Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant is heading to Washington on Sunday, at a time of increasingly strained relations with its main military backer and ally, as Israel continues to defy U.S. calls to reduce the suffering in Gaza.
Blinken and Israeli leaders confronted one another Friday over the trajectory of the war, as the top U.S. diplomat called on Israel not to invade the crowded city of Rafah, where more than a million displaced Palestinians are sheltering.
Here’s what to know
- U.N. Secretary General António Guterres reiterated pleas for a cease-fire during a visit to the Rafah border crossing between Egypt and Gaza on Saturday, after the U.N. Security Council didn’t pass a U.S.-sponsored resolution Friday that called for an “immediate and sustained” cease-fire. “I want Palestinians in Gaza to know: You are not alone,” Guterres told reporters.
- “All our food convoys have been denied access” to northern Gaza this week, said Philippe Lazzarini, the head of UNRWA, the principal U.N. agency for Palestinian affairs. “With unimpeded access, this man-made starvation can still be averted,” he added. Israel has denied restricting aid to Gaza. The U.N. and other aid officials say that without a cease-fire, the enclave’s population could face starvation.
- Israel said its raid of al-Shifa Hospital continued Saturday in Gaza City, as the days-long military operation provokes alarm from global health officials and residents in the enclave’s devastated north. Health services were only recently restored after an Israeli attack on the facility in mid-November. The Israeli military said its forces killed 170 militants and questioned 800 people in the latest raid.
- At least 32,142 people have been killed and 74,412 injured in Gaza since the war began, according to the Gaza Health Ministry, which does not distinguish between civilians and combatants. Israel estimates that about 1,200 people were killed in Hamas’s Oct. 7 attack and says 252 soldiers have been killed since the start of its military operation in Gaza.
