Tel Aviv targets 2 Syrian airports to prevent Iran from sending supplies to Hamas, Hezbollah
Sandeep Dikshit
New Delhi, October 12
Israel on Thursday refused to pause its siege of the Gaza Strip for aid or evacuations until all its hostages were freed even as the US urged it to protect civilians and the Red Cross warned of a humanitarian catastrophe in the enclave.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who landed in Tel Aviv on a trip to show solidarity, told Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that America would always be by Israel’s side and give security assistance, but he urged Israel to show restraint “even when it’s difficult”.
At least 200 more civilians died in Gaza Strip during the Israeli airstrikes with the besieged area’s residents facing inhuman conditions due to lack of power, which has affected telecom services and water supply.
Videos showed illegal Israeli settlers near Gaza resuming their assaults on the Palestinians. At least two persons were gunned down when a car full of settlers opened fire on a Palestinian funeral ceremony. Terrorist outfit Hamas claimed that the killing of 200 Palestinians by Israeli settlers this year alone was one of the triggers for its assault on 20 Israeli settlements around Gaza. Blinken and Egyptian leaders, menwhile, were in intensive talks with Israel to allow the delivery of aid and fuel through the sole crossing point between Gaza and Sinai, which is closed. Iraq also said it was talking to Egypt on sending humanitarian aid to Gaza.
On Thursday, Israeli planes went further afield and damaged the runways of airports in Syrian cities of Damascus and Aleppo, damaging their runways. It justified the bombing as a move to prevent Iran from sending supplies to Hamas and Hezbollah militants. An Iranian plane reportedly turned back to Tehran following the bombing.
Blinken met with Israeli President Isaac Herzog as well as Netanyahu and advocated “integration, normalisation and equal measures of justice, opportunity, dignity for all peoples, including the Palestinians”. He added, “Or there’s the path that Hamas has shown to the world these last few days—terror, destruction, nihilism, a path that leads to nowhere for anyone except to the darkest places in our souls.”
Blinken will meet the Palestinian Authority chief Mahmoud Abbas in the West Bank on Friday.