The United States insisted to Israel this past week that it make clear plans to limit civilian casualties in its southern offensive, but Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his government did not give clear assurances on this, a senior U.S. official said on Friday as U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken wrapped up a trip to the region. Under aerial bombardment from Israel, people sheltering in the south of the Gaza Strip after fleeing their homes earlier in the war said on Saturday they had nowhere safe to go now. The city of Khan Younis is the focus of Israeli air strikes and artillery fire in a new phase of the war after fighting resumed on Friday following the collapse of a week-long truce. Its population has swelled in recent weeks as several hundred thousand people from the northern Gaza Strip have fled south. Some are camping in tents, others in schools, while some are sleeping in stairwells or outside the few hospitals operating in the city. A World Health Organisation official said on Friday that one of the hospitals was "like a horror movie" as hundreds of wounded children and adults waited for treatment. For more on this new potentially deadlier phase of the Israel-Hamas war and Blinken's exchanges with Arab leaders on the sidelines of the COP 28, FRANCE 24's Kethevane GORJESTANI is joined by David Makovsky, Ziegler Distinguished Fellow at The Washington Institute and director of the Koret Project on Arab-Israel Relations.
