“N“No, we don’t have any date for an operation, at least one that has been communicated to us by the Israelis”, declared Blinken at a press conference in Washington, alongside his British counterpart, David Cameron.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declared on Monday that a date had been set for an offensive on the city of Rafah, which, according to Israel, is one of the last strongholds of the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
Blinken also indicated that there will be new talks between Israelis and Americans “next week in Washington” about the situation in Rafah.
“I don’t expect any measures to be taken before these talks; in fact, I don’t see anything imminent,” said Blinken.
The United States and many other countries fear for the safety of the more than 1.5 million inhabitants of the Gaza Strip displaced by the war and who have found refuge in this extreme southern zone of that tiny territory, close to the closed border with Egypt.
On October 7 last year, fighters from the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) — in power in the Gaza Strip since 2007 and classified as a terrorist organization by the United States, the European Union and Israel — carried out an attack on Israeli territory. unprecedented proportions since the creation of the State of Israel in 1948, causing 1,163 deaths, most of them civilians.
In the attack, Hamas also took 250 hostages, around 130 of whom remain in captivity and 34 have since died, according to the most recent report by Israeli authorities.
In retaliation, Israel declared a war to “eradicate” Hamas, which today entered its 186th day, continuing to threaten to spread throughout the Middle East region, and has so far killed more than 33,200 people in the Gaza Strip, almost 76,000 injured and around 7,000 missing, presumably buried in the rubble, most of them civilians, according to the latest report from local authorities.
The conflict has also left almost two million people displaced, plunging the overpopulated and poor Palestinian enclave into a serious humanitarian crisis, with more than 1.1 million people in a “situation of catastrophic hunger” that is already claiming victims – “the highest number ever recorded” by the UN in studies on food security in the world.
Read Also: Ceasefire in Gaza? Blinken regrets “cynical” veto by China and Russia
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Source: https://www.noticiasaominuto.com/mundo/2537293/blinken-duvida-de-que-esteja-iminente-uma-ofensiva-israelita-a-rafah
