Israel-Palestine conflict: Fragile ceasefire holds as humanitarian aid arrives in Gaza
Truck convoys carrying humanitarian aid have started arriving at the bomb-shattered Gaza Strip, as Joe Biden vows to help ‘rebuild’.
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Humanitarian aid has started arriving at the bomb-shattered Gaza Strip, as the fragile ceasefire holds between Israel and Palestine.
he UN’s Central Emergency Response Fund said its first aid convoys were moving into the area and it had released $18.5 million for humanitarian efforts.
In total, Israeli air strikes have killed 248 people including 66 children since May 10, and wounded 1948 others, the health ministry has said.
Fighters are also among those killed.
Large areas have been flattened and some 120,000 people have been displaced, according to Hamas.
UNICEF yesterday delivered 18 containers of critical supplies to the Gaza Strip, with children and families at the top of the priority list.
The supplies included first-aid kits, blood supplies, saline-glucose solution, fire extinguishers, antibiotics and other infection-control medications, including 10,000 doses of Sinopharm COVID-19 vaccine.
Lucia Elmi, UNICEF Special Representative in the State of Palestine, said the supplies would support the continuity of maternal, neonatal and child health services and for the treatment of those wounded in the violence.
She said they were “extremely thankful that a ceasefire agreement in the Gaza Strip came into effect … because the human toll there has been huge.”
“This will allow families to have much needed respite and allow for the delivery of much-needed humanitarian assistance and personnel to the Gaza Strip,” she said.
BIDEN VOWS TO HELP ‘REBUILD’ STRICKEN GAZA
President Joe Biden has pledged to help organise efforts to rebuild Gaza and said creating a Palestinian state alongside Israel was the “only answer” to the conflict.
Biden also said he had told the Israelis to stop “intercommunal fighting” in the flashpoint city of Jerusalem.
However he stressed “there is no shift in my commitment, commitment to the security of Israel” and added that until the region “unequivocally” acknowledges Israel’s existence, “there will be no peace.”
The idea of a two-state solution – with a sovereign Palestinian state alongside Israel and Jerusalem as their shared capital – has been the cornerstone of decades of international diplomacy aimed at ending the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
US policy under Donald Trump was criticised as being blatantly pro-Israel and ignoring the Palestinians.
A Mideast peace plan devised by Trump’s adviser and son-in-law Jared Kushner was billed as providing for a two-state solution. But that blueprint envisioned a Palestinian state with only limited sovereignty and Israel maintaining security over that state.
The plan was rejected out of hand by Palestinian leaders.
Biden has insisted on a full-blown two state remedy.
“There is no shift in my commitment to the security of Israel, period, no shift, not at all,” he said.
“But I tell you what there is a shift in. The shift is that we still need a two-state solution. It is the only answer, the only answer.”
GAZANS SURVEY DAMAGE AS CEASEFIRE HOLDS
Thousands of displaced Gazans started returning to their homes to check for damage on Friday (local time), while Israelis returned to normal life, as a ceasefire appeared to take hold after 11 days of deadly fighting.
But in Jerusalem, Israeli police cracked down on stone-throwing protesters at a the highly sensitive Al-Aqsa mosque compound, two weeks after similar clashes sparked the conflict’s worst escalation in years. Israeli forces beat a photographer who was covering the unrest there.
Clashes also broke out in several other parts of Israeli-occupied east Jerusalem, and at the crossing point between Jerusalem and the West Bank, Israeli police said, adding that hundreds of officers and border guards had been mobilised.
Palestinians in Gaza trickled out of schools where they had taken shelter, a UN official said, while rescuers said they were working with their meagre resources to remove rubble and rescue any survivors.
Nazmi Dahdouh, 70, said an Israeli strike had destroyed his home in Gaza City. “We don’t have another home. I’ll live in a tent on top of the rubble of my home until it’s rebuilt,” the father of five said.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel’s bombing campaign of Palestinian armed groups had killed “more than 200 terrorists” in Gaza, including 25 senior commanders — an “exceptional success”.
The enclave’s Islamist rulers Hamas also claimed “victory”.
