Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu rejects US call for ceasefire; Intensifies air & ground assault on Gaza City & Northern Gaza

As the war between Israel and Hamas nears its one month with no ceasefire in sight, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has rejected the US’s call for a ceasefire and stated that his country is going full steam ahead unless the hostages held by Palestinian groups are released. A US official told a Television channel that Hamas is blocking foreign nationals from leaving Gaza until Israel guarantees that ambulances from the Palestinian enclave can reach the Rafah crossing to Egypt.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said it will allow people in Gaza to move south on specified streets, despite its troops coming under fire while trying to secure a safe corridor for civilians. In the meantime, Arab countries demand an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, but the US warns this would allow Hamas to regroup. The US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has met leaders from Lebanon, Qatar and Jordan in Amman – and also pushed for humanitarian pauses in the fighting.

The IDF has repeatedly called for civilians in Gaza to move south of Wadi Gaza as it has intensified its air and ground assault on Gaza City and Northern Gaza, including strikes on densely populated areas and civilian infrastructure that the IDF says is being used by Hamas militants. As the war between Israel and Hamas continued to rage, Hamas-run health ministry said that more than 30 people were killed in an Israeli attack on a camp in central Gaza late Saturday. More than 30 martyrs arrived at Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir Al-Balah in the massacre committed by the occupation in Al-Maghazi camp in the central Gaza Strip, the news agency AFP quoted health ministry spokesperson Ashraf Al-Qudra as saying.