US pressure on Israel mounts as defense secretary meets Netanyahu
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00:00 Possibly. At this stage it is clear that the US pressure is getting
00:04 stronger and stronger. It has been fairly consistent now for two or
00:09 three weeks with visits by Jake Sullivan last week as well as this
00:13 visit by Lloyd Austin today. The message is essentially the same.
00:18 That Israel has to start winding down the operation. What has been
00:23 called by Joe Biden, the indiscriminate killing of civilians
00:28 has to come to a stop. And that perhaps a new approach is needed, a
00:32 new phase in the Israeli defence forces military operation in Gaza
00:38 has to switch to something that Lloyd Austin has been talking about
00:42 for quite some time. In other words, a switch away from the
00:47 indiscriminate bombardment, something that the Israelis would
00:50 dispute they are doing at all, to more targeted attacks and the use of
00:55 more precision bombs rather than what they call dumb bombs, which many
01:01 call indiscriminate. And to use the next phase in a way that is more
01:08 based on intelligence and perhaps less military presence in the Gaza
01:14 Strip as well. Whether the Israelis are prepared to go down that route
01:17 at this stage, hard to say. Although they have been talking about
01:22 switching to new phases themselves. But Lloyd George's message
01:27 essentially is that if you want to win this war, you have got to take
01:32 care of the civilians there. There has to be civilian protection.
01:37 Civilian protection won't win you the war, he says, but without it,
01:41 you can't win either. Throughout all of this, Rob, what remains clear
01:47 is that the suffering by civilians trapped in Gaza is absolutely
01:52 immense. Yes, every day we learn of some new horror that has happened
02:01 there. Now it is the death of 110 people in the Jabalia refugee camp
02:08 in the north of Gaza. There is constant death everywhere else as
02:14 well. I suppose if there is some good news, it is that the Kerem Shalom
02:19 crossing point in the south of the Gaza Strip is now open for aid. So
02:24 it should be possible to at least get 200 trucks of aid a day into the
02:29 Gaza Strip. But the problem there is that aid agencies are finding it
02:35 increasingly difficult to transport the aid from the crossing point to
02:39 where it needs to go. Especially as regards north Gaza, it is just
02:44 impossible to get it anywhere near there at all. But even in the south,
02:48 and in many cases, aid trucks are being looted by people who are simply
02:52 desperate, particularly for food and water, and can no longer restrain
02:59 themselves. That makes it almost impossible for the aid agencies.