Blinken urges Israel to take steps to avoid civilian casualties as Gaza death toll soars

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken appealed to Israel on Friday to take steps to protect civilians in Gaza as its forces kept up their bombardment of the Palestinian enclave and the death toll among residents soared.

The Israeli military said its troops were fighting in close-quarter combat in the ruined streets after encircling Gaza City in their bid to wipe out the Hamas group that controls the small, densely populated territory.

Israeli forces also pounded Gaza from ground, sea and air throughout the night amid rising global alarm over scarcities, collapsing medical services and a civilian death toll that has now surpassed 9,000.

Blinken was visiting the region for the second time in less than a month to show support for close ally Israel in its response to the Oct.7 Hamas attack on southern Israeli communities that killed some 1,400 people and triggered the war.

Food, fuel, water and medicine are running out in Gaza, buildings have been flattened and thousands of people have fled their homes to escape relentless bombing.

Aid agencies have warned that a humanitarian catastrophe is unfolding in the bloodiest episode in decades in the long-running Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Blinken also spoke with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for almost an hour before both met with members of Israel's emergency cabinet, formed after the Hamas assault.

Gaza health authorities say at least 9,227 people — many of them women and children — have been killed since Israel started its blitz on the enclave of 2.3 million people in retaliation for the Hamas rampage in southern Israel.

In one Israeli air strike in Khan Younis in southern Gaza, a local journalist working for the official Palestine TV and at least nine of his immediate family were killed in their house, relatives and health officials said.

Blinken is due to meet Jordan's Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi in Amman on Saturday. Safadi said in a statement Israel must end the war on Gaza, where he said it was committing war crimes by bombing civilians and imposing a siege.

Reuters