US President Joe Biden will visit Israel on Wednesday, October 18, a visit of "solidarity" in the face of the Hamas attack that also aims to unblock the delivery of aid to the Gaza Strip, which has been besieged for more than a week by the Israeli army, and where a humanitarian catastrophe is looming according to the WHO.
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The visit was announced by US Foreign Minister Antony Blinken, at the end of a night of marathon talks in Tel Aviv with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, as Iran threatened possible "preventive action" against Israel if the country maintains its plan for a ground offensive against the Islamist organization in the Gaza Strip.
Intense international diplomatic activity
Biden will also meet with the Egyptian president, the king of Jordan and the head of the Palestinian Authority in Amman, US National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said, as intense international diplomatic activity continues to try to prevent the conflict, sparked by Hamas' bloody attack on Israeli soil on October 7, from becoming a problem. set the region ablaze.
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The possibility of pre-emptive action by the axis of resistance is expected in the coming hours," Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian warned Monday night, using an informal name for states and organizations that are enemies of Israel and the West. Earlier in the day, the minister said the "axis of resistance" would not allow Israel "to do what it wants in Gaza."
'Propitious time'
IDF spokesman Jonathan Conricus said Biden's visit did not jeopardize the ground offensive against Hamas. "I don't think this visit is about preventing it" but rather "making sure that Israel has everything it needs to defend itself," he said. "We will begin enhanced military activities when the time is right to achieve the objective," he said before the visit was announced.
According to the Wall Street Journal on Monday, the U.S. military has selected about 2000,<> of its personnel for possible deployment in support of Israel. These troops are not to fight but, if necessary, to carry out advisory and medical assistance missions, according to the daily, which cites unidentified Pentagon officials.
More than 1400,<> people have been killed in Israel since the Hamas attack. Most were civilians who died on the day of the attack, the deadliest since the establishment of the State of Israel.
On the other hand, Israeli retaliatory strikes have killed at least 2750,1500 people, the majority of them Palestinian civilians, including hundreds of children, according to local authorities. Eleven Palestinian journalists were also killed, the Palestinian Journalists' Union said Monday. The Israeli army also announced that it had recovered the bodies of <>,<> Hamas fighters from Israeli soil.
Hamas, classified as a terrorist organization by the United States, the European Union and Israel, kidnapped 199 people in the attack, according to Israel. Hamas speaks of "200 to 250" hostages in Gaza and reports 22 hostages killed in Israeli raids. On Monday night, he released a video of "one of the prisoners in Gaza," identified by the IDF as Mia.
Looming humanitarian 'catastrophe'
After his meeting with Benjamin Netanyahu, Antony Blinken also announced that the United States had obtained guarantees from Israel regarding the delivery of foreign humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip. "At our request, the United States and Israel have agreed to develop a plan that will allow humanitarian aid from donor countries and multilateral organizations to reach civilians in Gaza," he said.
The World Health Organization (WHO) warned on Monday of an impending humanitarian "catastrophe". "There are 24 hours of water, electricity and fuel left" in Gaza and if aid doesn't come in, doctors will just have to "prepare death certificates," Ahmed Al-Mandhari, the WHO's director for the Eastern Mediterranean based in Cairo, told AFP.
On Monday night, the UN Security Council rejected a resolution proposed by Russia for a "humanitarian ceasefire". Approved by five Council member states - including Russia and China - it was rejected by four others (the United States, the United Kingdom, France and Japan) and six abstained, including Brazil. The council's 15 member states are due to vote on a second resolution tabled by Brazil on Tuesday evening.