Antony Blinken Seeks Pauses In Gaza War As Israeli Troops Encircle City

The White House said any pauses in fighting should be temporary and localised. It has dismissed calls from Arab and several other nations for a full ceasefire in the war, now on its 28th day.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken arrived in Tel Aviv on Friday to push for humanitarian pauses in the Gaza war after Israel said its troops had surrounded the Palestinian enclave's biggest city, the focus of its drive to wipe out Hamas.

Israeli forces again pounded the Gaza Strip from the ground, sea and air throughout the night amid global alarm over horrendous conditions inside the besieged territory and the rising number of deaths of Palestinian civilians.

Allied groups Hamas and Islamic Jihad said their fighters had detonated explosive devices against advancing troops, dropped grenades from drones, and fired mortars and anti-tank rockets in fierce urban warfare around destroyed buildings.