Jerusalem: Israel’s defence minister on Tuesday said “Gaza is burning” after heavy strikes overnight targeted Gaza City, with America’s top diplomat signalling an intensive operation targeting the Strip’s biggest city may be under way.
The comments by Defence Minister Israel Katz came as US Secretary of State Marco Rubio prepared to travel to Qatar, where he planned to meet with officials still incensed over Israel’s strike last week that killed five Hamas members and a local security official.
An Israeli army flare drifts over buildings destroyed during the Israeli ground and air operations in the northern Gaza Strip.Credit: AP
While Arab and Muslim nations denounced the strike at a summit on Monday, they stopped short of any major action targeting Israel, highlighting the challenge of diplomatically pressuring any change in its conduct in the grinding Israel-Hamas war.
Rubio, speaking to journalists while leaving Israel for Qatar, suggested the offensive had begun.
“Well, as you saw, the Israelis have begun to take operations there. So we think we have a very short window of time in which a [peace] deal can happen,” Rubio said. “We don’t have months any more, and we probably have days and maybe a few weeks, so it’s a key moment – an important moment.
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“Our preference, our No.1 choice, is that this ends through a negotiated settlement,” he added, while acknowledging the dangers an intensified military campaign posed to Gaza.
“The only thing worse than a war is a protracted one that goes on forever and ever,” Rubio said. “At some point, this has to end. At some point, Hamas has to be defanged, and we hope it can happen through a negotiation. But I think time, unfortunately, is running out.”
Palestinian residents reported heavy strikes across Gaza City on Tuesday morning.
