By Athena Papakosta

The White House has emphasized that the United States is carefully developing contingency plans to remove hundreds of thousands of American citizens from the Middle East in the event that the Israel- Hamas generalized.

“It would be reckless and irresponsible if we didn’t have experts thinking about a wide range of contingencies and possibilities and certainly evacuations are one of them” the National Security spokesman of the White House, John Kirby, emphasized during the regular press briefing.

Kirby’s statements come shortly after the new position of the representative of the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF), Daniel Hagari that the israeli army is ready and determined for the next stage of the conflict and is awaiting the necessary political instructions.

The United States has reportedly advised Israel that delaying its planned ground operation inside the Gaza Strip could prove valuable as the US and other partners in the region continue their efforts to free more than 200 hostages from Hamas. .

At the same time, US President Joe Biden had for the first time, after the October 7 attack by Hamas, telephoned Saudi Arabia’s Prince Mohammed bin Salman about the worsening situation.

According to the White House, the two leaders discussed “efforts to prevent state and non-state actors from escalating the conflict” as Washington repeatedly warns Iran at every opportunity not to get involved in the ongoing war and US forces in the region have has come under attacks that the Pentagon says have been allegedly supported by Tehran, which supports Hamas, Hezbollah and paramilitary groups in Iraq and Yemen.

The tense climate in the Middle East is transferred to the UN Security Council with him as the protagonist Secretary General of the Organization, Antonio Guterreswho, although he condemned the attacks by Hamas, emphasized that they “did not happen in a vacuum” as, he explained, the Palestinian people have been subjected to a suffocating occupation for 56 years, causing Israel’s strong reaction.

“Mr. Secretary General, what world do you live in?”, was the first reaction of the Israeli Foreign Minister, Eli Cohen, with the Israeli ambassador to the UN, Gilad Erdan, characterizing Guterres’ statements as “shocking, horrible and completely disconnected from reality” calling him to resign.

For his part, the Secretary of State of the United States, Anthony Blinken, for fear of the spread of the war, once again warned Iran not to add fuel to the fire since, as he pointed out, the US will respond decisively to any attack. “Don’t doubt it. We will defend our people and our security quickly and decisively.”

The last 24 hours have been one of the bloodiest of the war with at least 700 Palestinians dead. Last night, a spokesman for the health ministry in the Gaza Strip announced that the Israeli armed forces further escalated their attacks in various parts of the Palestinian enclave, killing 50 people in just one hour.

At the same time, the humanitarian drama culminates with 8 trucks crossing the border crossing of Rafah and a few minutes after the UN agency for refugees, UNRWA, announced that without fuel it will stop its work. For its part, the IDF announced that it would not allow fuel to enter, referring the agency to Hamas to demand back, as it pointed out, the fuel it stole from it.