Sandeep Dikshit
New Delhi, October 16
Israel maintained its food and fuel blockade of Gaza while allowing water to be taken in. It continued bombing Gaza which claimed the lives of 300 more Palestinians on the tenth day of the war. Gaza’s health ministry put the toll at 2,750 lives.
The UN said there were “not enough body bags for the dead in Gaza” and said misery had mounted for Gaza’s 22 lakh besieged residents who went for the fifth day without electricity and clean drinking water. At least half of the population has been displaced within Gaza.
Israeli forces drilled on the borders of Gaza for a broad campaign to dismantle Hamas but rockets kept coming in. The opening session of the Knesset was disrupted by a rocket barrage which sent the Members to shelters for 40 minutes while Lebanon’s Hezbollah said it had hit five Israeli military positions in northern Israel on Monday and smashed surveillance cameras on the border.
Moments before the rockets struck, Opposition leader Yair Lapid said Israel would forge ahead in its campaign against Hamas even if it was subjected to international criticism and added that it was impossible to live next to a terror group.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who has extended his Middle-East shuttle diplomacy, returned to Israel and met Netanyahu ahead of a potential trip by US President Joe Biden. He reportedly spoke of US efforts at building a coalition against Hamas, preventing malign actors from inserting themselves, ensuring humanitarian aid for Gaza and securing the release of the hostages. The next high-level arrival will be of German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, who arrives on Tuesday.
Meanwhile, US media reported that Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman made Blinken wait all night to meet him.
Egypt on Monday said Israel was not cooperating with delivery of aid into Gaza.
Hamas, meanwhile, said the October 7 attack was not directed by Iran or any other outside party.
Iran’s Foreign Ministry said on Monday that Hamas potentially was ready to release the nearly 200 hostages it was holding if Israel stopped its campaign of airstrikes on the Gaza Strip.
Putin dials Netanyahu, says ready to help
Russian President Vladimir Putin told Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu that Moscow wanted to help prevent a humanitarian disaster in Gaza.
Biden slams attack on six-year-old
US President Joe Biden slammed the “horrific act of hate” in Chicago where a man ‘stabbed’ and killed a 6-year-old Palestinian boy and wounded his mother.