Blinken seeks pause in Gaza conflict as Israeli troops claim advances

Israeli forces pounded Gaza from ground, sea and air throughout the night amid global alarm over scarcities, collapsing medical services and the rising civilian death toll.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken was meeting Israeli leaders on Friday to push for humanitarian pauses in the Gaza conflict as Israeli troops surrounded the Palestinian enclave’s biggest city, the focus of its drive to wipe out Hamas.

Israeli forces pounded the Gaza Strip from ground, sea and air throughout the night amid global alarm over scarcities, collapsing medical services and the rising civilian death toll.

Hamas and its Islamic Jihad ally said their fighters had detonated explosives against advancing troops, dropped grenades from drones, and fired mortars and anti-tank rockets in fierce urban warfare around destroyed buildings and heaps of rubble in Gaza City.

Blinken, on his second trip to Israel in a month, was to discuss with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu steps to minimize harm to civilians in Hamas-ruled Gaza, where food, fuel, water and medicine are running out, buildings have been flattened, and thousands of people have fled homes to escape relentless bombing.

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 in its 28th day.

Gaza health authorities say at least 9,061 people – many of them women and children – have been killed since Israel started its assault on the enclave of 2.3 million people in retaliation for deadly attacks by Hamas militants on southern Israel.

Israel says the Iran-backed Hamas killed 1,400 people, mostly civilians, and took more than 240 hostages in the attacks on Oct. 7, the deadliest day of its 75-year history.

The Israeli military said its war planes, artillery and navy had struck Hamas targets overnight, killing several militants including Mustafa Dalul, a Hamas commander it said had directed combat in Gaza. There was no immediate confirmation from Hamas.