Israeli military is preparing ‘significant ground operations’, as US defence secretary orders USS Eisenhower to the Mediterranean
The United States has deployed a second aircraft carrier to the Mediterranean “to deter hostile actions against Israel or any efforts toward widening this war”, as residents of Gaza City fled south to escape an imminent Israeli ground attack in response to a murderous rampage by Hamas last weekend.
The US defence secretary, Lloyd Austin, said late on Saturday that the presence of the USS Eisenhower and its affiliated warships in the eastern Mediterranean signalled Washington’s “ironclad commitment to Israel’s security and our resolve to deter any state or non-state actor seeking to escalate this war”.
The Eisenhower joins the USS Ford carrier strike group, which arrived earlier in the week “as part of our effort to deter hostile actions against Israel or any efforts toward widening this war following Hamas’s attack”, Austin said.
Early on Sunday, Iran’s mission to the UN warned of “far-reaching consequences” if Israel’s “war crimes and genocide” were not stopped immediately. “The responsibility of which lies with the UN, the security council and the states steering the council toward a dead end.”
The Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, told troops massed in southern Israel that “the next stage is coming”, in a video shared by his office on Saturday. The Israeli military announced on Saturday evening that it was preparing “significant ground operations”.
For Gaza’s 2.3 million residents, there are limited options to find safety after Israel’s order to evacuate the northern end of the enclave. They are already running out of food, water, fuel and medical supplies, and face a terrifying escalation of bloodshed and misery if the fighting intensifies.
Some fear they will be killed on the road as they flee south. One civilian evacuation convoy was bombed on Friday afternoon, killing a reported 70 people, including women and children, whose bodies appear in images of the aftermath. They were on Salah-al-Din Road, a main thoroughfare Israel would declare safe less than an hour later.
The World Health Organization (WHO) condemned Israel’s order to evacuate 22 hospitals in northern Gaza which are treating more than 2,000 inpatients. The organisation said the evacuation “could be tantamount to a death sentence” for patients that include newborns in incubators and people in intensive care.
The UN’s under-secretary general for humanitarian affairs and emergency relief coordinator, Martin Griffiths, warned that the humanitarian situation in Gaza was “fast becoming untenable”.
The evacuation directive covers an area of 1.1 million residents, or about half the territory’s population. The Israeli military said “hundreds of thousands” of Palestinians had headed south so far. It had given Palestinians a six-hour window to travel safely within Gaza along two main routes that ended Saturday afternoon.
On Saturday, Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh said in a televised speech that “there will be no migration from Gaza to Egypt” in the wake of Israel’s order to evacuate, and that Egypt “welcomes the Palestinian people, but not on the basis of migration or an exodus”. Haniyeh met Iranian foreign minister Hossein Amir Abdollahian in Doha, Qatar, on Saturday, with Hamas saying the two had agreed to continue cooperation to achieve Hamas’s goals.
A Hamas rampage in which its fighters shot, stabbed and burned to death more than 1,300 Israelis has sparked a week of deadly Israeli attacks on Gaza. Health officials in the enclave said on Sunday that Israel’s response had killed 2,329 Palestinians and injured 9,714. As on the Israeli side, most of them were civilians.
Aid flights have been arriving in Egypt’s Sinai peninsula with relief supplies for Gaza, amid diplomatic efforts to open humanitarian corridors into the enclave. The US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, said during a tour of the region that the US was seeking agreement on establishing aid routes and safe zones. But by Saturday night, there was still no agreement.
Egypt controls the Rafah border crossing into Gaza, but under an agreement between Israel and Egypt after Hamas seized full control of Gaza in 2007, supplies entering from the south require Israeli approval. Since the Hamas attack last Saturday, Israel has cut off electricity and water to the territory.
Blinken said he was also trying to ensure the conflict did not spread, on a day Iran’s foreign minister warned that Israel would suffer an earthquake if his country’s ally, the Hezbollah movement in Lebanon, became involved.
Blinken is due to meet Saudi crown prince Mohammed bin Salman on Sunday, US officials said.
US president Joe Biden spoke to the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, on the phone on Saturday and “affirmed his support for all efforts to protect civilians”, the White House said in a statement, which did not specifically mention Gaza.
“President Biden discussed with prime minister Netanyahu US coordination with the United Nations, Egypt, Jordan, Israel and others in the region to ensure innocent civilians have access to water, food and medical care,” the White House said.
Biden also spoke to Palestinian Authority leader Mahmud Abbas for the first time since hostilities broke out a week ago and “condemned Hamas’ brutal attack on Israel”. “Hamas does not stand for the Palestinian people’s right to dignity and self-determination,” Biden told Abbas, according to a White House statement.
Biden in the call also pledged “full support” to the Palestinian Authority in its efforts to bring humanitarian assistance to Palestinians, “particularly in Gaza”, the statement said.
On Saturday night, the Syrian defence ministry confirmed Israel targeted its Aleppo airport, putting it out of action. It said there was “material damage” at the airport after the “air attack from the direction of the Mediterranean Sea, west of Latakia”.
Source: The Guardian
