No let-up in Gaza war for Ramadan
Battle continues despite Un ceasefire resolution demands
Gaza STRIP: Israeli troops continued battling Hamas fighters in the Gaza Strip, with no sign of a let-up in the war despite a UN Security Council resolution demanding an “immediate ceasefire”.
The resolution was adopted on Monday after Israel’s closest ally, the United States, abstained.
It demands an “immediate ceasefire” for the ongoing Muslim holy month of Ramadan, leading to a “lasting” truce. It also demands that Hamas and other fighters free hostages they took during the unprecedented Oct 7 attacks on Israel, though it does not directly link the release to a truce.
After the vote, UN Secretarygeneral Antonio Guterres led calls for the resolution to be implemented.
“Failure would be unforgivable,” he wrote on X.
Israel reacted furiously to the US abstention, as it allowed the resolution to go through with all the other 14 Security Council members voting yes.
The resolution is the first since the Gaza war erupted to demand an immediate halt in the fighting.
Washington insisted that its abstention, which followed numerous vetoes, did not mark a shift in policy, although it has taken an increasingly tougher line with Israel in recent weeks.
Hamas welcomed the Security Council resolution and reaffirmed its readiness to negotiate the release of hostages in exchange for Palestinian prisoners held by Israel. In a statement, the group accused Israel of thwarting the latest round of talks hosted by Qatar as mediator.
Hamas said Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his cabinet were “entirely responsible for the failure of negotiation efforts and for preventing an agreement from being reached up until now”. Israel has consistently defended its campaign despite mounting international criticism of its conduct.
Enraged by the United States’ abstention, it cancelled the visit of a delegation to Washington. It said that the abstention “hurts” both its war effort and attempts to release hostages, while Netanyahu’s office described it as “a clear retreat from the consistent position of the US”.
On the ground, the fighting raged on unabated.
In Rafah, witnesses said Israeli jets pummelled the city yesterday.
According to the Israeli army, anti-rocket sirens sounded in Israeli areas around the Gaza Strip.
While Rafah, like other areas around the Gaza Strip, has come under frequent Israeli strikes, it is the only part of the territory where Israel has not sent in ground troops. It borders Egypt, and 1.5 million Palestinians fleeing the rest of the devastated territory have sought refuge there.
Netanyahu’s determination to launch a ground operation in Rafah on Gaza’s southern border where most of the territory’s population is sheltering, has become a key point of contention between Israel and the United States.
In Rafah, Palestinians welcomed the UN vote and called for the United States to use its influence on Israel to secure a ceasefire.
Bilal Awad, 63, said Washington must “stand against an attack on Rafah and support the return of the displaced to their cities”.
Ihab al-assar, 60, expressed hope that “Israel will comply” with the Security Council.
Elsewhere in the Gaza Strip, the Israeli military on Monday said it was battling fighters around two hospitals and reported killing about 20 of them around Al-amal over the previous day in closequarters combat and airstrikes.
Palestinians living near Alshifa, the territory’s main hospital, have reported corpses in the streets, constant bombardment and the rounding up of men who are stripped to their underwear and questioned.
Israel’s military said it had detained about 500 fighters “affiliated with” Hamas and Islamic Jihad during its operation at Al-shifa.
The fighting came as an independent Un-appointed expert, Francesca Albanese, said there were “reasonable grounds to believe” Israel’s actions in Gaza had met the threshold for “acts of genocide”.
Israel rejected her report, due to be presented to the UN’S Human Rights Council, as an “obscene inversion of reality”.