US President Joe Biden will visit Israel on Wednesday in a show of "ironclad" support as Washington tries to prevent the escalating war against Hamas in Gaza from spilling into a wider Middle East conflict, reports BSS.
Anger and bloodshed have surged as the war has claimed thousands of lives since the Islamist attack, with most of the dead on both sides civilians.
Biden's trip will come 12 days after the Palestinian militants of Hamas burst through Israel's heavily fortified Gaza border, killing, mutilating and burning more than 1,400 people.
Shell-shocked Israel has responded with withering air strikes that have killed more than 2,700 people. It has also imposed a crippling siege on Gaza and deployed tens of thousands of troops in preparation for a full-scale ground offensive.
Israel has vowed to destroy Hamas while also seeking to rescue the at least 199 hostages taken into Gaza by Hamas, which has released a video of one of the captives, French-Israeli woman Mia Shem.
Her mother, Keren Shem, made an emotional plea for her safe return, at a Tel Aviv press conference.
"I ask world leaders that my daughter be returned to us in the state that she is today, as well as the other hostages," she said.
"I am begging the world to bring my baby back home."
Bd-pratidin English/Tanvir Raihan
