Israel, Palestine strikes: US President Joe Biden’s ‘grave concern’ over conflict
US President Joe Biden has expressed ‘grave concern’ over the Israel-Palestine violence, as jets destroyed a tower housing international press in Gaza. WARNING: Graphic
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US President Joe Biden has expressed “grave concern” over the flare-up of violence in Israel and Gaza, the White House said.
Speaking on the sixth day of a paroxysm of Israeli-Palestinian violence that has left scores dead or wounded, Biden expressed his “strong support” for Israel’s right to defend itself against rocket attacks by “Hamas and other terrorist groups”. Biden made the remarks in a phone call with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
“He condemned these indiscriminate attacks against towns and cities across Israel,” the White House said in a statement.
But Biden also raised concerns about the safety of journalists after Israeli air strikes on Saturday flattened a building in Gaza housing The Associated Press and other international media outlets.
Biden, who up to now has said little publicly about the flare-up, voiced US support for a negotiated two-state solution to the ongoing Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
He made the same point in a separate phone call with president Mahmud Abbas of the Palestinian Authority, the White House said, highlighting “strong commitment to a negotiated two-state solution as the best path to reach a just and lasting resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.”
The US leader, in his first call with Abbas since taking office, also “stressed the need for Hamas to cease firing rockets into Israel.”
Israel pummelled the Gaza Strip with air strikes on Saturday, killing 10 members of an extended family, as Palestinian militants fired back barrages of rockets.
Clashes also swept the occupied West Bank.
AIR STRIKE DESTROYS AL JAZEERA
An Israeli air strike has demolished the 13-floor building housing Qatar-based Al Jazeera television and American news agency The Associated Press in the Gaza Strip, AFP journalists said.
Israel “destroyed Jala Tower in the Gaza Strip, which contains the Al Jazeera and other international press offices,” Al Jazeera said in a tweet, with an AP journalist saying the army had warned the tower’s owner ahead of the strike.
Al Jazeera broadcast footage showing the building collapsing to the ground after the Israeli air strike, sending up a huge mushroom cloud of dust and debris.
Jawad Mehdi, the owner of the Jala Tower, said an Israeli intelligence officer warned him he had just one hour to ensure the evacuation of the building.
In a phone call with the officer, AFP heard him beg for an extra 10 minutes to allow journalists to retrieve their equipment before leaving.
“Give us ten extra minutes,” he urged, but the officer on the other end of the line refused.
Wael al-Dahdouh, Al Jazeera’s bureau chief in Gaza told AFP: “It’s terrible, very sad, to target the Al Jazeera and other press bureaus”.
Israel alleged its “fighter jets attacked a high-rise building which hosted military assets belonging to the military intelligence of the Hamas terror organisation”.
“The building also hosted offices of civilian media outlets, which the Hamas terror group hides behind and uses as human shields,” it said.
‘SPREADING DESTRUCTION AND DEATH’
Israel pummelled the Gaza Strip with air strikes on Saturday, killing 10 members of an extended family as well as demolishing Jala Tower.
Palestinian militants fired back barrages of rockets.
The sharp uptick in violence, now in its sixth day, claimed more dead as clashes also swept the occupied West Bank.
As a US envoy was preparing to meet both sides to push for a truce, Israeli fighter jets struck several sites in the densely-populated Gaza Strip, which it has blockaded for more than a decade.
Palestinian militants responded with volleys of rockets into Israel, killing a man near Tel Aviv.
Balls of flame thrust into the sky on Saturday afternoon 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.
“It is clear that those who are waging this war do not only want to spread destruction and death in Gaza, but also to silence media that are witnessing, documenting and reporting the truth,” Al Jazeera’s Jerusalem bureau chief, Walid al-Omari, told AFP.
Jawad Mehdi, the owner of the Jala Tower, said an Israeli intelligence officer had told him he had just an hour evacuate the building.
Israel claimed that “military intelligence” agents of Hamas, the Gaza Strip’s Islamist rulers, were also in the building.
The Associated Press said it was “horrified” by the strike, while the White House said it had told the Israelis that “the safety and security of journalists and independent media is a paramount responsibility”.
AFP’s Global News Director Phil Chetwynd said: “We are profoundly shocked the offices of media organisations would be targeted in this way and we stand in solidarity with our colleagues from the Associated Press and Al-Jazeera at this difficult time.”
AUSTRALIANS RALLY FOR PEACE BETWEEN ISRAEL, PALESTINE
Massive rallies across Australia have been held to call for peace between Israel and Palestinian territories as the conflict in Gaza continues to spread.
Rallies in Melbourne and Sydney were held where thousands of pro-Palestine protesters gathered with placards calling for the violence to end.
In Sydney, it halted traffic and shut down the light rail system for hours.
More than 3,000 people gathered at Town Hall at 2pm to protest against Israeli occupation and violence towards Palestine.
The war is seen by many Palestinians as one sided, with protesters comparing Israel to Nazi Germany at yesterday’s protest.