“We have dealt a painful and severe blow that will leave its deep marks” on Israel, said the movement’s political chief Ismail Haniyeh, pledging to rebuild Gaza.
He also thanked Iran for “providing funds and weapons” to Hamas. Before dawn, Palestinians in Gaza honked their horns and some fired shots in the air after the truce started, while joyful crowds also took to the streets in the occupied West Bank.
In Israel, air raid sirens that had repeatedly wailed to warn of incoming rockets went silent, and calm reigned as people headed to outdoor cafes in the coastal commercial hub of Tel Aviv.
Egypt had brokered the truce, which also included Gaza’s second-most powerful armed group Islamic Jihad, after mounting international pressure to stem the bloodshed.
‘EXCEPTIONAL SUCCESS’
Mr Netanyahu’s office had announced the ceasefire “without preconditions” on Thursday evening, with Hamas and Islamic Jihad confirming it shortly afterwards.
Egyptian state media reported Friday that two Egyptian security delegations had arrived to monitor the ceasefire deal from either side.
Senior Hamas figure Khalil al-Hayya on Friday (local time) told thousands of Palestinians who had gathered in the streets to celebrate: “This is the euphoria of victory.”
Israel said its air campaign had made “unprecedented” achievements in Gaza, a territory it has blockaded since 2007, the year of Hamas’ takeover.
The US State Department said top diplomat Antony Blinken would “meet with Israeli, Palestinian and regional counterparts in the coming days to discuss recovery efforts and working together to build better futures for Israelis and Palestinians”.
UN chief Antonio Guterres said Israel and the Palestinians now had a responsibility to have “a serious dialogue to address the root causes of the conflict.” He also called for a “robust package of support for a swift, sustainable reconstruction and recovery”.
Both sides have claimed success in the 11 days of fighting.
Islamic Jihad boasted it had “managed to humiliate” Israel, and vowed to continue defending Palestinians in Jerusalem.
The city is sacred to Jews, Muslims and Christians, and its holy sites have sparked many of the worst episodes of Israeli-Palestinian violence, as early as 1929.
On May 10, an Israeli police crackdown on Palestinian protesters at the Al-Aqsa mosque compound prompted Hamas to give Israeli forces an hour-long deadline to leave.
When the deadline expired, Hamas launched rockets, prompting Israel’s military to launch air strikes on what it describes as military targets in Gaza.
Palestinian and international groups accused Israel of recklessly hitting non-military sites.
Israel says it takes all steps to avoid civilian casualties, including by phoning residents to warn them of imminent strikes, and blames Hamas for placing military sites in densely populated areas.
The unrest also sharply heightened tensions and sparked violence between Jews and Palestinian citizens of Israel.
Security forces have clashed with Palestinian protesters in the West Bank and east Jerusalem. At least 25 Palestinians have been killed.
Israel said at least five had attempted to attack its forces.
ISRAEL, HAMAS AGREE TO CEASEFIRE
Israel and Hamas have agreed to a ceasefire across the Gaza Strip border as of 2am yesterday (9am AEST), an official with the Palestinian Islamist faction said, bringing a potentially tenuous halt to the fiercest fighting in decades.
The ceasefire ended 11 days of conflict and a statement from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said the security cabinet had “unanimously accepted the recommendations to accept an Egyptian initiative for an unconditional … ceasefire.”
Israel’s security cabinet said it had voted unanimously in favour of a “mutual and unconditional” Gaza truce proposed by mediator Egypt.
The development came a day after US President Joe Biden urged Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to seek de-escalation, and amid mediation bids by Egypt, Qatar and the United Nations.
A Hamas official said the ceasefire would be “mutual and simultaneous”.
Rocket attacks by Hamas and allied Islamic Jihad had resumed after an eight-hour pause on Thursday, as Israel continued shelling that it said aimed to destroy the factions’ military capabilities and deter them from future confrontation after the current conflict.
Since the fighting began on May 10, health officials in Gaza say 232 Palestinians, including 65 children and 39 women, have been killed and more than 1,900 wounded in aerial bombardments. Israel says it has killed at least 160 combatants in Gaza.
