Israel-Hamas war: Blinken calls Rafah offensive a 'mistake'

European Council President Charles Michel said on Thursday evening that EU leaders had agreed on a strong joint statement calling for an end to the fighting in Gaza.

"Strong and unified statement of EU leaders on the Middle East at #EUCO tonight!" he wrote on X, formerly Twitter. "The EU calls for an immediate humanitarian pause leading to a sustainable cease-fire."

The statement came after the leaders of the EU's 27 member states met in Brussels for a high-level summit where the war in Gaza was high on the agenda.

The conflict has divided member states with some showing greater support for Israel and others condemning the situation in Gaza. But the increasing death toll and warnings of a dire humanitarian disaster in the strip has seen the bloc push for more urgent action.

"Full & safe humanitarian access into Gaza is essential to provide the civilian population with life-saving assistance in a catastrophic situation in Gaza," Michel wrote.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has said that a major Israeli military operation in the city of Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip would be a "mistake."

He made the comments during a joint press conference in Cairo with Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry.

Blinken called Israel's planned offensive "unnecessary."

"There is a better way to deal with the ongoing threat posed by Hamas," he added.

Over a million displaced Palestinians are sheltering in Rafah, which lies along the Palestinian enclave's border with Egypt.

Blinken said that there "is no place for civilians … in Rafah to get out of harm's way," adding that a "humanitarian catastrophe" would ensue in the territory following a major Israeli offensive.

Israel has said that it has agreed to send a team of officials to Washington to hear US proposals on how to continue fighting Hamas without launching an offensive in Rafah.

On Wednesday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the Israel Defense Forces' (IDF) preparations for an offensive in Rafah would "take some time," but he also added that it would be impossible "to complete the victory without the IDF entering Rafah in order to eliminate the remnants of Hamas's battalions." 

The head of Israel's Mossad spy agency, David Barnea, will visit the Qatari capital of Doha to meet with his US and Egyptian counterparts on Friday.

Barnea was in Doha on Monday but flew home after talks were restarted.

"Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu approved an Israeli delegation led by Mossad head David Barnea to go to Qatar," the Israeli prime minister's office said.

Barnea will meet with CIA director William Burns, Egyptian intelligence chief Abbas Kamel and Qatari Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani.

WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said more land crossings for aid into Gaza are needed to avoid a famine.

"Children are dying from the combined effects of malnutrition and disease," he said, adding that this imperils "the future of an entire generation."

But, he said, supplies of ready-to-use therapeutic food cannot be safely distributed to where they are needed most.

"Recent efforts to deliver food by air and sea are welcome, but only the expansion of land crossings will enable large-scale deliveries to prevent famine," Tedros said.

He also said the WHO was "particularly concerned" about military operations in and around the Al-Shifa Hospital.

A German navy frigate, the Brandenburg, departed for the Mediterranean Sea on Thursday, where it will join the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) until July.

The ship will patrol the Lebanese coast to stop weapons smuggling and help Lebanon secure its maritime border, but it will also monitor the border region between Lebanon and Israel.

"As the area in which we are operating is currently somewhat volatile — we have a variety of actors, be it Hezbollah, the Lebanese government, the Israeli troops in the area — there are also a variety of scenarios that we have to prepare for," said the ship's captain, Andreas Scheiba.

After repeated fire between Israel and Hezbollah militants over the border, there have been fears that Israel's military offensive in Gaza could escalate into a wider regional conflict.

The Brandenburg will replace another German frigate, the Baden-Württemberg, that was previously involved in the mission.

Cyprus' foreign minister, Constantinos Kombos, said a gathering of officials from 36 countries and UN agencies is discussing ways to maximize delivering aid to Gaza. 

"We are discussing how we can max up operational capacity both in terms of departure and means of transport and also in relation to the reception and distribution methodology," Kombos said.

An agreement with Israel on a sea route allows for shipments to undergo security inspections in Cyprus, in an effort to reduce delays in aid deliveries. 

Last week, a ship carrying 200 tons of aid reached Gaza from Cyprus.Two other vessels are expected to depart in the coming days. 

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken arrived in Cairo on Thursday and met with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi.

Blinken and el-Sissi discussed the negotiations to reach a cease-fire in Gaza for at least six weeks and secure the release of all hostages held by the Islamist militant group Hamas, State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said.

Washington's top diplomat arrived in Egypt after stopping in Saudi Arabia and is set to travel to Israel on Friday. 

Egypt, along with Qatar and the US, have been involved in mediation efforts between Israel and Hamas. 

EU leaders will call for a sustainable cease-fire in Gaza, the bloc's foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said as he arrived at the European Summit in Brussels on Thursday.

"Today the Council goes much further" than in previous months, Borrell told reporters.