Greens Senator Mehreen Faruqi spoke at the protest, calling on the government to condemn Israel and support Palestine.
Pro-Palestinian demonstrators gathered in Melbourne CBD on Saturday to protest about the escalating violence in Israel.
Demonstrators yelled “from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free!” as they marched from the State Library of Victoria down Swanston Street.
Others carried signs which read “end the occupation” and “united for Palestine”.
Other speakers drew connections between the plight of Palestinians to the struggle for Indigenous rights in Australias.
A sea of Palestinian flags coloured the marches as Arabic music blasted from several speakers at the rally.
Another pro-Palestinian demonstration is scheduled to be held in Melbourne next Saturday.
“At this time politicians across the world are wishing us eid mubarak, I want to call on these politicians to ask them to speak out against the aggressive Israeli regime,” she said.
Protesters chanted “free Palestine, free Gaza” and “Israel USA, how many kids did you kill today” at the peaceful rally.
Israeli fighter jets pounded the Gaza Strip overnight, killing 10 members of a single family, medics said Saturday, after a day of deadly violence rocked the West Bank and a US envoy arrived for talks.
Israel, which is also trying to contain an outbreak of internal Jewish-Arab violence, is facing its bloodiest conflict with Palestinian militants in Gaza since a 2014 war.
Its bombardment began on Monday after the territory’s Islamist rulers Hamas fired rockets towards Jerusalem in response to a bloody Israeli police action at the flashpoint Al-Aqsa mosque compound in annexed east Jerusalem.
More than 2,000 rockets have been fired at Israel since then, killing nine people, including a child and a soldier. More than 560 people have been wounded.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has pledged to destroy Hamas as Israeli air and ground fire pounded Gaza, warning ”it’s not over yet” as rolling street clashes occurred across the region.
“They attacked our capital, they fired rockets at our cities. They’re paying and will continue to pay dearly for that,” Netanyahu said of Israel’s response to Hamas strikes this week.
Earlier, it emerged that the Israeli Defence Force appeared to lure Hamas fighters to their deaths with a misleading social media statement that IDF ground troops were entering Gaza.
As fears grew of a new Middle East war amid a fifth day of heavy fire between Israel and Palestine, The Jerusalem Post reported that the social media post and subsequent widespread media reporting of the mooted invasion sent Hamas troops into strategic tunnels that were struck by the Israeli army.
“IDF air and ground troops are currently attacking in the Gaza Strip,” the IDF tweeted early Friday morning local time.
But rather than a ground invasion, 160 jets rained missiles into a network of tunnels the terrorists used to store weapons including mortars and antitank weapons they would use to defend Gaza.
The IDF said that it had destroyed “many kilometres” of the tunnel network called “the metro”, which Hamas built after the 2014 war.
The Post reported that the number of Hamas fighters killed was not clear but Hamas has confirmed 20 its fighters have died since Monday.
It came as Arabs and Jews clashed on the West Bank and in Israel, in the biggest escalation of civil violence since 2000.
Thick black smoke from burning tyres billowed from a clash point on a main road leading into central Ramallah, where mainly young Palestinians hurled stones, Molotov cocktails and other projectiles.
Israeli forces responded with water cannon spray, tear gas, rubber bullets and live rounds.
“It would be shameful to remain quiet with what’s going on in Gaza,” said protester Oday Hassan, 21, his head covered in a keffiyeh, in Al-Birah.
Netanyahu said his army would not stand down as more than 9000 reservists and ground troops massed outside Gaza for Operation Guardians of the Wall.
“I said that we would exact a very heavy price from Hamas and the other terrorist organisations,” Netanyahu said.
“We are doing so and we will continue to do so with great force. The last word has not been said and this operation will continue as long as necessary in order to restore the quiet and security to the state of Israel.”
Ten members of a single family — eight children and two women — were killed when a three-storey building in Shati refugee camp collapsed following an Israel strike.
The overall death toll in Gaza since Monday now tops 130, more than 30 of them children. Around 950 people have been wounded.
Families were among an estimated 10,000 fleeing Gaza as it suffered under day of heavy fire, with a large building containing a bank among the structures that were destroyed.
Gazan families sought shelter at schools and mosques, fearing another barrage.
“All the children are afraid and we are afraid for the children,” said Kamal al-Haddad, who fled with his family to a UN-supported school in Gaza City.
In a possible sign of further escalation, the army said three rockets were fired at Israel from Syria late Friday.
The United Nations said the Security Council would meet on Sunday to address Gaza. China accused the US of “ignoring the suffering” of Muslims, after Washington stopped the council from meeting Friday.
US Secretary for Israel-Palestinian Affairs Hady Amr arrived in Israel on Friday as part of mediation efforts.
Amr will hold talks both with Israeli officials and Palestinian leaders in the West Bank and encourage a “sustainable calm”, State Department deputy spokeswoman Jalina Porter said.
– with AFP
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