Gaza strip cut into two, claims Israeli military; Blinken's surprise visit to Iraq
An Israeli military spokesperson said Israeli forces had surrounded the main city in Gaza on Sunday, even as US Secretary of State Antony Blinken is making efforts to manage the crisis as it seems to be extending to Lebanon.
Here are the latest major developments in the Israel-Hamas war:
Gaza came under "unprecedented bombardment" from Israel on Sunday, as Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari said the Gaza City is now divided into two parts. "Today there is north Gaza and south Gaza”, he said, calling it a “significant stage” in Israel’s war against Hamas. Israeli media said that Israeli troops were expected to enter Gaza City within 48 hours, while strong explosions were reported in northern Gaza after nightfall.
All communications and internet services were shut down in Gaza on Sunday for the third time since the war began. The “collapse in connectivity” was reported by internet access advocacy group NetBlocks.org and confirmed by Palestinian telecom company Paltel. The first communication outage in Gaza had lasted 36 hours and the second one for a few hours.
Israel yet again dismissed the escalating international calls for a ceasefire, as it stated that its forces had successfully surrounded Gaza City. The development came even as Blinken is making efforts to manage the crisis that poses a risk of further escalation in the adjacent country of Lebanon.
Blinken later flew to Baghdad for talks with Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani, amid the rising concerns about American forces in the region facing a surge of attacks by Iranian-allied militias in Iraq and elsewhere. Blinken further traveled to Turkey from Baghdad.
Earlier on Sunday, Israeli warplanes struck two refugee camps, killing at least 53 people and wounding dozens in central Gaza. This is the zone where Israel’s military had urged Palestinian civilians to seek refuge. Israel said it would press on with its offensive to crush Hamas, despite US appeals for even brief pauses to get aid to desperate civilians.
After an Israeli strike on a car in south Lebanon killed three children and their grandmother on Sunday, Hezbollah said it would never tolerate attacks on civilians and its response would be "firm and strong". "The enemy will pay the price for its crimes against civilians," Hezbollah lawmaker Hassan Fadlallah told Reuters. Hezbollah said it responded to the Israeli strike, in which three girls aged between 10 and 14 were killed in an attack it launched.
Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu has backtracked from a statement wherein he had highlighted a need to examine whether months of protests against his government had added to Hamas' motivation to carry out the October 7 attack that triggered the war. Taking to X on Sunday, he said Hamas started a war "because it wants to kill us all and not because of any argument within us."
Jordan's air force personnel air-dropped urgent medical aid to the Jordanian field hospital in Gaza early on Monday, according to a social media posts by Jordan's king and state media. "A royal air force plane dropped urgent medical aid using parachutes to the Jordanian field hospital in Gaza whose supplies were about to run out due to the delay of delivering aid through Rafah crossing", Jordan's state news agency said citing a military source in the General Command of the Jordanian Armed Forces.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken is set to hold tough talks in Turkey on Monday, even as his first arrival in the country since the war was marked with heavy protests. Police used tear gas and water cannon to disperse hundreds of protesters who marched on an air base housing US forces in Turkey's southeast hours before Blinken's arrival Sunday.
With today's meeting, Blinken aims to soothe the anger of one of Washington's most strategic but difficult allies about the bloodshed in Gaza.
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