Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Friday, November 3 pushed back against growing US pressure for a "humanitarian pause" in the war to protect civilians and allow more aid into Gaza, insisting there would be no temporary cease-fire until some 240 hostages were released.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken made his third trip to Israel since the war began, reiterating American support for Israel's battles against Hamas, while echoing President Joe Biden's earlier call for a brief halt in the fighting to address a worsening humanitarian crisis.
Alarm has grown over spiraling Palestinian deaths and growing misery for civilians after weeks of Israeli bombardment and a widening ground assault that risks even greater casualties. Overwhelmed hospitals say they are nearing collapse, with medicines and fuel running low under the Israeli siege. About 1.5 million people in Gaza, or 70% of the population, had fled their homes, the UN said Friday.
After talks with Netanyahu, Blinken said a temporary halt was needed to boost aid deliveries and help win the release of the hostages Hamas took during its brutal October 7 incursion. But Netanyahu said he told Blinken "we are going with full steam ahead," unless hostages are released. He also ruled out sending to Gaza more fuel, which Israel says Hamas is hoarding − and that it would confiscate any new supplies.
US officials say they are not seeking a ceasefire but short pauses in specific areas to allow aid deliveries or other humanitarian activity, after which Israeli operations would resume. Netanyahu has not publicly addressed the idea and has instead repeatedly ruled out a ceasefire.
Amid fears the conflict would widen across the region, the leader of Lebanon’s Iranian-backed Hezbollah militant group promised more attacks on northern Israel on Friday, though he did not signal his group would fully join the war.
In Gaza, Israeli troops tightened their encirclement of the largest city, the focus of their campaign to crush the enclave’s ruling Hamas militants.
Hamas accused the Israeli army of deliberating striking by the entrances of three hospitals in northern Gaza. One of the strikes, on Gaza's largest hospital, Shifa, killed at least 10 people, its director, Mohammed Abu Salimia, told Al-Jazeera TV. Footage showed bloodied bodies in the streets among damaged cars and ambulances.
Throughout the war, Israel and Hezbollah have traded fire almost daily along the Lebanon border, raising fears of a new front opening there.
In his first public speech since the war began, Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah said his group had "entered the battle" with the past weeks' unprecedented cross-border fighting.
"We will not be limited to this," he said, suggesting escalation was possible.
Still, Nasrallah stopped short of announcing that Hezbollah is fully engaging in the war. So far, Hezbollah has taken calculated steps to throw military backing behind Hamas without igniting all-out war.
Blinken said the US, which has deployed aircraft carriers and other forces in the eastern Mediterranean, was committed to ensuring that no "second or third front" opens.
Nasrallah dismissed US warnings, saying: "Your fleets in the Mediterranean... will not scare us."
Thursday saw one of the heaviest exchanges over the border yet. Hezbollah attacked Israeli military positions in northern Israel with drones, mortar fire and suicide drones, and Israeli warplanes and helicopter gunships retaliated with strikes in Lebanon. Israeli military spokesman Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari said civilians were wounded in the Hezbollah attacks.