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On November 5, the Hamas Islamist movement that controls the Gaza Strip suspended the evacuation of foreign passport holders to Egypt after Israel refused to allow the transfer of several wounded Palestinians to hospitals in Egypt.
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| Foreign passport holders leave the Gaza Strip through the Rafah border crossing on November 1, 2023. Photo: THX/TTXVN |
The death toll from Israel's attacks on the Gaza Strip has risen to 9,488, while 23,000 others have been injured, according to Palestinian health officials.
According to Reuters, the Palestinian news agency WAFA said that the number of Palestinians killed in an Israeli airstrike on the Maghazi refugee camp in the Gaza Strip on the evening of November 4 has risen to 51, mostly women and children, with dozens injured. In another development, Israel has released 3,200 Palestinian workers from the Gaza Strip who were detained in the West Bank immediately after the surprise attack by Hamas on October 7.
Meanwhile, a meeting of Arab and US foreign ministers to try to find a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip ended without finding common ground. At the meeting, Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry said Cairo demanded an immediate and unconditional ceasefire in the Gaza Strip as well as continued humanitarian aid to the Palestinian people.
Qatari Foreign Minister Mohammed Bin Abdulrahman al-Thani said that continued bombing of the Gaza Strip would only complicate efforts to mediate the rescue of hostages held by Hamas.
However, speaking at a press conference with his Jordanian and Egyptian counterparts in Amman, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said that stopping the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) offensive on the Gaza Strip would create conditions for the Hamas militant group to survive, gather forces and carry out attacks similar to those on October 7. Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant announced that the country's forces would "hunt down and destroy" Yahya Sinwar, the head of the Hamas armed movement in the Gaza Strip.
On the same day, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken traveled to the Israeli-occupied West Bank and met with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in Ramallah. The meeting lasted about an hour. During the meeting, President Mahmoud Abbas stressed the need for an “immediate ceasefire” and the need to allow humanitarian aid into the Gaza Strip.
Meanwhile, according to US State Department spokesman Matthew Miller, Secretary of State Blinken affirmed Washington's commitment to bringing aid to the Gaza Strip as well as restoring essential services there.
Over the weekend, a series of marches took place in the UK, France, Germany, the US and many other countries to call for a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip amid escalating conflict there.
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