Israel-Gaza conflict: 200 Palestinians killed in a week, say officials
Two hundred Palestinians, including 59 children, have been killed during a week of attacks in Gaza, health officials in the territory have said, as Benjamin Netanyahu signalled Israel’s bombardment would rage on despite mounting global pressure to stop the bloodshed.
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Photograph: Mohammed Salem/Reuters
Early on Monday, warplanes launched more heavy airstrikes on Gaza City, rocking apartment blocks and sending fireballs into the air. Israel said it had “struck 110 targets” overnight, including in a densely-populated neighbourhood.
It was unclear how many people might have been killed. During the past week, Israeli attacks have destroyed a health clinic, hit the home of an aid worker, killed two doctors, destroyed high-rise residential towers, blown up a mattress factory and flattened the offices of international news organisations.
© Photograph: Mohammed Salem/Reuters
Smoke rises following an Israeli air strike on a building in Gaza.
Israel says its strikes target militants. Hamas, the Islamist group that rules inside the strip, has stationed its fighters in and fired rockets from civilian areas. In Israel, 10 people, including two children, have been killed by militants, who have launched over 3,000 rockets during the past week.
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President Abdel Fatah al-Sisi of Egypt, which has long acted as a mediator between Israel and Hamas, said on Monday a ceasefire could be within reach. “Hope still exists that a collective action could end the conflict,” he told reporters.
However, in a televised address late on Sunday, Netanyahu said military attacks would “take time”. Israel “wants to levy a heavy price” on Hamas, he said.
Militants in Gaza also pressed on, launching rockets towards civilian areas in Israel. One hit a synagogue in the southern city of Ashkelon hours before evening services for the Jewish holiday of Shavuot, Israeli emergency services said. No injuries were reported.
Last week, Russia’s foreign ministry said Hamas was ready to begin discussions to halt its attacks, although no public progress has been made, and the group’s leaders have since vowed to continue.
Unverified Israeli media reports have suggested the country rejected several proposals to stop the bombing, which the government claims is to degrade Hamas’ capabilities.
Yoav Limor, a commentator for the Israel Hayom newspaper, wrote last week that Israel was “playing for time” until diplomatic pressure became overwhelming. He wrote: “Israel said no to all the mediation proposals to reach a ceasefire, but in practice, it wants to increase the operation’s achievements before the whistle sounds.”
Video: Israeli air strikes hit Gaza as fighting enters second week (France 24)
An international push for a unified call to end the hostilities has been stymied by Israel’s top ally, the United States, which has blocked UN security council statements demanding a ceasefire.
A White House readout of a Biden-Netanyahu call on Saturday made no mention of the US urging Israel to join in a ceasefire. On Monday, the US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, said it was “ultimately it is up to the parties to make clear that they want to pursue a ceasefire”.
Diplomats say Washington is concerned UN condemnation could interfere with back-room efforts. Joe Biden’s ambassador to the United Nations, Linda Thomas-Greenfield, has said the US was “working tirelessly through diplomatic channels” to stop the fighting. Hady Amr, a deputy assistant dispatched by Blinken, was in Israel for talks.
Biden has become increasingly isolated, not only on the world stage but also with the progressive wing of his Democratic party. New York congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez accused the US president of not being able to “stand up to an ally”.
Other figures seen as closer to the Washington establishment have also spoken out. Ben Rhodes, Barack Obama’s former speechwriter and foreign policy aide, wrote on Twitter that it was “increasingly untenable for the US to see this loss of civilian life in Gaza – including so many children – and not publicly call for a ceasefire”.
Washington has been more assertive, however, regarding an Israeli attack this weekend that destroyed an office building housing the Associated Press and Al Jazeera news bureaux. In his comments on Monday, Blinken said he had asked Israel for evidence of its claim that Hamas was operating in the complex, but that he personally has “not seen any information provided”.
On Monday, there was no sign of even a temporary truce to allow medics in Gaza to recover people – alive and dead – from under collapsed buildings.
The UN secretary general, António Guterres, said the Israeli-Palestinian crisis was heading for an “uncontainable security and humanitarian crisis”.
“The fighting risks dragging Israelis and Palestinians into a spiral of violence with devastating consequences for both communities and for the entire region,” Guterres told the UN security council on Sunday. “It has the potential to unleash an uncontainable security and humanitarian crisis and to further foster extremism, not only in the occupied Palestinian territory and Israel, but in the region as a whole.”
Hostilities have repeatedly escalated over the past week, marking the worst fighting in the territory that is home to 2 million Palestinians since the devastating 2014 war between Israel and Hamas.
The latest outbreak began in East Jerusalem last month when Israeli police cracked down on Palestinian public gatherings during Ramadan and the threatened eviction of Palestinian families by Jewish settlers. Tensions exploded after Israeli police wounded hundreds of Palestinians during protests, and officers in riot gear stormed al-Aqsa mosque – the third holiest site in Islam.
Hamas began firing rockets toward Jerusalem on Monday, triggering the Israeli assault on Gaza.
Israel says hundreds of militant-fired rockets have fallen inside Gaza, and it has shared aerial footage of a misfire. The Defence for Children International (Palestine) rights group reported last week that initial investigations suggested one explosion that killed eight Palestinians, including two children, was the result of a homemade rocket that fell short.
Hamas and the Islamic Jihad militant group have acknowledged 20 fighters killed in the fighting. Israel says the real number is far higher and has released the names and photos of two dozen alleged operatives it says were “eliminated”.
The assault has displaced about 34,000 Palestinians from their homes, the UN Middle East envoy, Tor Wennesland, told an emergency meeting of the UN security council, where eight foreign ministers spoke about the conflict.
The Palestinian foreign minister, Riyad al-Maliki, urged the security council to take action to end Israeli attacks. Israel’s UN ambassador, Gilad Erdan, urged the council to condemn Hamas’s “indiscriminate and unprovoked attacks”.
Source: Thanks msn.com