A third aid convoy has traveled into Gaza……
Western countries begin to define their actions to the conflict with providing aid to those suffering in Gaza…
Israel HAS NOT stood in the way of this EXCEPT for NOT allowing fuel deliveries….The US has leaned on the Israeli’s to hold back on a strong ground incursion into Gaza while negotiations go on to try secure the reelase of more hostages…
Reports are that Israeli Spec Ops has begun running ventures into Gaza looking for Hamas people responsible for the attacks….
The US is ALSO looking for American hostages….
Iraq’s army spokesperson says the state will go after militants who have carried out attacks against army bases housing U.S. troops in the country.
The Biden admin does NOT give up hope on its efforts to produce normalisation of relations between Israel and the Saudi’s and other Middle East countries….
White House Defense speaker John Kirby goes out his way to push for Gaza aid assistance and Israel hold on a push into Gaza….While repeating over and OVER the US is NOT telling Israel what to do….
It IS delicate dance with the US Congress sending military aid to Israel and humanitarian aid to Gaza…
The US Defense Dept puts American troops ‘on alert’ in the Middle East due to the conflict….
The NY Times apologies for reporting that Israeli bombed the Gaza hospital…It did NOT…..
The death toll in Gaza rose sharply on Monday, according to the Hamas-run health ministry, after Israel said it had struck hundreds of targets in the territory in one of the biggest barrages of airstrikes in recent days.
The Israeli military also said it had attacked Hezbollah positions in Lebanon, even as President Biden led an international diplomatic effort to try to ensure the conflict does not ensnare other nations in the region.
In a joint statement on Sunday, Mr. Biden and the leaders of Britain, Canada, France, Germany and Italy urged Israel to protect civilians as it defended itself, and called for the release of all hostages believed to be held in Gaza. The Gaza health ministry said Monday that Israeli airstrikes had killed at least 436 people “in the past hours,” bringing the death toll to more than 5,000 since Oct. 7, when Israel began launching airstrikes in retaliation for an attack by the Hamas militant group that killed 1,400 people.
U.S. officials said that the Biden administration had advised Israel to delay a ground invasion of Gaza, a move that would allow more time for negotiations to release the more than 200 people being held hostage by Hamas and other armed groups in Gaza, and for more humanitarian aid to reach the territory. There have been glimmers of hope on both fronts — two convoys of aid entered Gaza over the weekend, and Hamas released two American hostages on Friday.
On Sunday, Mr. Biden also spoke with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel. The two leaders, according to a White House statement, affirmed that “there will now be continued flow” of humanitarian aid into Gaza.
Here are some other developments:
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The Israeli military said that it had notified the families of 222 people who were kidnapped during Hamas’s attack and are believed to be held in Gaza, more than the 212 people it had confirmed a day earlier. The count of hostages has risen as the army has collected more information, including about the many foreign citizens who were kidnapped.
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Aid workers began distributing relief supplies in southern Gaza as a third convoy of trucks carrying humanitarian aid began crossing into the strip from Egypt. The United Nations said a convoy comprising 14 trucks entered Gaza on Sunday, following 20 trucks that arrived on Saturday.
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It remained unclear when or if Israel will invade Gaza, but senior Israeli commanders increasingly have been making public references to preparations for a ground assault, which is crucial to its goal of eliminating Hamas — an objective the United States still supports. For days, Israel has been telling residents of Gaza to move southward for their own safety, even as its airstrikes hit the southern part of the territory.
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On Oct. 17, The New York Times published news of an explosion at a hospital in Gaza City, leading its coverage with claims by Hamas government officials that an Israeli airstrike was the cause and that hundreds of people were dead or injured. The early versions of the coverage and its headlines did not make clear that Hamas’s claims could not immediately be verified, leaving readers with an incorrect impression about what was known and how credible the account was….
The Gaza conflict has ramifications outside just Gaza….
Speaking from the Oval Office on Thursday, President Biden tied American support for Ukraine and Israel together, describing both nations as democracies fighting enemies determined to “completely annihilate” them. Russia invaded and seeks to annex Ukraine, while Hamas, the group that controls Gaza and denies Israel’s right to exist, staged a terrorist attack that killed at least 1,400 people in southern Israel.
But Israel’s counterattack on Gaza, its threats to mount a ground invasion and America’s tight embrace of its most important Mideast ally, regardless, have prompted cries of hypocrisy.
Such accusations are not exactly new in the Middle East conflict. But the dynamics of the dual crises have gone beyond Washington’s desire to rally global support to isolate and punish Russia for invading its neighbor.
Increasingly, the Middle East region is emerging as a renewed front in the struggle for influence in the Global South — the collective name for the developing nations of Africa, Asia and Latin America — pitting the West against Russia and China.
“The war in the Middle East will drive a growing wedge between the West and countries like Brazil or Indonesia, key swing states of the Global South,” said Clifford Kupchan, chairman of the Eurasia Group, a New York-based risk assessment organization. “That will make international co0operation on Ukraine, like sanctions enforcement on Russia, even harder.”….
More on the above at AP.….