Joe Biden backs ceasefire as Israel digs in for long campaign in Gaza

In talks with Benjamin Netanyahu, Joe Biden stopped short of openly demanding a truce but backed a ceasefire.

Joe Biden told Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday that he backs putting in place a ceasefire in the increasingly bloody conflict between Israelis and Palestinians, but he stopped short of openly demanding a truce.

In a phone call with Mr Netanyahu, “the President expressed his support for a ceasefire and discussed US engagement with Egypt and other partners towards that end,” the White House said.

Mr 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.” Howver, 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.

Mr Netanyahu has remained defiant in the face of international ­demands for a ceasefire as Israel hammered the Gaza Strip on Monday after the most deadly day in a week of violence.

Israeli strikes killed 42 Palestinians in Gaza on Sunday, as UN ­Security Council talks fizzled ­despite global alarm at the escalating conflict.

Israeli warplanes continued to pummel the Palestinian enclave well into the early hours of Monday, carrying out dozens of air strikes across the densely populated territory in just a few minutes and causing power cuts and damage to hundreds of buildings.

The Israeli army said its fighter jets were “striking terror targets in the Gaza Strip”.

Only hours earlier Mr Netanyahu said the Israel Defence ­Forces were seeking to degrade ­Islamist group Hamas and that operations would not be called off until that had been accomplished.

He said in a televised address that Israel’s “campaign against the terrorist organisations is continuing with full force” and would “take time” to finish.

At least 197 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza, including 58 children, and more than 1200 wounded since Israel launched its air campaign against Hamas last Monday after the group fired rockets. In Israel, 10 people, including one child, have been killed and 282 wounded by rocket fire launched by armed groups in Gaza.

Israel’s army said about 3000 rockets had been fired since last Monday from Gaza towards Israel — the highest rate ever recorded — but added the Iron Dome anti-missile system had intercepted more than 1000.

Opening an emergency session of the UN Security Council on Sunday, Secretary-General Antonio Guterres pleaded for an ­immediate end to the “utterly ­appalling” violence and warned of an “uncontainable security and humanitarian crisis”.

The conflict had the potential “to further foster extremism, not only in the occupied Palestinian territory and Israel, but in the ­region as a whole”.

“This latest round of violence only perpetuates the cycles of death, destruction and despair, and pushes farther to the horizon any hopes of coexistence and peace,” Mr Guterres said.

But the council meeting, ­already delayed by Israeli ally the US, resulted in little action.

China accused the US of blocking a Security Council statement. “Simply because of the obstruction of one country, the Security Council hasn’t been able to speak with one voice,” said Foreign Minister Wang Yi.

The Biden administration says it is working behind the scenes and that a Security Council statement could backfire.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Sunday spoke to officials in Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and France, according to the State Department, reiterating calls to end the violence.

The US has publicly backed ­Israel’s right to self-defence, while urging de-escalation.

The death toll kept rising in Gaza as rescuers extracted bodies from vast piles of smoking rubble and the bereaved wailed in grief.

“We were sleeping and then all of a sudden there were rockets raining down on us,” said Lamia al-Koulak, 43, who lost relatives in a dawn bombardment on Sunday.

“The children were screaming. For half an hour we were bombarded without prior warning.”

West Gaza resident Mad Abed Rabbo, 39, expressed “horror and fear” at the intensity of the onslaught.

“There have never been strikes of this magnitude,” he said.

Gazan Mani Qazaat said Mr Netanyahu “should realise we’re civilians, not fighters”. “I felt like I was dying,” he said.

Sunday’s death toll included at least eight children and two doctors, according to the health ministry.

The Israeli army said it had targeted the infrastructure of Hamas and armed group Islamic Jihad, ­including a vast tunnel system, weapons factories and storage sites.

Mr Netanyahu defended the earlier bombing of a building housing Al Jazeera and Associated Press news agencies, saying: “It is a perfectly legitimate target” ­because the building also hosted a Palestinian “terrorist” intelligence office.

The violence between Hamas and Israel is the worst since 2014, when Israel launched a military operation on the Gaza Strip with the stated aim of ending rocket fire and destroying tunnels used for smuggling.

Israel is also trying to contain inter-communal violence between Jews and Arab-Israelis, as well as deadly clashes in the occupied West Bank, where 19 Palestinians have been killed since last Monday.

Major clashes broke out at the Al-Aqsa mosque compound — one of Islam’s holiest sites — on May 7 after a crackdown against protests over planned expulsions of Palestinians in the Sheikh ­Jarrah neighbourhood of Israeli-annexed East Jerusalem.

Sheikh Jarrah has been at the heart of the flare-up, experiencing weeks of clashes between Palestinians and Israeli security forces.

On Sunday, a car-ramming ­attack in Sheikh Jarrah wounded seven police officers, police said, adding that the attacker had been killed.

Police also said “a number of suspects” had been arrested during clashes in another East Jerusalem neighbourhood overnight on Sunday.

AFP