Pause, not ceasefire, Blinken insists during talks with Arab leaders: US Secretary of State Antony Blinken rejected demands for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza during talks with Arab foreign ministers in Jordan yesterday. Blinken, who is on a multi-day trip to the region to push for greater humanitarian relief efforts in the besieged enclave, told the foreign ministers of Egypt, Jordan, the UAE, Saudi Arabia, and Qatar that a ceasefire will allow Hamas to regroup and reiterated the Biden administration’s support for “humanitarian pauses.”

Remember: Following global outcry over the brutal nature of Israel’s assault on Gaza, the Biden administration has in recent days pivoted its rhetoric away from full-throated support for the Israeli bombardment to a focus on humanitarian aid. Both Biden and Blinken have come out in support of humanitarian pauses though the specific proposals remain unclear. Egypt and Qatar have reportedly suggested daily ceasefires lasting 6-12 hours so humanitarian aid can be distributed and casualties can be evacuated.

Public divisions: The disagreements between the two sides were on public display yesterday at a joint press conference, which saw Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry and Jordanian FM Ayman Safadi reject Blinken’s suggestion for “pauses” in the violence, and his insistence that Israel’s military campaign constitutes self-defense. “Israeli actions in Gaza cannot be justified as self-defense in any way,” Shoukry told reporters, before calling out what he said were the “double standards” of Western nations (watch, runtime: 4:57). “The whole region is sinking in a sea of hatred that will define generations to come,” Safadi said, imploring Washington to use its diplomatic heft to bring the violence to an end.

Blinken leaves Tel Aviv empty-handed: In talks with Blinken the previous day, Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu rejected the idea of a ceasefire or humanitarian pause until Hamas releases the roughly 240 hostages it took captive during its rampage on 7 October. “I made clear that we are continuing full force and that Israel refuses a temporary ceasefire which does not include the release of our hostages,” Netanyahu said in a statement following the meeting.

More bombing, no hostages, Qatar warns: Israel’s continued bombardment of Gaza is “complicating” the ongoing negotiations to secure the release of more of the hostages, Qatari PM / Foreign Minister Mohammed bin Jassem Al Thani told Blinken yesterday. Last week, Egypt and Qatar mediated the release of two hostages.

MEANWHILE- Turkey recalls ambassador to Tel Aviv: Turkey has followed in Jordan’s footsteps and yesterday recalled its ambassador from Tel Aviv due to Israel’s refusal to agree to a ceasefire and allow the entry of aid. President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said that severing diplomatic ties would be “impossible” but that he had “written off” Netanyahu.

AND- Hezbollah is not planning imminent escalation: Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah avoided committing the militant group to full-scale war with Israel during his first public speech since the Hamas attack on October 7, but warned that all options remain on the table. The Lebanese Iranian-backed armed group has been engaged in cross-border fire with the Israelis for almost a month but has so far avoided escalating the clashes.

ON THE GROUND-

Israel is bombing everything: Over the weekend Israel carried out attacks all over Gaza, killing more innocent civilians and destroying more homes. During the past couple of days, Israel has attacked an ambulance convoy outside of Al Shifa hospital, two refugee camps —-

Al Maghazi camp and the Bureij refugee camp both located in central Gaza — four UN schools serving as shelter for refugees, the AFP’s Gaza bureau, and the French Institute in Gaza. The ambulance bombing triggered global outcry, including from the UN secretary-general and the World Health Organization, while the French foreign minister expressed her “astonishment” and “incomprehension” at the attack on the French Institute.

The death toll: Almost 9.5k Palestinians have been killed by Israeli airstrikes, 3.9k of whom were children, over the past four weeks, according to the latest figures from the Gaza Health Ministry. Nealy 24.2k are wounded.

The real toll is likely significantly higher: Another 2k people, including almost 1.3k children, are missing and thought to be trapped under the rubble, the ministry said.

The volume of aid entering the strip is gradually increasing: The Palestinian Red Crescent has received 77 trucks of aid at the Rafah border crossing over the past two days, it said (here and here) in X (formerly Twitter) yesterday. The organization has now received 451 trucks since the conflict started, equivalent to 17 per day. The enclave was receiving 500 trucks per day prior to the war.

“Progress” in talks to allow fuel into Gaza: There has been “some progress” in ongoing negotiations with Israel to ease its blockade of fuel, the UN’s humanitarian chief Martin Griffiths said Friday, according to Reuters. Israel has prevented fuel from entering Gaza since the start of the war, forcing the UN to scale back its aid relief efforts and forcing the closure of most of its hospitals and bakeries.

The evacuation effort continues: More than 1k foreigners and 84 injured Gazans crossed the Rafah border crossing into Egypt between Wednesday and Friday, the Wall Street Journal reported this morning, citing Egyptian officials. An agreement between Egypt, Israel and the US last week allowed foreigners to begin leaving the strip and for seriously injured Palestinians to receive medical treatment at Egyptian hospitals.

At least it was: A border official claimed yesterday that Israel was preventing more wounded Palestinians from crossing the border to receive medical treatment in Egypt, and that Hamas had suspended the evacuation of foreign nationals in response, according to AFP. “No foreign passport holder will be able to leave the Gaza Strip until wounded people who need to be evacuated from hospitals in north Gaza are transported through the Rafah crossing,” the official was quoted as saying. No foreigners or Palestinians crossed the border yesterday, according to the WSJ.

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