Blinken says shaken by Gaza children pulled from rubble, does nothing
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The US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has left on a trip to the Middle East on Thursday.
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US Secretary of State Antony Blinken speaks while meeting with African Union Chairperson Moussa Faki Mahamat, Wednesday, Nov 1, 2023, in Washington (AP)
As he embarks on a trip to the Middle East, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Thursday that he would push "Israel" to take "concrete steps" to reduce harm to people in Gaza.
Blinken told reporters, "We will be talking about concrete steps that can and should be taken to minimize harm to men, women and children in Gaza," claiming that this was something the US was committed to doing.
He expressed pain over the killings of whom he called innocent Palestinians, yet only after he reiterated "Israel's" right to "defend itself", which means continued indiscriminate bombing.
"When I see a Palestinian child -- a boy, a girl pulled from the rubble of a collapsed building -- that hits me in the gut as much as seeing a child in 'Israel' or anywhere else," Blinken remarked.
"So this is something that we have an obligation to respond to, and we will," he claimed, although the US has done nothing in terms of pressuring "Israel" to stop its ongoing atrocities and has instead provided the entity with the weapons necessary for its aggression.
Regarding the firing of rockets by Yemen and Lebanon's Resistance, Hezbollah, Blinken expressed that the US would work on "deterring any escalation."
On his part, National Security Spokesperson John Kirby said on Thursday that the White House is concerned about attacks on Israeli forces by Hezbollah, as the situation on the Lebanon-Palestine border heats up, but he stated that there is no indication that Hezbollah is ready "to go in full force."
"We're concerned about continued attacks on Israeli forces there in the north, as are the Israelis, but I don't believe we've seen any indication yet specifically that Hezbollah is ready to go in full force," he told reporters at a briefing.
The Israeli occupation naval force deployed ships equipped with missiles in the Red Sea on Tuesday, as part of what the entity claims is a "situation assessment and efforts to bolster defense," Israeli media reported on Wednesday.
Israeli forces spokesperson, commenting on the measure, claimed that the military is "in a very high state of readiness."
The Wall Street Journal had previously published footage of Israeli naval vessels in the Red Sea after Yemen's Sanaa revealed that it carried out missile and drone launches targeting the depth of the occupation entity on Tuesday.
Israeli bombs dropped on Gaza equivalent to 2 Hiroshima nuclear bombs
The Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor reported on Thursday that the Israeli media had acknowledged dropping 10,000 bombs on the Strip since the beginning of the aggression on October 7.
The international organization said the quantity of explosives launched on Gaza exceeds 25,000 tons at a rate of 70 tons per square kilometer, noting that this amount of explosives is equivalent to twice the power of the US nuclear bomb dropped on Hiroshima.
In the past 48 hours, the Israeli occupation committed three massacres in the Jabalia refugee camp, which resulted in over 1,000 people martyred and wounded. Al-Shati' camp in Gaza also saw two massacres in the past 24 hours, leading to the martyrdom of over 30 Palestinians.
Despite the Israeli occupation's claims of targeting military objectives, the government's media office rejected these claims, stressing that the evidence on the ground points to a pattern of aggression on residential neighborhoods, civilian homes, and gatherings of citizens at vital locations like bakeries, hospitals, and churches.
