Israel-Hamas war: Russia and China veto the U.S.'s Mideast resolution at the U.N.
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Israel continues to launch airstrikes on Gaza in retaliation for the Oct. 7 attack by Hamas as humanitarian organizations and diplomats struggle to get aid to civilians there.
Here's what we're following:
- President Biden again cautioned Israel over its responsibility to avoid civilian casualties in Gaza, but said he hasn't demanded that it delay its offensive.
- Russia and China vetoed a U.S. resolution in the U.N. Security Council that condemned the Oct. 7 attacks, called for the release of hostages and for humanitarian aid for Gaza.
- The U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres said his comments at a security council meeting on Tuesday were misrepresented by Israeli leaders who called for his resignation.
In Jordan, Macron says France is ready to join the fight against Hamas
French President Emmanuel Macron is in the Middle East to try to find a new approach to the devastating war in Gaza. One of his stops was Amman, Jordan.
The French president came to Amman after meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Jerusalem.
Macron said there that France was ready to join an international coalition to fight Hamas. But he also called for Israel to respect international law.
The war against Hamas must be "without mercy but not without rules," Macron said.
The killings of thousands of civilians in Israeli airstrikes in Gaza has sparked widespread anger in the Arab world.
In Amman, Jordan’s King Abdullah warned that if the war doesn’t end, there would be an "explosion" in the Middle East as the conflict widened.
Palestinian refugee agency says that 38 of its workers have been killed
The United Nations Palestinian refugee agency, UNRWA, has lost 38 of its workers since Israel launched its siege of Gaza in response to the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks.
The agency reported Wednesday that three workers had been killed by Israeli strikes in the last 24 hours. Another 20 were injured.
The agency also reports that 41 of its installations have been damaged in the siege. This comes as more than 600,000 people displaced by the Israeli campaign in Gaza have crowded into the other 150 operational UNRWA buildings in the Gaza Strip.
Countries sense that the U.S. has become weak in the Middle East, retired CIA officer says
This is one of the most perilous times the world has seen in the past 20 years, John Franchi, a former CIA senior officer who served in the Middle East, told NPR.
Between the Israel-Hamas conflict, the war in Ukraine and an unpredictable Iran and North Korea, Franchi told All Things Considered it was “reminiscent somewhat of a post-9/11, where we had a lot of threats at that time.”
“The next thing that I'm looking for is when are the Israelis going to start the incursion into Gaza, because I think that's going to be the deciding point as to where does this spread,” he said.
“Everyone has been very clear, at least on the Western side … that the hope is that it stays confined in Gaza. But you still don't know.”
Franchi said that part of the way to break the cycle of conflicts in the Middle East was for the U.S. to have consistent policies, which he believed was lacking.
“I think there's an inherent sense that the U.S. has become weak,” he said. “Countries feel safer to be able to say, ‘OK, let's test the limits. Let's see if they are actually going to do what they say they're going to do.’”
Russia and China veto the U.S.'s Middle East resolution at the U.N.
Russia and China vetoed the U.S.-led U.N. Security Council draft resolution on the Middle East.
The resolution would have condemned the Hamas Oct. 7 attack on Israel, supported Israel's right to defend itself and called for the release of hostages kidnapped by Hamas. That resolution also would have called for humanitarian aid for civilians in Gaza.
The vote was 10 in favor, three against and two abstentions.
Gilad Erdan, Israel's U.N. ambassador, condemned Russia and China after the vote.
"Those who have voted against the U.S.-led resolution have shown the world that this council is incapable of doing the most basic task of condemning ISIS like terrorists and cannot confirm the right to self-defense of the victim of these heinous crimes," he said.
Russia introduced its own resolution, co-sponsored by Sudan and Venezuela, at the last minute, but that also failed when it didn't get the nine votes needed.
The vote on Russia's resolution was four in favor, two against and nine abstentions.
