US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the country is working with Israeli officials and international aid organizations “to get aid to civilians in Gaza” and urged Israel to take “every possible precaution to avoid harming civilians.”
“We recognize that many Palestinian families in Gaza are suffering through no fault of their own, and that Palestinian civilians have lost their lives,” said Blinken at a news conference in Doha, Qatar. “We mourn the loss of every innocent life — Israeli, Palestinian, Jew, Christian, Muslim, as well civilians of every faith and every nationality — who’ve been killed.”
The US is working with Israel and aid organizations to establish “safe zones” for civilians in Gaza, he added. “We're working through the details on that, and more to be said in the days ahead, but that's a priority for us.”
Some background: On Thursday, Israel’s military warned 1.1 million people living in northern Gaza to evacuate their homes, amid signs Israel is set to ramp up its retaliatory offensive against Hamas following the group’s October 7 terror attacks.
Gaza is already one of the world’s most densely populated pieces of land, with more than 2 million people crammed into 140 square miles. Now, the entire population is being told to move into the southern part of the strip – an order the UN has described as “impossible.”