US Talking To Israel At 'Highest Level' To Protect Gaza Civilians As Bombing Continues: Top Points

The United States said it was communicating with the Israeli government at the "highest level" for continued flow of aid into Gaza Strip.

The United States is communicating with the Israeli government about the importance of protecting civilian lives in Gaza “at the highest level” as Tel Aviv continued to bomb the besieged enclave expanding its ground operation. US national security adviser Jake Sullivan said that the US government was in communication with the Israeli government but declined to comment on whether Israel was going the right way in this war.

“They’re the ones making decisions, they’re the ones conducting the operations,” Sullivan told CNN. 

As per health authorities in Gaza, more than 8,000 people have been killed so far in the Israeli airstrikes which includes 3,324 minors. 

• Air strikes by Israel hit areas near Gaza city's Shifa and Al-Quds hospitals while Palestinian militants clashed with Israeli forces in a border area east of the city of Khan Younis, said the Palestinian media. 


• On Sunday, US President Joe Biden spoke with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu over the need for continued flow of aid into the Gaza Strip stressing the importance of protecting civilians' lives, said the White House in a statement.


• The US President reiterated Israel's right to defend but also highlighted that the country needs to do so “in a manner consistent with international humanitarian law that prioritises the protection of civilians.” 


• After phone and internet services were badly disrupted in Gaza, the US exerted pressure on Israel to restore the same, said a senior US official, as per a CNN report.


• World Health Organisation Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus shared a "humble plea for ceasefire and peace". In a post on X, the WHO chief, who is from Tigray in Ethiopia shared his own experiences of growing up around war as a child.


• “As a child trapped in the shadows of war, I intimately knew its smell, sounds and sights,” he said. “I empathise deeply with those now caught in the middle of conflict, feeling their pain as if it were my own,” said the WHO chief in a post on X. 


• Citing Israeli media, Al Jazeera reported that the head of Israel’s domestic security agency Shin Bet has warned there are “fears” of an “eruption” of violence in the West Bank. 


• One Palestinian was killed and at least seven were injured after Israeli forces raided near the Ibn Sina Hospital in the occupied West Bank city of Jenin.