Last week, the U.S. vetoed a U.N. resolution calling for a "humanitarian pause" in Gaza. U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Linda Thomas-Greenfield said she put forward what she called a more balanced text that condemns “the heinous terrorist attacks” by Hamas and reaffirms Israel’s right to self-defense.
Biden says the path to Israeli-Palestinian peace must move forward
In his remarks on Wednesday, Biden also reiterated the need to work towards a two-state solution, saying Israelis and Palestinians "equally deserve to live side-by-side in safety, dignity and peace."
Biden said there is "no going back" to the status quo of Oct. 6, meaning Hamas will no longer be able to terrorize Israel and use Palestinian civilians as human shields. And when the crisis is past, there has to be a view of what comes next — which the U.S. sees as the two-state solution.
"It means a concentrated effort from all the parties — Israelis, Palestinians, regional partners, global leaders — to put us on a path towards peace," Biden said.
He said over the last few weeks he's spoken with the leaders of Jordan, Egypt, the Palestinian Authority, Saudi Arabia and others about "making sure there's real hope in the region for a better future."
Biden said those partners need to work toward a greater integration for Israel with its neighbors and that the aspirations of the Palestinian people be part of that future.
He said his instinct tells him one of the reasons Hamas attacked Israel when it did was because of progress being made between Israel and its neighbors and stressed that work shouldn't be left behind.
New Speaker Johnson says the House's first piece of business is a pro-Israel resolution
The House of Representatives has finally elected a speaker, ending a three-week struggle that left it unable to conduct legislative business.
Rep. Mike Johnson, R-La., inherits many of the political challenges his predecessor faced — and fresh urgency. He is taking office with three weeks left to avert a government shutdown and one week after President Biden requested a $106 billion aid package for Israel, Ukraine, border security funding and other foreign policy goals.
Johnson said shortly after his election that the first bill the House will vote on under his leadership is a resolution expressing support for Israel in its war against Hamas, NBC News reports.
"We’re going to show not only Israel, but the entire world, that the barbarism of Hamas ... is wretched and wrong and we’re going to stand for the good in that conflict," he said.
President Biden was asked about the new speaker during his press conference on Wednesday afternoon, though not about Johnson's views on Israel.
Asked whether he thought Johnson would work to overturn the next presidential election, given his past statements after the last one, Biden said he was not worried.
“I understand the Constitution,” he said, noting that lawsuits challenging his 2020 win were not successful.
Biden says he didn't demand that Israel delay its ground operation
President Biden said he did not tell Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu to hold off on a ground operation in Gaza pending the safe release of hostages.
“What I have indicated to him is that if that's possible to get these folks out safely, that’s what he should do,” Biden said, in answer to a question from a reporter. "It's their decision, but I did not demand it,” he said.
Asked about the death toll figures from the Hamas-controlled health ministry in Gaza — now more than 6,000 people — Biden said that he was not confident those numbers were accurate.
"What they say to me is that no notion that the Palestinians are telling the truth about how many people are killed,” Biden said. “I'm sure innocents have been killed, and that's the price of waging a war,” he said.
"But I have no confidence in the number that the Palestinians are using," he said.
Senate committee advances Jack Lew nomination for Israel ambassador to a floor vote
President Biden's nominee for ambassador to Israel is one step closer to getting the job after the Senate Foreign Relations Committee voted along party lines to send his nomination to the floor for a full vote.
Jack Lew, a former Treasury secretary under President Barack Obama, was advanced by a vote of 12-9. Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., was the only Republican to join with all the Democrats, Politico reports. Only a simple majority was needed.
Committee Chair Sen. Ben Cardin, D-Md., said in a statement that "the urgency to confirm this highly-qualified nominee has never been greater," citing the war between Israel and Hamas. He said Lew has the expertise, temperament and track record needed for the critical position.
"Lew’s credibility across the international community is undeniable, and his in-depth knowledge about the region will play a critical role in strengthening the U.S.-Israel relationship moving forward," Cardin said.
He added it is imperative that Lew receive swift confirmation from the full Senate "in another display of strong bipartisan support for Israel."