Authorities put the death toll in Israel at 12, with hundreds of people treated for injuries in rocket attacks that have caused panic and sent people rushing into shelters.
On Thursday, Mr Biden discussed Gaza with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi and the White House said reports of moves toward a ceasefire were “encouraging”.
UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric confirmed that UN Middle East Envoy Tor Wennesland is in Qatar, adding: “We are actively engaged with all the relevant parties for an immediate ceasefire.”
ISRAEL DEFIES BIDEN
On Wednesday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has declared he is “determined” to continue the operation in Gaza until his objectives had been met, ignoring US President Joe Biden’s demand to de-escalate hostilities in the region.
After a visit to military headquarters, Mr Netanyahu said he appreciated American support but would keep going until calm had been restored.
His response came hours after Mr Biden told him in a phone call to scale back attacks that have killed hundreds of Palestinians.
Mr Biden said he expected a “significant” reduction on Wednesday (local time) in the military confrontation with Palestinians, the White House said.
“The president conveyed to the prime minister that he expected a significant de-escalation today on the path to a ceasefire,” according to a statement released after what the White House said was the two leaders’ fourth call since the crisis began.
The statement marked a sharpening of public tone from the White House toward the close US ally.
However, there was no mention of how Mr Biden defined “significant” in his call to tune down the bombing of Gaza, which Israel says is directed at the Hamas militant group.
White House spokeswoman Karine Jean-Pierre also would not say what response there would be if no change occurred on Wednesday (local time).
According to Gaza officials, at least 213 people, including 61 children, have been killed by Israeli attacks on the crowded territory since May 10. Twelve people have been killed in Israel by Hamas rockets.
So far, Mr Biden has avoided joining an international chorus demanding an immediate ceasefire in Israel, saying only that he supports a truce. Israel is one of the United States’ closest allies, and Mr Biden has been at pains to express backing for Mr Netanyahu’s argument that the country’s powerful military is acting in self-defence.
In the statement after the latest phone call, the White House said the two leaders discussed in detail “Israel’s progress in degrading the capabilities of Hamas and other terrorist elements, and ongoing diplomatic efforts by regional governments and the United States”.
Mr Biden has come under pressure from much of his own Democratic party to adopt a tougher line. The White House says that it does not want to create a public rift with Israel but suggests that it has taken a more critical approach in private conversations.
“Our approach is to make sure we do this quietly, intensively, in a diplomatic way,” Jean-Pierre said.
During a trip to Dearborn in Michigan on Tuesday, Mr Biden was told by congresswoman Rashida Tlaib — the first woman of Palestinian descent elected to Congress — that Palestinians needed protection from Israel.
Dearborn is almost half Arab-American, and demonstrators took to the streets during Mr Biden’s visit to a nearby Ford auto factory.
In a speech at the factory on the electric car industry, Biden name-checked Tlaib, who was in the audience, and said he was praying for her family in the West Bank territory.
PROTESTS RAGE AS ISRAEL VOWS TO CONTINUE ONSLAUGHT
On Tuesday, heavy air strikes and rocket fire in the Israel-Gaza conflict have claimed more lives on both sides as tensions flared in Palestinian “day of anger” protests in Jerusalem and the West Bank.
Calls for a ceasefire intensified on Tuesday (local time), but Mr Netanyahu vowed Israel would continue its onslaught on the coastal enclave “as long as necessary,” before a UN Security Council meeting broke up after less than an hour without issuing a statement.
Israeli forces and protesters meanwhile clashed at multiple flashpoints across the occupied West Bank and in east Jerusalem, hospitalising scores, as Palestinians rallied in solidarity with their besieged Gazan counterparts. Dozens were treated for wounds caused by live bullets, medics said.
Israel’s near-relentless bombing campaign has killed 217 Palestinians, including 63 children, and wounded more than 1,400 people in just over a week in the Hamas-run enclave, according to Gaza’s health ministry.
The death toll on the Israeli side rose to 12 when a volley of rockets Hamas fired at the southern Eshkol region killed two Thai nationals working in a factory and wounded several others, police said.
Israeli strikes that again sent fireballs, debris and black smoke into the sky have left two million Palestinians in Gaza desperate for reprieve.
