Biden says Gaza food aid-related deaths complicate ceasefire talks
Joe Biden said moments ago outside the White House, while on his way to the US-Mexico border, that he’s reviewing the reports of Israeli troops shooting people crowding for desperately-needed food aid in Gaza – but he already is clear that that the deadly incident will complicate talks on a ceasefire.
“I know it will,” the US president told reporters gathering on the south lawn at the White House as Biden began a visit to the US-Mexico border today, when asked whether the tragedy Gaza unfolding in would complicate negotiations.
Health authorities in Gaza said Israeli fire on people waiting for aid near Gaza City on Thursday had killed 104 Palestinians and wounded 280, with one hospital saying it had received 10 bodies and dozens of injured patients, Reuters adds.
“We’re checking that out right now. There’s two competing versions of what happened. I don’t have an answer yet,” he said.
Biden also said that his previous comments that he hoped for a temporary cease fire by Monday, in the battle Israel is waging in Gaza with the goal of destroying Hamas, would now “probably not” happen.
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More than 25,000 women, children killed by Israel in Gaza - Pentagon chief
US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said earlier today that more than 25,000 women and children had been killed by Israel since October 7, adding that Israel can and should do more to protect civilians.
During a US congressional hearing (ostensibly about his health), Austin was asked how many Palestinian women and children had been killed by Israel, Reuters reports.
It is over 25,000,” he said.
Austin added that about 21,000 precision guided munitions had been provided to Israel since the start of its war in Gaza.
Meanwhile, beyond the Reuters report, this is an extraordinary figure not just in the tragedy of it but in the mathematics of it. Lt Col Peter Lerner, the spokesman of the Israeli Defence Forces (IDF), moments ago told CNN in a live interview with anchor Wolf Blitzer that Israel has killed “12,000 Hamasterrorists” in its war in Gaza since Hamas attacked southern Israel on October 7, 2023.
This morning, the Gaza health ministry said that the death toll in Gaza at the hands of Israel since then has surpassed 30,000 and the reality on the ground is probably higher.
U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin testifies before a House Armed Services Committee hearing about his failure to disclose his cancer diagnosis and subsequent hospitalizations, on Capitol Hill in Washington, U.S., February 29, 2024. Photograph: Evelyn Hockstein/Reuters
Not good is it? And the US, EU and UK stand by and watch.
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Love the title John, a bit like saying that death complicates life.
Some were reported to have been run over by departing lorries. Horrendous as it is for the Palestinians, as you might expect, I also have sympathy for the lorry drivers. I don’t know what their deal is, or if the lorries are their own, but I do know that I would not want to be driving one of them.
Absolutely David. When the shooting started they had to move for their own sakes. I think the IDF as usual are trying to shift blame for the massacre onto the drivers not their own trigger happy thugs.