A final vote is not expected until next week, NBC News reports, noting that it's unclear how many Republicans will support him since many are critical of his involvement in the 2015 Iran nuclear deal. He may not need any GOP support if all 51 Democrats vote to confirm.
The committee also advanced ambassador nominees for Egypt, Somalia and Liberia today.
Biden calls for an end to attacks on Palestinians in West Bank by 'extremist settlers'
President Biden on Wednesday called for a stop to attacks on Palestinians by "extremists" in the West Bank.
“I continue to be alarmed about extremist settlers attacking Palestinians in the West Bank,” Biden said during remarks at a press conference at the White House.
“Pouring gasoline on the fire, is what this is like," he added. "This was a deal: the deal was made, and they're attacking Palestinians in places that they're entitled to be. It has to stop, they have to be held accountable."
The U.N. has warned that there is a high risk for the Israel-Hamas conflict to spill over into other parts of the region and that the situation in the West Bank is further deteriorating.
Violence has increased in the West Bank, where the Ramallah-based health ministry says Israeli settlers and security forces have killed 102 Palestinians since Oct. 7.
Biden reaffirms Israel's right to self-defense but must protect civilians in Gaza
President Biden emphasized Israel's right to defend itself and responsibility to protect civilians in remarks outside the White House on Wednesday.
Speaking at a joint press conference with Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, Biden opened by addressing the situation in the Middle East.
He said the Israeli people's sense of outrage and hurt over the Hamas attacks is "completely understandable," saying the country has the right and the responsibility to respond to the "slaughter" of its people and that the U.S. will ensure it has what it needs to defend itself against terrorists.
He also urged people to remember that Hamas does not represent the majority of Palestinians and is "hiding behind Palestinian civilians," which he said is not only cowardly but also puts an added burden on Israel as it pursues the militant group.
"That does not lessen the need to operate and align with the laws of war, for Israel has to do everything in its power, as difficult as it is to protect innocent civilians, and it's difficult," Biden added.
He also thanked the leaders of Israel and Egypt for working with the U.S. to ensure humanitarian aid is getting into Gaza, adding that the "flow needs to increase" and the partners are working together to make that happen.
Biden said they're also working around the clock to secure the release of hostages and safe passage of foreign nationals out of Gaza.
Tons of aid for Gaza is still sitting outside Rafah, Egyptian aid worker says
Mohsen Sarhan, CEO of the Egyptian Food Bank — one of the biggest nonprofits in Egypt — spent most of the past two weeks at the Rafah border crossing, south of Gaza.
He says there were around 200 hundred trucks of aid lined up and more than a dozen cargo planes, sitting and waiting to be allowed in.
“The trucks waited for approximately 12 days, waiting for the green light,” Sarhan says. “The green light, meaning that Israel decides to stop bombing just for a few hours in order for it to go through.”
He says that there were constant rockets lighting up the sky less than one kilometer from the crossing, where all the aid, along with workers and truck drivers, were still gathered.
“This area that Israel was bombarding, it's a wasteland. No one lives there,” Sarhan says. “So they kept bombarding that area continuously every half an hour. We don't have any interpretation for that, except they were trying to intimidate and frighten the aid workers that were stationed at the border, that if they crossed, they would be bombed as well.”
He says the most difficult part of aid is usually fundraising and getting goods into a war zone. But in this instance, his organization did all of that in less than two days — and then couldn’t actually get it to the people who needed it only a few miles away.
“It was a nightmare for us aid workers,” he says.
Some aid was finally allowed through on Saturday, and a few dozen trucks total have been let in since then. But Sarhan says that’s not nearly enough.
“Before this conflict happened, a minimum of 50 to 60 trucks used to go through that border each and every day. And there was a continuous flow for people — medicine, food, whatever, in and out of the border, just like any of any other crossing between two countries,” he explains.
Now, the number allowed in he says is around 20 trucks a day, when an estimated 100 per day are needed to help the desperate situation in Gaza as millions of civilians struggle for basic necessities and hospitals run out of supplies.
