territory’s largest, would “keep us going for another few hours,” hospital director Mohammed Abu Selmia said. With the Egypt-Gaza border crossing in Rafah closed, the already dire conditions at Gaza’s second-largest hospital deteriorated further, said Dr. Mohammed Qandeel of Nasser Hospital in the southern town of Khan Younis. Power was shut off in most of the hospital and medical staff were using mobile phones for light.
In a late night interview with CNN, IDF spokesperson Jonathan Conricus was asked to comment on how soon a ground offensive may begin.“The IDF is deployed along the Gaza strip. The reserves are ready, equipped and standing by,” he said. But he would not “advertise” when activities would begin. “Ground activity is one of the options, one of the tools at our disposal,” he added.
The US intelligence community has estimated there were likely 100 to 300 people killed in the blast at the Al-Ahli Arab hospital in Gaza, but added that the assessment may evolve, according to excerpts of a document seen on Thursday by several media outlets. The number is lower than the 471 deaths that health authorities in the Hamas-ruled enclave originally described.
China is ready to maintain communication and coordination with Russia to cool down the Israel-Palestinian crisis, its Middle East special envoy said after meeting with his Russian counterpart this week. The remarks were reported in Chinese state media.
Western officials are warning that the risk of regional “spillover” from theIsrael-Hamas waris real,after US forces in the region faced increasing threats and American bases in Iraq and Syria were repeatedly targeted by drone attacks. A Pentagon spokesperson told reporters the missiles were “potentially” headed towardIsraelbut said the US hasn’t finished its assessment of what they were targeting. The action by the Carney potentially represented the first shots by the US military in the defense of Israel in this conflict.
Trucks carrying humanitarian aid will enter Gaza from Egypt’s Sinai peninsula in the coming days, according to the White House, after Joe Biden’s whirlwind visit to Israel on Wednesday. Biden said Israel had agreed to allow the opening of the Egypt-Gaza Rafah crossing to deliveries of desperately needed food, water and medical supplies on condition that the humanitarian assistance was not diverted by Hamas for its own use.
The Rafah crossing is not expected to open Friday for a convoy of humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip, CNNreported, citing multiple sources.“I would not put money on those trucks going through tomorrow,” one source told the news outlet. US officials now expect the first convoy of trucks carrying humanitarian aid will cross into Gaza from Egypt this weekend, possibly Saturday, the report says. Egyptian state mediaearlier reportedthat the Rafah crossing with Egypt would be opened on Friday to allow humanitarian aid into Gaza. It comes after Israel, the White House and Egypt confirmed thatlimited aid will be allowed to travel into Gazathrough the crossing. The source told CNN that the situation is “really volatile” and that there are a lot of other details to make sure the aid is sustained, not a one off.
Egypt’s president, Abdel Fatah al-Sisi, and Jordan’s King Abdullah II have condemned the “collective punishment” of Palestinians in Gaza as they met in Cairo for talks on the Israel-Hamas war. Sisi and King Abdullah also warned of the dangers of a regional spillover.
The US state department hasissued a worldwide cautionalert advising American citizens overseas “to exercise increased caution”.The US state department cited “increased tensions in various locations around the world, the potential for terrorist attacks, demonstrations or violent actions against US citizens and interests”.
The US and British embassies in Beirut have advised their citizens to leave Lebanon while flights “remain available” as border tensions between Israel and Hezbollah intensify over the Israel-Hamas war. Both countries had already warned citizens against travel to Lebanon.
