Israel is facing mounting international pressure over the human cost of its war with Hamas but is working to expand its “window of legitimacy”, its top diplomat said.
“We have two or three weeks until international pressure really steps up but the foreign ministry is working to broaden the window of legitimacy, and the fighting will carry on for as long as necessary,” Israel’s foreign minister Eli Cohen said, as per news agency AFP.
What’s happening in Gaza?
This comes as fighting between Israeli forces and Hamas outside Gaza’s largest hospital prompted thousands of people to flee from the medical facility while hundreds of patients remained inside, health officials said.
Shifa hospital has been without electricity and water for three days. Gunfire and bombings outside the compound “have exacerbated the already critical circumstances,” World Health Organization director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said, adding that the UN agency was in contact with the hospital.
“Regrettably, the hospital is not functioning as a hospital anymore,” he said in a post on X, formerly known as Twitter.
Meanwhile, more than two-thirds of Gaza’s population of 2.3 million have fled their homes since the war began. More than 11,000 Palestinians, two-thirds of them women and minors, have been killed since the war began, according to the health ministry in Gaza. About 2,700 people have been reported missing, as per officials.
More than 1,200 people in Israel died, most of them in the Hamas attack, and about 240 hostages were taken from Israel into Gaza.
What Benjamin Netanyahu said?
Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu described Hamas as “simply savages” and vowed to press ahead till achieving “total victory” while visiting fighters of Israel’s Desert Reconnaissance Battalion.
“Our partnership is the future of all of us against these savages, simply savages. You are all imbued with the same goal – we are going to win. There are no breaks here, there are no half things here. It’s not an ‘operation’, it’s not a ‘round’. We will go until total victory here,” he said.
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Vikram Sharma is a globe-trotting journalist with a global perspective on international events. His articles offer readers a global perspective on international events, exploring complex geopolitical issues and providing insights into the world’s most pressing challenges.