“It’s not even a drop in the bucket,” Sarhan says about the amount of aid getting in. “It’s a drop in an ocean. It’s a tiny drop in an ocean of death.”
Jewish and Muslim groups report a rise in U.S. incidents and threats since the war
The Anti-Defamation League is reporting a significant increase in incidents targeting Jewish Americans since the war between Israel and Hamas started earlier this month. Leaders in the Muslim community say threats against Muslim Americans are also on the rise.
The ADL says it recorded more than 300 antisemitic incidents in the U.S. since Oct. 7, compared to about 60 during the same period last year — an increase of 388%. The organization describes the recent incidents as harassment, vandalism and assault — and says reports range from the use of slurs against college students to a woman being punched at a train station.
Meanwhile, the Council on American-Islamic Relations says threats to American Muslim communities nationwide are also rising, including hateful phone calls and messages, and bullying.
Near Chicago, the mother of a murdered 6-year-old Palestinian boy was released from the hospital. They were both stabbed repeatedly one week after Hamas attacked Israel. Their landlord is charged with murder and hate crimes.
Israel's ambassador to the U.N. is still calling on the U.N. chief to resign
Israel's ambassador to the United Nations, Gilad Erdan, is again calling on António Guterres to resign, saying it was a "disgrace" that the U.N. secretary-general did not apologize for his comments about Hamas.
The row between Guterres and Erdan started on Tuesday, during a U.N. Security Council meeting in New York that focused heavily on the deepening misery in Gaza.
During his opening remarks, Guterres said it was important to recognize that Hamas' Oct. 7 attack on Israel "did not happen in a vacuum" but came after decades of Palestinian resentment of Israeli occupation. But he also said those grievances could not justify the "appalling" attacks.
In response, Erdan called for Guterres' resignation, saying he is "not fit to lead the U.N." and called for the country to "reassess" its relations with the United Nations.
Addressing the media on Wednesday, Guterres said his comments had been taken "as if I was justifying acts of terror by Hamas," when in fact he was saying the opposite.
"I spoke of the grievances of the Palestinian people but I also stated that cannot justify the appalling attacks by Hamas," he stressed, adding "I believe it is necessary to the record straight — especially out of respect for the victims and their families."
In a post shared on X, the social media site formerly known as Twitter, Erdan doubled down on his calls for Guterres to resign, saying the secretary-general "distorts and twists reality" and had not fully retracted his words.
It is a disgrace to the @UN that the Secretary-General did not retract his words and is not even able to apologize for what he said yesterday❗️❗️
— Ambassador Gilad Erdan גלעד ארדן (@giladerdan1) October 25, 2023
The Secretary-General, once again, distorts and twists reality. He clearly said yesterday that the massacre by Hamas ‘did not happen…
"Israel will work to convey a clear message to the UN that we will not accept anymore the continued bias and hatred towards Israel by this organization," he wrote.
A display of blindfolded, bloodied teddy bears honors the Israeli kids held hostage
Nearly three dozen teddy bears — blindfolded and bearing signs — have been lined up near a fountain in Tel Aviv to draw attention to the Israeli children being held hostage by Hamas.
The Associated Press reports that each of the stuffed animals wears a picture of one of the roughly 30 children — some as young as 9 months old — among the 222 hostages Hamas took from Israel on Oct. 7.
"The bears were dabbed with fake blood and some were tied together in an arresting display that left some passersby almost speechless," AP reports. It's not immediately clear who is behind the effort.
Hamas will use civilians in Gaza as human shields, says retired U.S. general
Retired Gen. Frank McKenzie, the former head of the U.S. Central Command, says he knows firsthand that Israel has elaborate procedures for trying to minimize harm to civilians. But he also recognizes that mistakes will be made and there will be unanticipated civilian casualties.
"We should just know and recognize that right now, despite the very best efforts of the Israelis — and they will go to great lengths to minimize civilian casualties," McKenzie says. "On the other hand ... what Hamas is going to do is they're going to try every way they can to maximize civilian casualties. They need that event to occur to operate in the information space."