"Asking for a sustainable cease-fire, certainly asking also for the freedom of hostages, but showing a strong concern for the situation of the people in Gaza, which is unacceptable."

Borrell also underlined the need to get more humanitarian aid to Palestinians in Gaza.

"They are starving. So I hope that the council will send a strong message to Israel, stop blocking, stop preventing the food to come into Gaza and take care of the civilians," he said.

"Certainly Israel has the right to defend, [but] not to revenge."

The United Nations Satellite Center, UNOSAT, said its latest assessment of satellite images showed that 35% of buildings in the Gaza Strip have been destroyed or damaged.

This amounts to 88,868 structures, 31,198 of them destroyed, 16,908 severely damaged and 40,762 moderately damaged, according to UNOSAT. 

"Beyond the number of damaged buildings, this update provides an estimate of 121,400 housing units impacted by the destruction in the Gaza Strip," UNOSAT said in a statement. 

"The satellite imagery analysis conducted by UNOSAT documents the widespread destruction and highlight the affected population’s need for support," it added. 

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has reported progress in negotiations for a cease-fire and hostage release. 

The indirect negotiations between Israel and Hamas, mediated by the US, Egypt and Qatar, have been ongoing for several weeks. 

The mediators had worked with Israel to put a "strong proposal," which Hamas rejected but negotiations on other demands are in the works. 

"The gaps are narrowing, and I think an agreement is very much possible," Blinken said in an interview Wednesday with the Al-Hadath network in Saudi Arabia

Blinken made the remarks while on his sixth Middle East tour since the war started on October 7. 

He is due in Egypt on Thursday, and then in Israel on Friday. 

The Palestinian Red Crescent rescue service said that four people were killed in an Israeli operation in the built-up Nur Shams refugee camp in the occupied West Bank. 

Earlier on Thursday, the Israeli military had said it launched an airstrike that killed two Palestinian militants during a raid in the West Bank. Israel said the two posed a threat to its forces in Nur Shams. 

The US Defense Department has said in a statement that Pentagon chief Lloyd Austin spoke with Israel's Defense Minister Yoav Gallant and "raised the need" to consider alternatives to a ground offensive in the southern Gazan city of Rafah.

Still, Austin reiterated "the shared goal of defeating Hamas" in the phone call with Gallant. 

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed to press ahead with a Rafah offensive but said that the preparations for such an operation would still take some time.

In recent weeks, Washington has raised concerns over the planned Israeli ground offensive on Rafah, where UN agencies say some 1.4 million Palestinians are sheltering after fleeing different parts of the territory since October 7.

The Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) said on Thursday that it was continuing its "precise operational activity in the Shifa hospital" that started on Monday. 

"Over the past day, more than 50 terrorists were eliminated during exchanges of fire, and terrorist infrastructure and weapons storage facilities were located. Since the start of the operation, over 140 terrorists have been eliminated in the area of the hospital," it said.

The Al-Shifa hospital was once Gaza's largest health facility and has become a shelter for many Palestinians fleeing fighting zones since October 7. 

The IDF first launched a raid on the hospital in November, when it said it discovered tunnels that it alleged were used by Hamas.

On Monday, civilians were urged to leave the area surrounding the hospital, with Israeli flyers dropping on them with calls to evacuate the "dangerous combat zone."

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in an interview with Saudi media outlet Al Hadath that Washington had circulated a draft UN Security Council resolution calling for an "immediate ceasefire linked to the release of hostages" in Gaza.

"Well, in fact, we actually have a resolution that we put forward right now that's before the United Nations Security Council that does call for an immediate cease-fire tied to the release of hostages, and we hope very much that countries will support that," Blinken said. 

"I think that would send a strong message, a strong signal," he added.

The United States, a key Israel supporter, has vetoed several UN Security Council votes on resolutions regarding the monthslong war. In Februrary, it vetoed a proposal by Algeria because of the use of the term "immediate" in the text. 

But with the humanitarian crisis deepening in Gaza, the US has upped the pressure on Israel, calling for a pause in fighting and rejecting a planned Israeli ground offensive in Rafah, Gaza's southernmost city where 1.5 million people are believed to be sheltering after fleeing fighting elsewhere in the strip.      

Israel has come under increased criticism in recent weeks over food shortages in Gaza, with the UN human rights office saying Israeli restrictions on aid could be seen as using starvation as a "weapon of war." Israel denies the allegation, and says the blame lies with the militant group, Hamas. 

Reports have indicated that Marwan Issa, a high-ranking official in Hamas, was killed in a recent Israeli airstrike. DW takes a look at Issa and other known leaders of the group.

fb/rc (AFP, AP, dpa, Reuters)