Israel-Hamas war: Blinken warns toll on civilians 'too high'

At his press conference in Tel Aviv, US Secretary of State Blinken said Israel had agreed in principle on a plan for a UN mission to northern Gaza to assess the situation following the scaling-down of Israeli military operations. The aim is to pave the way for the safe return of displaced civilians.

"As Israel's campaign moves to a lower intensity phase in northern Gaza and as the IDF [Israel Defense Forces] scales down its forces there, we agreed today on a plan for the UN to carry out an assessment mission," he said.

"It will determine what needs to be done to allow displaced Palestinians to return safely to the north."

Until then, he reiterated the need for more humanitarian aid to be allowed to enter the Gaza Strip.

"More food, more water, more medicine, other essential goods need to get into Gaza," he said. "And then once they're in Gaza, they need to get more effectively to the people who need them."

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has called on Israel to cooperate with the Palestinian Authority (PA) on plans for post-war Gaza, but said the PA also has a "responsibility to reform itself."

"Israel must stop taking steps that undercut the Palestinians' ability to govern themselves effectively," Blinken said in Tel Aviv on Tuesday.

"Israel must be a partner of the Palestinian leaders who are willing to lead their people and live side-by-side in peace with Israel," he said, insisting that Arab leaders across the region are ready to assist, but only "through a regional approach that includes a pathway to a Palestinian state."

Israel has thus far ruled out calls to allow the internationally recognized Palestinian Authority, which was ousted from Gaza when Islamist militants Hamas seized power in 2007, to govern Gaza and instead talked about maintaining open-ended military control over the territory.

The US believes a "revitalized" authority should return to govern the enclave.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has dismissed a genocide case against Israel submitted to the International Court of Justice by South Africa as "meritless" and said it "distracts the world from important efforts for peace and security."

"It is particularly galling," he continued, "given that those who are attacking Israel — Hamas, Hezbollah, the Houthis, as well as their supporter Iran — continue to call for the annihilation of Israel and the mass murder of Jews."

The US, among others, considers militant groups Hamas and Hezbollah to be terrorist organizations.

The UN court is set to begin hearing South Africa's case on Thursday.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has said that the "daily toll of war on civilians in Gaza, particularly on children, is far too high" as Israeli military operations in the Gaza Strip continue.

Speaking at a press conference in Tel Aviv, Blinken also insisted that "Palestinians must be allowed to return home as soon as conditions allow" and that the United States "rejects any proposals advocating for the resettlement of Palestinians outside Gaza."

Nevertheless, he reiterated that "it is vital that Israel achieve its objective that [the Hamas terror attacks of] October 7 can never happen again." He added that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had assured him that the permanent displacement or resettlement of Gazans was not his government's objective.

Blinken also said that Israel must "do all it can to remove obstacles" to humanitarian aid reaching Gaza and said: "We want this war to end as soon as possible."

The International Criminal Court (ICC) confirmed on Tuesday that it is investigating potential crimes against journalists since the outbreak of war between Israel and Islamist militant group Hamas, with dozens of reporters killed in Gaza.

Media advocacy group Reporters Without Borders (RSF) said in November that it had filed a complaint alleging war crimes over the deaths of journalists trying to cover the conflict.

On Monday, RSF said it had received assurances from the Hague-based ICC that "crimes against journalists are included in its investigation into Palestine."

The court confirmed the statement on Tuesday, saying: "The ICC Office of the Prosecutor's investigation into the situation in the State of Palestine concerns crimes committed within the Court's jurisdiction since 13 June 2014."

At least 79 journalists and media professionals have been killed since the war began three months ago, according to the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists.

After two Al Jazeera journalists were killed in an Israeli strike on their car on Sunday, the United Nations said on Monday that it was "very concerned by [the] high death toll of media workers in Gaza."

Israel's Defense Minister Yoav Gallant has told US Secretary of State Antony Blinken it is "critical to increase the pressure on Iran" to "prevent regional escalation in additional arenas."

The comment came in an official Israeli government statement following a meeting between Gallant and Blinken in Tel Aviv, during which Gallant had insisted that Israeli military operations in the south of the Gaza Strip around the city of Khan Younis would "intensify and continue."

But Israel is also keen to avoid opening up a second front on its northern border with Lebanon, where its forces have been engaged in smaller-scale exchanges of fire with Iran-backed Hezbollah.

Iranian-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen have also increased their attacks on international commercial shipping in the Red Sea, while the Iranian navy dispatched a warship to the region.

German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock has called for the Rafah border crossing between Egypt and the Gaza Strip to be opened for 24 hours to allow more humanitarian supplies to enter the embattled enclave.

"Life in Gaza is hell," she said during a visit to the Rafah crossing point, following talks in Cairo and a delivery of German aid to Al-Arish in North Sinai.

She said the German government would "do all in its power" to open the border, which is the only point at which humanitarian aid can enter Gaza from Egypt.

Trucks have to undergo lengthy inspection by Israeli officials before entering Gaza, leading to queues of up to 3,000 vehicles. "It cannot be that trucks are stuck here for days," said Baerbock. "It breaks your heart to see it."

Meanwhile, Baerbock's government and Green Party colleague Robert Habeck says Germany has a special role to play in the conflict due to its unique relationship with Israel.

"Precisely because the Israeli public knows that Germany, that the federal government, has made an unequivocal, special promise to protect Israel, because of that we can also speak frankly," the vice chancellor said on Tuesday during a visit to Muscat, the capital of the Gulf state of Oman.