He says it's not just the roughly 220 kidnapped Israelis and foreign nationals that Hamas is holding hostage.
"In effect, really, the entire civilian population of Gaza is being held hostage by Hamas," he said. "They're going to use them as human shields, and they're gonna try to get the Israelis into situations where they have to make some very difficult choices about what to strike and what not to strike."
He says Hamas does that by placing rockets, missiles and command posts in places like schools, hospitals and mosques, calling it an "old, tried-and-true tactic."
NATO says Hamas has been using human shields in conflicts with Israel since 2007, which constitutes a war crime. President Biden said last week that innocent Palestinians are being used as human shields.
Second explosion reported near the site of a former bakery that fed thousands
Gaza residents were sorting through the blast-worn debris of a bakery in the Moghrabi refugee camp on Wednesday when a projectile whistled overhead, according to an Associated Press reporter on the ground there.
The residents ducked as two bangs followed in quick succession, leaving another wake of rubble in a war-torn city.
The bakery had been known to feed thousands of refugees traveling from north Gaza to a safe zone in the south, stopping for rest in the central region of Deir al-Balah, according to reporting from the New York Times.
Workers there had just received a fresh shipment of flour when the site was destroyed by Israeli airstrikes earlier this month, the AP said, citing a Hamas statement.
At least 10 people died in that initial airstrike. And as of Wednesday, at least one more person had been killed on the scene, the AP reported.
Images showed men carrying wounded people through destroyed city streets, seeking medical attention.
Gaza is a 'uniquely challenging environment' for an incursion, retired U.S. general says
Retired Gen. Frank McKenzie, the former head of the U.S. Central Command, says he thinks it's not a question of whether Israel invades Gaza, but how. And he says Gaza poses a "uniquely challenging environment" for a ground incursion.
McKenzie visited the border fence with Gaza during a trip to Israel with a group of retired senior military leaders several months ago. He tells Morning Edition that it's one of the densest urban environments in the world: high-rise buildings, very densely packed, in a small area.
He says Israeli forces are probably practicing what the U.S. calls tactics, techniques, and procedures — "how you're actually gonna do the operation."
"I think that the jury's still out on how they're gonna do it," McKenzie adds. "Is it gonna be a broad-front attack, are they gonna go in narrowly, are they gonna merge with their special operations forces and conduct pinprick raids? I think all those things are on the table as they bring their forces up to the border and prepare to go in."
He says he knows the Israel Defense Forces is grappling with the question of its endgame, and what kind of governance it wants to see on the other side of the operation in Gaza. He says that needs to be "the source of a lot of careful study, because we, the United States, have not always gotten that same problem right."
Now's the time for Israel to think about it, he says, because "once operations commence they're going to take on an intensity, scope and drive that is unique to those who have not experienced that before."
A plane's worth of U.K. aid is en route to Egypt, but getting it into Gaza will be a challenge
The U.K. Ministry of Defense has deployed a military aircraft carrying 21 metric tons of aid — the first shipment of supplies since Prime Minister Rishi Sunak announced a £30 million ($36 million) aid package for Gaza last week.
The plane's cargo includes 76,800 wound care packs, 1,350 water filters, 2,560 solar-powered lights and warehouse equipment that can help load all that onto trucks traveling through the Rafah border crossing.
But actually getting that aid through the crossing is still a great challenge. As of Tuesday, only 62 truckloads of aid had been let through the border crossing, representing just a sliver of the supplies shipped into the territory before the war broke out.
The Israel Defense Force has been inspecting each truck carefully, on the lookout for sneaky shipments of fuel, which it banned from entering Gaza over fears that Hamas would take it for its own use.
