TheJakartaPost
Please Update your browser
Your browser is out of date, and may not be compatible with our website. A list of the most popular web browsers can be found below.
Just click on the icons to get to the download page.
Blinken cannot verify whether US weapons were used by Israel in Rafah
Blinken told reporters during a visit to Moldova that what weapons were used and how they were used would have to be the object of an investigation into the attack.
Change text size
Gift Premium Articles
to Anyone
Share the best of The Jakarta Post with friends, family, or colleagues. As a subscriber, you can gift 3 to 5 articles each month that anyone can read—no subscription needed!
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken speaks during a meeting of the Security Council on the conflict between Israel and the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas at U.N. headquarters in New York, U.S., October 24, 2023. (Reuters/SHANNON STAPLETON)
S
ecretary of State Antony Blinken said on Wednesday he could not verify whether US-supplied weapons were used by Israel in its latest deadly attack in Rafah.
Blinken told reporters during a visit to Moldova that what weapons were used and how they were used would have to be the object of an investigation into the attack.
Later on Thursday, Rafah residents reported intense artillery shelling and gunfire in Gaza's far-southern city after Israel said it had seized a strategic corridor on the Palestinian territory's border with Egypt.
The Israeli military launched its incursion into Rafah in early May despite international objections over the fate of Palestinian civilians sheltering there.
A strike over the weekend that started a fire and killed dozens in a displacement camp drew a wave of fresh condemnation, including a social media campaign with the slogan "All eyes on Rafah" that has been shared by tens of millions of users.
Israel, which has repeatedly vowed to destroy Hamas after the Palestinian militant group attacked southern Israel on October 7, said on Wednesday its forces had taken over the 14-kilometre (8.5-mile) Philadelphi corridor on the Gaza-Egypt border, which it suspects was used for weapons smuggling.
Military spokesman Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari announced Israel had taken "operational control" of the narrow border area, where he said troops had "discovered around 20 tunnels".
Egypt, a longtime mediator in the conflict which has become increasingly vocal in its criticism of the Israeli operation, has rejected claims of smuggling tunnels running beneath the buffer zone.
"Israel is using these allegations to justify continuing the operation on the Palestinian city of Rafah and prolonging the war for political purposes," a high-level Egyptian source was quoted as saying by state-linked Al-Qahera News.
Egyptian officials have said a potential Israeli takeover of Philadelphi could violate the two countries' landmark 1979 peace deal, though there has been no official comment from Cairo since the military's announcement.
On a visit to Beijing, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi called for increased humanitarian assistance to besieged Gaza, and reiterated his country's longstanding opposition to "any attempt at forcing Palestinians to forcibly flee their land".
Chinese leader Xi Jinping, meanwhile, called on Thursday for a "broad-based, authoritative and effective international peace conference" to address the war, as he hosted Arab leaders including Sisi.