“They destroyed our house but I don’t know why they targeted us,” said Nazmi al-Dahdouh, 70, of Gaza City who remained shocked by what he called “a terrifying, violent night”.
The humanitarian crisis deepened in the impoverished strip, from where Hamas has launched nearly 3,500 rockets at Israel since May 10, often forcing people living near Gaza into bomb shelters around the clock.
But a convoy of international aid trucks that started rolling into Gaza through a border crossing from Israel, Kerem Shalom, was halted when Israel quickly shuttered it again, citing a mortar attack on the area.
Tuesday’s UN Security Council session, the fourth since the conflict escalated, was called after the United States, a key Israel ally, the previous day once again blocked adoption of a joint statement calling for a halt to the violence.
But the latest session again closed without consensus.
“We do not judge that a public pronouncement right now will help de-escalate,” US envoy Linda Thomas-Greenfield said during Tuesday’s closed-door meeting, according to a diplomat.
France and Egypt are pushing for a ceasefire deal, while Qatar and Egypt are working another channel, via the UN.
EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell on Tuesday strongly backed the manifold calls for a ceasefire, while urging Israel’s military to act in a “proportionate” manner.
The conflict risks precipitating a humanitarian disaster, with the UN saying 58,000 Palestinians have been displaced and 2,500 have lost their homes.
PALESTINIAN GIRL RESCUED FROM RUBBLE
A Palestinian girl stuck beneath rubble for seven hours has been miraculously rescued, but most of her immediate family tragically lost their lives.
Suzy Eshkuntana, 6, became trapped after a pre-dawn Israeli blitz destroyed her home. The blast also killed her mother and four siblings.
She woke up Gaza’s largest hospital, before being reunited with her father, Riyad, who was also being treated there for his injuries.
“Forgive me, my daughter. You screamed to me to come to you, but I couldn’t come,” he said.
Meanwhile, Israeli jets kept up a barrage of air strikes against the Palestinian enclave of Gaza Monday evening, as a week of violence that has killed more than 200 people shows no signs of relenting.
Air strikes sent dust clouds billowing into the skyline, as the Hamas militant group that controls the besieged and densely populated coastal strip threatened more rocket strikes on Tel Aviv if bombing of residential areas does not stop.
Palestinian militants have for their part fired 3,200 rockets toward Israel since the conflict escalated on May 10 in the heaviest exchange of fire in years, sparked by unrest in Israeli-annexed east Jerusalem.
The Qatari Red Crescent said an air strike damaged its offices in Gaza Monday, while the health ministry said one of its buildings and a clinic were also hit.
Israel’s army said Monday it had hit the homes of nine “high-ranking” Hamas commanders overnight, a day after bombing the house of Yahya Sinwar, head of the group’s political wing. It gave no details of any casualties.
Fighter jets also hit what the Israeli army calls the “Metro,” its term for Hamas’ underground tunnels, which Israel has previously acknowledged run in part through civilian areas.
BIDEN TELLS NETANYAHU HE BACKS ‘CEASEFIRE’ IN ISRAEL
US President Joe Biden told Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday that he backs having a ceasefire in the bloody exchanges between Israelis and Palestinians, but he stopped short of openly demanding a truce.
In a phone call with the Israeli prime minister, “the president expressed his support for a ceasefire and discussed US engagement with Egypt and other partners towards that end,” the White House said.
Mt Biden has so far resisted joining other world leaders and much of his own Democratic party in calling for an immediate ceasefire in Israel.
In a statement, the White House said Mr Biden reiterated what has been his main message so far: “his firm support for Israel’s right to defend itself against indiscriminate rocket attacks.” Mr Biden “encouraged Israel to make every effort to ensure the protection of innocent civilians,” the statement said.
But the White House has steered clear of condemning any aspect of the ongoing Israeli military strikes, saying that the close US ally is justified in responding forcefully to Hamas rocket volleys.
Officials have suggested that more critical views are being relayed in private.
UN CALLS FOR FIGHTING TO END
Israel has vowed to continue attacks against Hamas at “full force”.