UK delivers humanitarian aid to support Palestinian civilians: https://t.co/QXNfam3Oso
— Ministry of Defence 🇬🇧 (@DefenceHQ) October 25, 2023
A @RoyalAirForce C-17 aircraft is en route to Egypt to deliver vital humanitarian aid to Palestinian civilians, including 76,800 wound care packs, 1,350 water filters and 2,5560 solar lights. pic.twitter.com/rpqOfXiDZn
U.N. chief Guterres says he was shocked by the 'misrepresentation' of his remarks
U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres just made a brief statement before the media, saying he was “shocked” by the misrepresentation of comments he made Tuesday that offended Israeli leaders and sparked headlines worldwide.
The comments were taken “as if I was justifying acts of terror by Hamas,” Guterres said, saying that actually the opposite was true.
"I spoke of the grievances of the Palestinian people but I also stated that cannot justify the appalling attacks by Hamas," he stressed, adding “I believe it is necessary to set the record straight — especially out of respect for the victims and their families."
Speaking at the U.N. Security Council meeting in New York on Tuesday, Guterres said it was important to recognize that "the attacks by Hamas did not happen in a vacuum" but came after decades of Palestinian resentment of Israeli occupation. But he also said those grievances could not justify the "appalling" attacks.
Israel's foreign minister canceled a meeting with Guterres, accusing him of victim blaming. Israel's ambassador to the U.N. also said the country would deny a visa to a U.N. humanitarian coordinator, saying it was time the body learned "a lesson".
As the child casualty count passes 2,700, UNICEF calls for a cease-fire
The Hamas-run Ministry of Health says more than 2,700 children have been killed in Gaza since fighting began in the region 19 days ago — that's a rate of more than 140 juvenile deaths per day.
Another 30 children have reportedly lost their lives in Israel, while dozens are believed to be among the 200-plus hostages being held by Hamas.
The humanitarian crisis is "staggering," a "growing stain on our collective conscience" and a clear violation of child rights, according to the aid group UNICEF.
In a statement issued Tuesday, the group called for an immediate cease-fire.
"Even wars have rules," said Adele Khodr, UNICEF's regional director, "Civilians must be protected — children particularly — and all efforts must be made to spare them in all circumstances.”
UNICEF is warning that the death toll will only rise as fuel supplies continue to dwindle, causing hospitals to go dark and drinking water plants to shut down.
Qatar's leader reports progress in hostage negotiations with Hamas
The prime minister of Qatar is reporting progress in negotiations with Hamas to win the release of hostages taken during its attack on Israel in October.
"There is some progress and some breakthrough and we remain hopeful," Sheikh Mohammed Bin Abdulrahman al-Thani told reporters Wednesday.
Israel has said Hamas continues to hold about 220 people, mostly Israelis but also some Americans.
State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said Monday that Qatar "is a longtime partner of ours who is responding to our request, because I think they believe that innocent civilians ought to be freed."
He told MSNBC that Qatar continues to play an important role in talking directly to Hamas, calling that channel "useful" and saying the U.S. will continue to encourage them to use it.
A top U.S. priority in the region is protecting its troops from Iran-backed militias
One of U.S. officials' main concerns about an Israeli invasion of Gaza is that Iran itself would somehow get involved, NPR's Tom Bowman reports.
Bowman told Morning Edition that U.S. aircraft carriers, attack aircraft and missile defense systems in the area will also protect U.S. forces in Iraq and Syria.
"I'm told this is all part of a long-standing U.S. plan to defend Israel," he adds. "It's been on the shelf for some time, it's not just kind of a haphazard movement of armaments and troops."
Bowman says one of the top priorities for the U.S. is keeping its troops in the region safe. He says there are a few thousand troops in Iraq and another 800 to 900 in Syria.
"They've already been attacked by Iranian-backed militias, but those attacks by missiles and drones have been dealt with," he says.
Last week, a U.S. Navy warship in the Middle East intercepted multiple projectiles near the coast of Yemen, filed by Iran-backed Houthi militants. Other militia groups backed by Iran have claimed responsibility for attacks on American bases in Iraq and Syria over the last two weeks.
"We know that Iran is closely monitoring these events, and in some cases, actively facilitating these attacks and spurring on others who may want to exploit the conflict for their own good, or for that of Iran," White House National Security spokesperson John Kirby said this week.
