Israel says it is encircling Gaza City; The United States urges a “local” humanitarian truce.

GAZA/JERUSALEM (Reuters) – Israel said it had surrounded the largest city in the Gaza Strip and the focus of its campaign to eliminate the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas), while the United States prepared to pressure Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to agree to a halt in the fighting to allow the fighting to stop. Aid to the Palestinian sector.

As the conflict approached the end of its fourth week, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken was scheduled to visit Israel for the second time in a month to meet with Netanyahu as the Israeli army battles Hamas militants, who have responded with hit-and-run attacks from Israel. Underground tunnels.

Netanyahu said in a statement after the army announced that it had encircled the main city in the coastal strip, “We are at the height of the battle. We have achieved impressive successes and have surpassed the outskirts of Gaza City. We are advancing.”

As Blinken left Washington for the Middle East, he said he would discuss concrete steps to reduce harm to civilians in Gaza. Meanwhile, the White House said any cessation of fighting should be temporary and local, and insisted it would not prevent Israel from defending itself.

Increasing casualties among Palestinian civilians, coupled with severe shortages of food, water, medicine and fuel, have intensified calls from world leaders for a halt to the fighting or a ceasefire.

Israel rejected these calls, saying it was targeting Hamas fighters, whom it accuses of deliberately hiding among residents and civilian buildings. The White House also rejected calls for a ceasefire.

Gaza health authorities say at least 9,061 people have been killed in Gaza since Israel launched its assault on the enclave of 2.3 million in response to deadly attacks by Hamas militants on southern Israel.

A group of independent United Nations experts warned Palestinians there of “the risk of genocide.”

The group of UN special rapporteurs said in a statement, “We call on Israel and its allies to agree to an immediate ceasefire. We are running out of time.”

The Israeli mission to the United Nations in Geneva described the rapporteur’s comments as “regrettable and deeply disturbing” and blamed Hamas for the deaths of civilians. Stephane Dujarric, spokesman for UN Secretary-General António Guterres, said the determination of genocide can only be made by a relevant UN judicial body.

Israel says Hamas killed 1,400 people, most of them civilians, and took more than 240 hostage in the attack on October 7, the bloodiest day in its 75-year history.

The White House said on Thursday that it was considering a series of pauses in the conflict.

“What we are trying to do is explore the idea of ​​as much of a pause as may be necessary to continue getting aid in and to continue working to get people out safely, including hostages,” US National Security spokesman John Kirby told reporters.

Blinken is also scheduled to meet with Jordanian Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi in Amman on Saturday. Al-Safadi said in a statement that Israel must end the war on Gaza, as he said it was committing war crimes by bombing civilians and imposing the blockade.

Hamas fighters emerge from the tunnels

Amid severe explosions in Gaza, Israeli army spokesman Admiral Daniel Hagari told reporters that “his country’s forces have completed the encirclement of Gaza City, which is the focal point of the Hamas terrorist organization.”

Brigadier General Edo Mizrahi, Israel’s chief of military engineers, said troops were facing mines and booby traps.

“Hamas has learned and prepared itself well,” he said.

Abu Ubaida, spokesman for the military wing of Hamas, said in a televised speech on Thursday that the number of Israeli deaths in Gaza is much higher than what the army announced. He said: “Your soldiers will return with black bags.”

Israel said it had lost 18 soldiers and killed dozens of activists since ground operations expanded on Friday.

Residents said Hamas and allied Islamic Jihad fighters emerged from the tunnels to shoot at tanks, then disappeared back into the net, videos from the two groups showed.

Two US officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the United States was flying intelligence-gathering drones over Gaza to help locate the hostages. One official said they had been conducting drone flights for more than a week.

More foreigners due to eviction

The Rafah crossing from Gaza to Egypt is scheduled to open for a third day on Friday for limited evacuations under a Qatar-brokered agreement aimed at allowing some foreign passport holders, their families and some wounded Gazans to exit the Strip.

According to border officials, more than 700 foreign nationals left for Egypt via Rafah in the previous two days. Dozens of seriously injured Palestinians were also scheduled to cross. Israel asked foreign countries to send hospital ships to them.

More than a third of Gaza’s 35 hospitals are non-functional, and many of them have turned into informal refugee camps.

“The situation is beyond catastrophic,” the charity Palestinian Medical Assistance said, describing crowded corridors and many paramedics who were themselves bereaved and homeless.

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