Referring to demands from both Baerbock and US Secretary of State Antony Blinken for more humanitarian aid for Gaza, Economy Minister Habeck said: "Israel must do this."

UK Foreign Minister David Cameron on Tuesday expressed concern that Israel may be in breach of international law regarding the action taken in Gaza.

"Am I worried that Israel has taken action that might be in breach of international law, because this particular premises has been bombed, or whatever? Yes, of course." Cameron was responding to questions from parliament’s foreign affairs committee.

Israel began striking targets belonging to Hamas after the Islamist group launched terror attacks on October 7, killing some 1,200 people.

The Hamas-run Health Ministry in Gaza said that since the start of the war more than 23,000 people have been killed.

International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) spokesperson Sarah Davies has told DW that ensuring aid arrives in Gaza is not the only problem facing humanitarian teams. 

Conflict and the devastation left behind in the territory also pose major challenges, Davies said.

"It's very important that we remember that, regardless of how much aid enters Gaza, it also needs to be effectively and safely distributed."

"Right now, that's not able to happen, with things like ongoing armed hostilities, the sheer number of people who are displaced, people living on the road, the rubble, the debris, the telecommunications challenges," said Davies.

"People are not receiving the aid or the supplies that they really so desperately need."

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has told Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that his military must avoid further harm on civilians in Gaza, the State Department said.

"The secretary reaffirmed our support for Israel's right to prevent the terrorist attacks of October 7 from being repeated and stressed the importance of avoiding further civilian harm and protecting civilian infrastructure in Gaza," State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said.

In a post on X, formerly known as Twitter, Blinken reiterated this and also expressed the importance of distributing humanitarian aid throughout Gaza.

The World Health Organization (WHO) says numerous patients are having amputations in the Gaza Strip even though it would normally be possible to save their limbs. 

WHO representative for the Palestinian Territories, Rik Peeperkorn, and the WHO emergency medical team coordinator, Sean Casey, said there were various reasons for this.

The pair spoke to the press in Geneva via video links from Jerusalem and Rafah in the south of the Gaza Strip.

They said the injured could not reach hospital in the first place because of the ongoing fighting, and that there was a lack of specialists such as vascular surgeons. 

Meanwhile, with hospitals so overcrowded, operating theaters were only being used for the most life-saving operations. 

"I have never seen so many amputees in my life, also children," said Peeperkorn.

German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock has led the handover of almost 10 metric tons of relief supplies for the Palestinian population in the Gaza Strip to the Egyptian Red Crescent. 

Baerbock landed from Cairo in an A400M air force transporter carrying the supplies in al-Arish, the capital of the Egyptian governorate of North Sinai.

The plan was then to travel on to the border town of Rafah, 50 kilometers (about 32 miles) to the west. Most aid supplies to the Gaza Strip arrive via the Rafah crossing.

The German relief supplies, transported on almost 40 pallets, came from the German Foreign Office and were loaded and flown by the Bundeswehr from the German state of Lower Saxony.

Items included sleeping mats, blankets, children's sleeping bags and camp beds for displaced people in temporary accommodation. 

The goods were unloaded by the Red Crescent and transported to the coastal strip by the UN International Organization for Migration, with a Norwegian refugee organization responsible for their distribution.

The Israeli army says nine of its soldiers died in fighting in Gaza on Monday, one of the deadliest days for the military since it launched a ground offensive in the Palestinian enclave on October 27. 

It said 185 soldiers had been killed in all during the offensive, launched in the wake of the Hamas terror attacks of October 7.

Israel has vowed to crush Hamas, which governs Gaza, after its deadly attacks that killed some 1,200 people in Israel, mostly civilians. It has warned that its war with Hamas, listed as a terror group in several countries, will last throughout 2024.

Israel's bombardment and ground operation in Gaza has killed least 23,210 people, according to the Hamas-run health ministry.

Officials from the World Health Organization (WHO) say they are concerned about the possible collapse of hospitals in southern Gaza as fighting intensifies around the city of Khan Younis.

There is a fear that many medical staff and patients may simply flee for their lives.

"So what we're seeing is really worrying around a lot of the hospitals and an intensification of hostilities, very close to the European Gaza hospital," said Sean Casey, the WHO's Emergency Medical Teams coordinator in Gaza. 

"We are seeing the health system collapse at a very rapid pace," Casey told a Geneva press briefing by video link, adding that an estimated 600 patients had fled one facility.

German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock says concrete measures must be put in place to stop the suffering of Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip.

Speaking in Cairo alongside Egypt's Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry, Baerbock said it was necessary to ensure the flow of aid into Gaza. Baerbock said she would travel to the Strip's Rafah border crossing with Egypt later on Tuesday.

"We need to have concrete measures today and now. We need to make sure aid is getting to people in Gaza," she said.

The German foreign minister also said more access was needed in the northern part of the territory, where Israel said it has now cleared of Hamas infrastructure.

Baerbock, who congratulated Egypt on its role in negotiating hostage releases from Gaza, stressed that Berlin and Cairo agree that Gaza and the West Bank are Palestinian. As such, Baerbock said Palestinians should not be driven away.

Egypt's Shoukry said the immediate priority was to get a ceasefire, deal with security issues, secure humanitarian aid and prevent displacement.

"All the steps that are being taken [by Israel] are for the purpose of pushing towards displacement," said Shoukry, who added that 2 million Palestinians could not remained trapped.

The German foreign minister had arrived in Egypt after a visit to Israel.