In a televised address, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the attacks would continue at “full force” and would “take time”.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Sunday pleaded for an immediate end to deadly Israeli-Palestinian violence, warning a Security Council meeting that the fighting could plunge the region into an “uncontainable” crisis.
“Fighting must stop. It must stop immediately,” Mr Guterres said as he opened a Security Council session delayed by Israel’s ally the United States, calling the violence that has killed nearly 200 people over the past week “utterly appalling.”
“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,” he said.
Mr Guterres condemned the fresh violence on Sunday which killed 40 Palestinians, the worst death toll since the unrest broke out.
“This senseless cycle of bloodshed, terror and destruction must stop immediately,” Mr Guterres said.
He also renewed criticism of an Israeli strike on Saturday that destroyed the Gaza offices of two major news outlets, Al-Jazeera and the Associated Press.
“Journalists must be allowed to work free of fear and harassment. The destruction of media offices in Gaza is extremely concerning,” Guterres said.
Israel launched its air offensive after Hamas, the Islamist militant movement that controls Gaza, began firing rockets in response to the Jewish state’s moves in Jerusalem.
“Rockets and mortars on one side and aerial and artillery bombardments on the other must stop. I appeal to all parties to heed this call,” Mr Guterres said.
He also voiced alarm at the rise of extremist Jewish movements whose push to expel Palestinians out of Jerusalem helped trigger the crisis.
“In Israel, violence by vigilante-style groups and mobs has added a further horrendous dimension to an already deteriorating crisis,” Mr Guterres said.
“Leaders on all sides have a responsibility to curb inflammatory rhetoric and calm the rising tensions.”
Palestinian foreign minister Riyad al-Maliki on Sunday accused Israel of “war crimes” in its nearly week-long offensive as he urged international pressure at a UN Security Council session.
“Some may not want to use these words — war crimes and crimes against humanity — but they know they are true,” Mr Maliki told the virtual session on the crisis.
Meanwhile, in Jerusalem, a car-ramming attack wounded several people including four police officers in the flashpoint Sheikh Jarrah neighbourhood of Israeli-annexed east Jerusalem on Sunday, police said, adding that the attacker was shot.
After the “vehicle-ramming attack” in the district, the scene of weeks of clashes between Palestinians and Israeli security forces, the assailant was “shot by officers”, police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said without giving details on the attacker’s condition.
It comes as Israeli strikes destroyed the home of Hamas’ leader in the Gaza Strip and Hamas launched more than 100 rockets towards Israel on Sunday, in what is the deadliest day in the week-long conflict.
Two Israeli air strikes in Gaza killed 43 Palestinians, including eight children, according to CNN.
Fifty people, mostly women and children, have been injured, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health.
The heaviest fighting since 2014, sparked by unrest in Jerusalem, saw the rivals again trade heavy fire, with the death toll rising to 181 in the crowded coastal enclave of Gaza and 10 in Israel since Monday, according to authorities on either side.
Israel said its “continuing wave of strikes” had in the past 24 hours struck over 90 targets across Gaza, where the destruction of a building housing news media organisations sparked international outcry.
In Gaza, emergency teams worked to pull out bodies from vast piles of smoking rubble and toppled buildings, as relatives wailed in horror and grief.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres was “dismayed” by civilian casualties in Gaza and “deeply disturbed” by Israel’s strike on the tower housing the Associated Press and Al Jazeera bureaus, a spokesman said.
Israel’s army said Sunday that about 2,900 rockets had been fired from the coastal strip controlled by Hamas towards Israel, “of which approximately 450 failed launches fell in the Gaza Strip”.
Israel’s Iron Dome antimissile system had intercepted some 1,150 rockets in almost a week during which Israeli residential buildings have been hit with over 500 people wounded.
The bloodiest military conflict in seven years has also sparked a wave of intercommunal violence and mob attacks between Jews and Arab-Israelis, as well as deadly clashes in the occupied West Bank, where 19 Palestinians have been killed since last Monday.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said it had targeted the infrastructure of Hamas and Islamic Jihad, including by pounding a vast tunnel system with some 100 strikes, and by targeting weapon factories and storage sites.
