Gaza health ministry reports 147 deaths over past 24 hours; death toll at 23,357 now
GAZA/ WEST BANK
US top diplomat Antony Blinken told Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas on Wednesday that Washington supports “tangible steps” towards the creation of a Palestinian state.
Abbas is later set to discuss a “push for an immediate ceasefire” in talks with Jordan’s King Abdullah II and Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi in the Red Sea port city of Aqaba.
As the US secretary of state arrived under tight security in Ramallah in the occupied West Bank, protesters held up signs that read “Stop the genocide”, “Free Palestine” and “Blinken out”.
Blinken reiterated Washington’s longstanding position that a Palestinian state must stand alongside Israel, “with both living in peace and security”, State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said in a statement.
Palestinian statehood was anticipated following the Oslo Accords of the 1990s but talks have been moribund for years.
The Israeli government has shown no interest in reviving negotiations and the Palestinian leadership remains split between the Palestinian Authority, headed by Abbas, and Hamas which rules Gaza.
In talks with Abbas in the occupied West Bank, Blinken mentioned “increased volatility” in the territory, where hundreds of Palestinians have been killed in raids by the Israeli military or attacks by Jewish settlers in recent months.
As part of efforts to stabilise the territory, Blinken called on Israel to hand over revenues owed to the Palestinians in full.
Blinken “underscored the United States’ position that all Palestinian tax revenues collected by Israel should be consistently conveyed to the Palestinian Authority in accordance with prior agreements,” Miller said.
Israel has for years withheld part of the funds, over issues including payments to Palestinian prisoners and more recently the Gaza war.
Global concern has flared over the spiralling humanitarian crisis, and Blinken — while voicing continued US political and military support for top regional ally Israel — has urged steps to reduce the surging civilian death toll.
Dire shortages brought by an Israeli siege mean the “daily toll on civilians in Gaza, particularly children, is far too high,” Blinken said on Tuesday at a joint press conference with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Amid the latest round of US crisis diplomacy, the Gaza war raged on unabated. The Israeli army said it had killed dozens of “terrorists” and hit another 150 targets in Gaza’s central Maghazi and southern Khan Yunis areas.
Israeli troops claimed to have found 15 tunnel shafts as well as rocket launchers, missiles, drones and explosives in Al-Maghazi and destroyed machinery for producing the rockets that have been fired at Israel.
The Gaza health ministry confirmed on Wednesday that at least 23,357 people have been killed in Israel’s relentless military campaign in more than three months of war between Palestinian resistance group Hamas and Israel.
The toll includes 147 deaths over the past 24 hours, a ministry statement said, while 59,410 people have been wounded across the Palestinian territory since war erupted on October 7, 2023.
Thousands of Gazans are reported to be missing as Israel’s relentless bombardment has reduced much of the city to rubble
The war started when Hamas launched its unprecedented October 7 attack, which resulted in about 1,140 deaths in Israel. Militants also took around 250 hostages, of whom Israel says 132 remain in Gaza including at least 25 believed to have been killed.
The Israeli army says 186 of its soldiers have been killed inside Gaza.
