Rubio visits Israel in the wake of the attack on Qatar while the Israeli strikes will intensify in northern Gaza
On Sunday, American Secretary of State Marco Rubio was in Israel when his soldiers intensified attacks against northern Gaza, flattening several high buildings and killing at least 13 Palestinians.
Rubio declared before the trip that he will seek responses to Israeli officials on how they see the way to follow in Gaza after the attack of Israel against Hamas leaders in Qatar on Tuesday which upset the efforts to negotiate the end of the conflict.
His two-day visit is also a demonstration of support for an increasingly isolated Israel, while the United Nations General Assembly voted for a non-binding resolution supporting a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu firmly opposes the recognition of a Palestinian state.
Rubio visits Israel despite the anger against the attack on Qatar
Rubio’s visit was taken by the anger of US President Donald Trump in Netanyahu during the Israeli strike in Doha, which he said that the United States had not been informed beforehand.
Sunday, Netanyahu, Rubio and their wives, as well as the American ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee and his wife, visited the west wall and the tunnels excavated near him.
“I think that his visit (from Rubio) here testifies to the sustainability, the strength of the Israeli-American alliance. It is as strong and as durable as the stones of the Western wall that we have just touched,” said Netanyahu.
Friday, Rubio and Trump met the Prime Minister of Qatar to discuss the benefits of the Israeli operation. The double and consecutive meetings with Qatar and Israel show how the Trump administration is trying to balance the relations between the main allies of the Middle East despite a generalized international conviction for the attack.
Doha’s attack, which killed at least six people, also seems to have ended attempts to secure a ceasefire from Israel-Hamas and the release of hostages before the next session of the United Nations General Assembly, during which the Gaza War should be a main objective.
Meanwhile, the foreign ministers of the Arab and Islamic nations had to meet in Doha on Sunday to forge a united front on the Israeli attack before a summit in Qatar on Monday which will bring together the leaders of their nations for high -level talks.
Mortal air strikes
On Sunday, at least 13 Palestinians were killed and dozens were injured in multiple Israeli strikes across Gaza, according to local hospitals.
Local hospitals have said that Israeli strikes were targeting a vehicle near the Shifa hospital and a roundabout in Gaza City, as well as a tent in the city of Deir al-Balah, where at least six members of the same family were killed.
Two parents, their three children and the aunt of children were killed in this strike, according to Al-Aqsa hospital. The family was from the north of the city of Beit Hanoun and arrived in Deir Al-Balah last week after having fled their refuge in Gaza City.
The Israeli army has not made immediate comments on strikes.
Israeli air strikes have struck two United Nations schools to refuse Palestinians moved Friday in Gaza City. Local health authorities say that at least 40 Palestinians were killed in the attack. The strikes intervene after repeated calls of the Israeli army so that residents leave the city.
As part of its expansion operation in Gaza City, the Israeli army destroyed several high buildings of the crisis on Sunday after warning the residents to evacuate. Some were destroyed less than an hour after the publication of an online evacuation order by military spokesperson Avichay Adraee.
According to the army, Hamas had positioned observation positions and means to collect information on troop movements in the region and the activists were about to strike the Israeli troops.
Residents said the Kauther tower in the Rimal district was flattened on the ground. There was no immediate report of victims.
“This is one of the genocidal measures that the occupation (Israeli) leads to Gaza City,” said Abed Ismail, a resident of Gaza City. “They want to transform the whole city into rubble and force the transfer and another Nakba.”
Nakba, Arab for “disaster”, refers to a period when some 700,000 Palestinians were expelled by Israeli forces or fled their houses in what is now Israel, before and during the 1948 war which surrounded its creation.
Israel strongly denied the accusations of genocide in Gaza.
“The horizon of Gaza Change,” wrote Israel Katz Israeli Minister of Defense on the social media platform X, providing images of strikes that have destroyed one of the buildings.
Hunger in Gaza
In addition, two Palestinian adults died of causes linked to malnutrition and famine in the Gaza Strip in the past 24 hours, the Ministry of Health of the territory reported on Sunday.
This leads to the number of deaths of the causes linked to malnutrition at 277 since the end of June, when the ministry began to count deaths in adults, while 145 other children died of causes linked to malnutrition since the start of the war in October 2023, the ministry said.
The Israeli defense organization supervising humanitarian aid in Gaza said that more than 1,200 trucks with aid, mainly food, entered Gaza in last week. But humanitarian workers say that the aid that enters Gaza is far too insufficient for the enormous needs of the territory.
International teams have also completed repair work on Israel water pipe in Gaza, one of the three water pipes in the territory, increasing the daily quantity of water to 14,000 cubic meters.
During the 23 months which followed the launch of Israel, access to Gaza water was gradually limited and the Palestinians are now undergoing a second summer burning in wartime. Parents and children often pursue water trucks that come every two or three days, filling bottles, cartridges and buckets, then transport them home.
The war in Gaza began when activists led by Hamas stormed southern Israel on October 7, 2023, removing 251 people and killing some 1,200, mainly civilians, according to Israeli counts. There are 48 hostages in Gaza, 20 of which are considered by Israel still alive.
Israel’s reprisal offensive killed at least 64,871 Palestinians, according to the Gaza Ministry of Health, which does not say how many civilians or combatants. He says that around half of the people killed were women and children. A large part of the enclave was completely destroyed and approximately 90% of some two million Palestinians were moved.
https://i.cbc.ca/1.7633554.1757856662!/fileImage/httpImage/image.jpg_gen/derivatives/16x9_1180/israel-palestinians-us-rubio.jpg?im=Resize%3D620
About The Author
