Hamas rocket strike grounds Israel flights
Several airlines cancelled international flights to Tel Aviv on Tuesday after a Hamas rocket landed about 1.6 kilometres from Ben Gurion Airport. While Israeli officials pleaded for the carriers not to “hand terror a prize,” most airlines opted to exercise caution. Meanwhile, Postmedia News wire services report, efforts to broker an end to the fighting continued, with the United Nations, the U.S. and others trying to get the warring sides to end the bloody conflict.
GROUND OFFENSIVE CONTINUES
Israeli air strikes pummelled a wide range of locations in Gaza. Early Tuesday, the Israeli military said it bombed more than 180 militant targets. Meanwhile, Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird said he was “appalled” by a report that a UN agency turned over a stockpile of rockets found in a school building in Gaza to Hamas. The UN Relief and Works Agency said Tuesday it had found rockets in a vacant school it runs in the Gaza Strip. Last week, the agency found another stockpile of rockets in a Gaza school it operates and a report from Israel indicated it had turned over the weapons to “local authorities,” suggesting they had been returned to Hamas.
CANCELLED FLIGHTS
The Israeli embassy in Ottawa urged Air Canada to reverse its decision to cancel flights to Tel Aviv, saying the move sends the wrong signal to the international community. The embassy made the comment after Air Canada cancelled its Tuesday night flight from Toronto to Tel Aviv and Wednesday’s return flight from Israel. Air Canada’s decision came after the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration ordered U.S. airlines not to fly to the airport in Tel Aviv for 24 hours. Germany’s Lufthansa, Air France, Alitalia, Dutch airline KLM and Greece’s Aegean Airlines also cancelled flights to Tel Aviv.
SOLDIER UNACCOUNTED FOR
An Israeli soldier is missing following a deadly battle in the Gaza Strip on the weekend. Military officials said the soldier, identified as Sgt. Oron Shaul, was among seven soldiers in a vehicle that was hit by an anti-tank missile. The other six have been confirmed as dead, but no remains have been identified as Shaul, the officials said. The disappearance raises the possibility that he was captured by Hamas. In the past, Israel has paid a heavy price in lopsided prisoner swaps to retrieve captured soldiers or remains held by its enemies.
‘A WAR ON CHILDREN’
More children than Palestinian fighters are being killed in the offensive on Gaza, according to the latest UN statistics. Gaza’s health ministry said Tuesday that of the more than 600 Palestinians who have been killed, there were 155 children. The UN’s Office for the Co-ordination of Humanitarian Affairs, said that, as of Tuesday morning, 149 children had been killed, compared with 87 confirmed members of armed groups. Even including unconfirmed combatant deaths, more children would still have died. In addition, Save the Children said almost a third of those injured were children. “This is why we described the ongoing operation as a war on children,” said Osama Damo, a Save the Children official in Gaza.
UN’S EMERGENCY MISSION
The UN secretary general said it is his “hope and belief” that his emergency mission to the Middle East will lead to an end to the fighting “in the very near future.” Ban Ki-moon told the Security Council by video conference from the West Bank city of Ramallah that he could not publicly reveal details “at this highly sensitive moment.” “My message to Israelis and Palestinians is the same: stop fighting, start talking and take on the root causes of the conflict,” Ban said later.