Gaza deaths mount as Israel says Hamas leaders are its target
Israel says it is focusing on targeted killings of Hamas leaders in the Gaza Strip as it tries to quell the militant group’s operations.
Israel said Tuesday it was focusing on targeted killings of Hamas leaders in the Gaza Strip as it tries to quell the militant group’s operations there, defying growing calls for a ceasefire amid a rising civilian toll.
The Israeli military has launched hundreds of airstrikes in Gaza aiming at what it says are Hamas’s military infrastructure and personnel. It said it has killed senior members of the group’s intelligence arm and on Sunday struck the home of Yahya Sinwar, the Hamas leader in Gaza.
“We will hit anyone who belongs to Hamas. From the first to the last,” Israeli military spokesman Hidai Zilberman told Kan public radio.
Hamas, which rules Gaza, said Israel had killed a limited number of its operatives. It released an image on social media Tuesday of a fighter manning a rocket launcher and a message that the group was only now beginning to seriously hunt down Israeli soldiers on the edge of Gaza.
Scores of civilians have been killed and displaced from their homes since the current fighting began on May 10. At least 213 people, including 61 children, have been killed in Gaza, according to the territory’s health ministry. More than 1400 Palestinians have been injured and tens of thousands have been displaced from their homes, according to the ministry and the United Nations Relief and Works Agency.
Palestinian media reported that the Israeli strikes on Tuesday were less intensive but spread out and focused on individual homes rather than larger buildings. The Gaza health ministry also said Tuesday at least 12 medical staff were injured the previous day when an Israeli airstrike hit a tower near a medical clinic. It called on the international community to ensure Israel didn’t fire on medical facilities.
In Israel, emergency services said two Thai nationals died Tuesday after rocket attacks from Gaza on communities in southern Israel. Thousands of Thai labourers work in Israel’s agricultural sector.
In total, 12 people, including one child, have been killed in Israel since Hamas began launching rockets and antitank missiles on May 10, according to emergency services and the Israeli military. Hamas has fired more than 3,000 rockets at Israeli towns and cities but most have been intercepted by the country’s missile-defence system, according to the Israeli military.
Some observers say focusing on targeted killings might give Israel the ability to stop its campaign in Gaza by declaring victory to the Israeli public but risks spiralling violence with Hamas attempting to avenge their slain leaders.
Gershon Baskin, a political analyst who worked in the past as an interlocutor between Israel and the militants, said Israeli statements on the targeting of Hamas leaders typically surface before the fighting stops.
“It’s always a familiar cry before a ceasefire,” he said.
President Biden voiced support late Monday for a ceasefire in a call with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Mr Biden “expressed his support for a ceasefire and discussed U.S. engagement with Egypt and other partners toward that end,” according to a White House statement. The statement stopped short of a demand to end the fighting.
European Union foreign ministers held an emergency video conference Tuesday to discuss the crisis. Afterwards, EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell presented what he said was a summary of the discussion supported by 26 of the bloc’s 27 members.
Mr. Borrell called for an immediate cessation of violence and implementation of a ceasefire in order to protect civilians and allow humanitarian access to Gaza. He condemned rocket attacks by Hamas and expressed support for Israel’s right to defend itself, but said the response should be proportionate and respect international law.
On a visit to Iceland, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said he had spoken Tuesday with officials from Morocco and Bahrain and was in touch with Hady Amr, the U.S. envoy to the Israelis and Palestinians. Mr. Blinken in recent days phoned counterparts in Egypt, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and Qatar to discuss how to ease tensions. Egypt said Tuesday it will allocate $US500m for reconstruction efforts in the Gaza Strip.
“Our goal remains to bring the current cycle of violence to an end as quickly as possible and then bring the parties back to the work of building lasting stability,” Mr. Blinken said.
The Israeli army said it would continue its campaign against Hamas for at least the next 24 hours to destroy much of the group’s military arm in Gaza.
Israel has frequently used targeted killings during conflicts with Hamas, aiming to disrupt its operations and deter the group from attacking Israeli territory. Exchanges of fire in 2012 escalated into a wider conflict when Israel killed Hamas’s top military commander, Ahmed Jabari, in an airstrike.
In 2014, when the two sides fought the most recent of their three wars, Israel attempted to kill the head of Hamas’s military wing, Mohammed Deif. His wife and two children died in the attempt.
Mr Deif has been the target of several other failed assassination attempts, leaving him disabled. Israel has since struggled to locate him in Gaza.
On Monday, an Israeli airstrike killed Husam Abu Harbeed, a commander of Islamic Jihad, another militant group in the strip. The group confirmed the killing.
Hamas understands that targeted killings are “one of the main goals for the next few days,” Yaakov Amidror, a former national security adviser to Mr Netanyahu, said of the Israeli military aims. “They are hiding. And know how to hide.”
Israel has said that since Hamas began launching rockets at Israel on May 10 it has destroyed all of the group’s and Palestinian Islamic Jihad’s rocket manufacturing sites. There were 31 such sites and Israel said the groups won’t be able to produce more rockets in the short term. The Israeli military said Monday it had blown up the homes of 12 Hamas commanders over the past 24 hours. In total, Israel said it has killed at least 130 Hamas fighters in Gaza.
The Palestinian ministry of information on Tuesday said the Israeli strikes had levelled more than 1000 homes and damaged a further 7000 residential units, as well as 57 schools and medical clinics and millions of dollars worth of factories and industry.
The Israeli campaign might weaken Hamas for a while but it won’t address the root causes of the multiple cycles of violence between the two sides, said Omar Shaban, founder of the Gaza-based PalThink for Strategic Studies, a think tank. The international community would have to help broker a long-term solution, he said.
“There will be a ceasefire...but this will not solve the problem,” he added.
The Wall Street Journal
Ameera Harouda in Gaza City, William Mauldin in Reykjavik and James Marson in Brussels contributed to this article.
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