Israeli air strikes also hit the home of Yahya Sinwar, head of Hamas’ political wing in the Gaza Strip, the army said, releasing a video showing plumes of smoke and intense damage, but without saying if he was killed.
At least 52 children have lost their lives in Gaza, 1,225 people have been reported wounded and entire buildings and city blocks reduced to rubble.
The IDF says it takes all possible precautions to avoid harming civilians and has blamed Hamas for deliberately placing military targets in densely populated areas.
ISRAEL SAYS STRIKE ON MEDIA BUILDING JUSTIFIED
Israel said it shared “smoking gun” evidence with Biden administration officials that Hamas militants were operating out of a building in the Gaza Strip that housed media outlets that was reduced to rubble by Israeli rockets, according to a report on Sunday.
US President Joe Biden spoke to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Saturday, a discussion that included the bombing of the building, and Israel showed Mr Biden and other American officials the intelligence behind their decision, the Jerusalem Post reported on Sunday.
“We showed them the smoking gun proving Hamas worked out of that building,” the newspaper reported, citing a source close to Foreign Minister Gabi Ashkenazi. “I understand they found the explanation satisfactory.”
In a readout of the call from the White House, Biden reaffirmed “Israel’s right to defend itself against rocket attacks from Hamas and other terrorist groups in Gaza.
It comes as balls of flame thrust into the sky on Saturday as Israel’s air force flattened a 13-floor Gaza building housing Qatar-based Al Jazeera and the Associated Press news agency, after giving a warning to evacuate.
The journalists shared the both Hamas figures, according to Israel, which said they were being used as human shields.
“It was not an innocent building,” said Netanyahu.
AP president Gary Pruitt said the building occupants were given less than an hour to evacuate and “narrowly avoided a terrible loss of life”.
“We are shocked and horrified that the Israeli military would target and destroy the building housing AP’s bureau and other news organisations in Gaza,” said Pruitt.
‘THEY ARE STRIKING OUR CHILDREN’
A family of 10 was killed and the Gaza high-rise base of several media outlets destroyed in another day of sustained rocket fire between Israel and Hamas.
Street clashes between Arabs and Jews also continued across the West Bank as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu appeared to shrug off pleas for peace from world leaders including US President Joe Biden.
One strike on a three-storey building in the Shati refugee camp killed 10 members of an extended family, two mothers and their four children each. Israel’s army claimed the building was used by senior Hamas officials.
Mohammed al-Hadidi said he had lost most of his family in the strike.
“What did they do to deserve this? We’re civilians,” said the devastated father, whose five-month-old baby was also wounded in the explosion.
“They are striking our children – children – without prior warning.”
Palestinian militants responded with volleys of rockets into Israel, killing a man near Tel Aviv, where Israeli beach goers were filmed running for shelter.
“The world will know less about what is happening in Gaza because of what happened today.”
The White House said it had told the Israelis that “the safety and security of journalists and independent media is a paramount responsibility”.
Israeli air and artillery strikes on Gaza since Monday have killed 145 people including 41 children, and wounded another 1,100, health officials say.
Palestinian armed groups have fired at least 2,300 rockets at Israel, killing 10 people, including a child and a soldier, and wounding over 560 Israelis. Israeli air defences have intercepted many rockets.
Palestinians on Saturday commemorated the Nakba, the “catastrophe” that saw hundreds of thousands of Palestinians displaced during Israel’s creation in 1947-1948.
A Palestinian security source said the fighting was the “most intense” since the second intifada, or uprising, that began in 2000.
US Secretary for Israel-Palestinian Affairs Hady Amr was to hold talks Sunday with Israeli leaders before meeting Palestinian officials to seek a “sustainable calm”, the State Department said.
The UN Security Council was to meet Sunday to discuss the violence. Washington, which blocked a UN Security Council meeting scheduled for Friday, has been criticised for not doing enough to calm the violence.
Pro-Palestinian demonstrators staged protests across the world, including in Paris where police used water cannon against them.
Israel’s northern borders with Lebanon and Syria, with which it remains technically at war, were also tense.
Three rockets were launched from Syria Friday, while Israel’s army said it fired “warning shots” towards potential infiltrators.
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