President Biden has warned Israel not to make the same mistakes as the U.S. did in the wake of the 9/11 attacks. Bowman sums them up as such: overthrowing the governments of Afghanistan and Iraq, thinking it was for the better, all fueled by fear of more terrorist attacks of suspected weapons of mass destruction.
"In both cases you had guerrilla warfare that lasted for two decades, really continuing to this day," Bowman adds. "The same could be true here — you destroy Hamas, but who governs Gaza, and are you creating more militants by your tactics?"
Scotland's leader — with relatives in Gaza — calls for a cease-fire
Scotland's first minister is calling for a cease-fire between Israel and Hamas.
The conflict is personal for Humza Yousaf, who is married to a woman of Palestinian descent. Her parents — U.K. citizens — happened to be visiting relatives in Gaza when the war broke out.
Now they are among the millions trapped in Gaza under Israeli bombardment, with food and supplies running out.
At one point last weekend, Yousaf was touring flood damage in Scotland when his cell phone rang. It was his mother-in-law in Gaza. He stepped away, took the call, then told reporters what she’d just told him.
“Missiles, rocket fire, drones," he said. "They don’t know if they’re gonna make it from one night to the next. They’re down to six bottles of clean drinking water in a house of 100 people — including a 2-month-old baby.”
Yousaf has called for a cease-fire — and has criticized the U.K. govt for failing to do so as well.
The U.S. warns that an Israeli incursion into Gaza will be messy
There appears to be concern building among U.S. officials about the expected Israeli offensive in Gaza.
The U.S. secretary of defense has been in regular contact with his Israeli counterpart.
And John Kirby, spokesman with the White House National Security Council, was blunt at a Tuesday briefing: "This is war. It is combat. It is bloody. It is ugly, and it’s going to be messy. And innocent civilians are going to be hurt going forward."
"I wish I could tell you something different. I wish that that wasn’t going to happen. But it is — it is going to happen," he added. "And that doesn’t make it right. It doesn’t make it dismissible. It doesn’t mean that we aren’t going to still express concerns about that and — and do everything we can to help the Israelis do everything they can to minimize it."
He said the U.S. is pushing for a humanitarian pause in the fighting — not a general cease-fire, which it believes would benefit Hamas.
NPR's Tom Bowman tells Morning Edition that the U.S. has a number of concerns about the prospect of a ground offensive, including about violence spreading throughout the region and that Israel may not have thought through the implications of an invasion.
"Top officials are asking 'What are your goals? What about civilians, keeping them safe?' " Bowman says, noting that thousands of Palestinian civilians have been killed already.
He says the U.S. is warning that the war will be brutal, worse than the fight to defeat ISIS in the Iraqi city of Mosul in 2016: "We're talking a vast network of underground tunnels, booby traps, close-quarter fighting, with hundreds of thousands of civilians in the middle."
Leaders of Hezbollah reportedly held talks with Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad
The leader of Lebanon's Hezbollah group reportedly met on Wednesday with senior figures from Hamas and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad to discuss next steps as fighting between Israel and Hamas continues into its third week.
According to the news wire services Reuters and the Associated Press, Hezbollah's Hassan Nasrallah, Hamas’ Saleh al-Arouri and Islamic Jihad’s leader Ziad al-Nakhleh released a joint statement to state media saying they were in agreement on their goals.
The statement said the three were determined to achieve “a real victory for the resistance in Gaza and Palestine” and halt Israel’s “treacherous and brutal aggression against our oppressed and steadfast people in Gaza and the West Bank," according to the AP's account.
Since the day after Hamas' Oct. 7 rampage, Israeli defense forces have continuously clashed with Hezbollah fighters in Lebanon. But so far, those exchanges have been limited to a handful of towns along the border.
Reports of teamwork between Hamas and Hezbollah is sure to fan fears of a possible third front opening in the war. Hezbollah leaders have repeatedly warned Israel not to conduct a widely expected ground offensive, while U.S. leaders have repeatedly warned Iran-backed groups like Hezbollah not to become involved in the Israel-Hamas conflict.
The death toll in Gaza has climbed to 6,546, according to its health ministry
The Hamas-run Ministry of Health says the number of people killed in Gaza since Oct. 7 has reached 6,546. That includes 2,704 children, 1,584 women and 364 elderly people.
Another 17,439 have been injured, it said in its latest update on Wednesday.
The U.N. says there are now 1.4 million Palestinians internally displaced within Gaza, with hundreds of thousands sheltering in UNRWA facilities. The average number of people per shelter had reached 2.5 times capacity as of Tuesday.
Israel has intensified its bombardment of Gaza in retaliation for Hamas' Oct. 7 terrorist attack, which left 1,400 people and more than 220 taken hostage.
The U.N. humanitarian aid coordination office, OCHA, said the reported fatality toll is “over threefold the cumulative number of Israelis killed” since it began recording casualties in 2005.
Gaza's biggest aid supplier says it'll run out of fuel by tonight
UNRWA, the biggest supplier of aid in Gaza, is saying it expects to run out of fuel by Wednesday evening.
"We'll be making decisions about what we don't provide fuel to starting Thursday," Tom White, the director of the agency, told CNN late Tuesday. "That is, do we provide fuel to desalination plants in order to have fresh water? Can we provide fuel to hospitals? Can we provide the essential fuel that is currently producing bread that is feeding people in Gaza?"
"We need to find a solution to the fuel — otherwise, our aid operation will come to a stop," he added.
Another eight trucks carrying aid crossed into Gaza on Tuesday via the Rafah border crossing with Egypt, making it the fourth consecutive day that aid has entered the territory.
But UNRWA says that, for the fourth consecutive day, no fuel was included in that shipment. Israel has blocked fuel deliveries out of concerns Hamas will divert it for its own use.
On Tuesday, Israel Defense Forces said Hamas had stockpiled 500,000 liters of fuel, keeping it from Palestinian civilians during a time of crisis.
Israel intensifies airstrikes on Gaza, thwarts an attempted beach attack
JERUSALEM — Israeli airstrikes across the Gaza Strip continued to intensify Tuesday, with Israel saying some 400 strikes had killed Hamas commandos, and targeted tunnels and Hamas command centers.
The Hamas-run Health Ministry said Tuesday’s death toll was more than 700.
The Hamas-run Interior Ministry says a "massive air bombardment" pounded Gaza overnight, contributing to the unprecedented death toll since the Hamas attack on Oct. 7.
The attacks come as Gaza continues to suffer severe shortages of food, water and medicine, despite the arrival of some truckloads filled with humanitarian aid.
Separately, the Israel Defense Forces said it thwarted an assault by a group of Hamas militants who came ashore on an Israeli beach just north of Gaza. Israel responded with air, sea and ground forces.
Israel refuses to grant visa to a U.N. humanitarian coordinator after a row with the secretary-general
Israeli leaders fumed over United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres' comments at an emergency U.N. Security Council meeting to address the Mideast conflict.
At the Tuesday meeting in New York, Guterres said the Oct. 7 attack by Hamas that launched the current conflict "did not happen in a vacuum."
In response, Gilad Erdan, Israel's ambassador to the United Nations, called for Guterres' resignation, saying he is "not fit to lead the U.N."
Speaking hours later to Israeli media, Erdan said, "The time has come to teach them a lesson" and that Israel had blocked a visa for Martin Griffiths, a U.N. humanitarian coordinator.
In Guterres' speech Tuesday, he pleaded with other nations to step up humanitarian aid and to help ensure the conflict doesn't spread to other countries.
His pleas came as staggering numbers from the conflict emerged for another day: thousands dead, even more injured.
Roughly 1.4 million people — 60% of Gaza's population — have left their homes but remain trapped in the territory. Relief sites overflowed; at one, 400 people shared a single toilet. Hospitals designed for hundreds of patients found themselves treating thousands.