ON THE BRINK OF WAR?
Israel edges towards a full-blown conflict with Hamas, whose top commanders died in fresh airstrikes on Wednesday
GAZA CITY/JERUSALEM: The raging conflict between the Israelis and the Palestinians snowballed into a larger battle between the arch rivals as the Islamist group Hamas said that several of its top commanders were killed in Israeli airstrikes on Wednesday, including its military chief in Gaza City, Bassem Issa.
Israel’s internal security agency, Shin Bet, named Issa as one of the four top Hamas militants who it said were killed.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addressed the killing, noting that he had warned that the lives of Palestinian militants in Gaza were at risk.
“This is just the beginning; we’ll deliver them blows they haven’t dreamt of,” he said while visiting an Israeli girl wounded in a rocket attack at a hospital in the centre of the country.
According to Shin Bet, besides Issa, the strike killed Jumaa Tahle, head of Hamas cyber command who was also in charge of improving rocket accuracy, head of research and munitions Jamal Zibde, and Hazem Hatib, the group’s chief production engineer.
A dozen other members of the Hamas research and development division were also killed in a strike, Shin Bet said.
Gaza militants have launched more than 1,000 rockets since Monday, according to Israel’s army, which has carried out hundreds of airstrikes on Islamist groups in the crowded coastal enclave of Gaza.
Blinken sends senior US diplomat to Mideast
US secretary of state Antony Blinken has said that he’s sending a senior American diplomat to West Asia to urge Israeli and Palestinian officials to de-escalate the conflict.
Blinken told reporters he has instructed Hady Amr, the deputy secretary of state for Israel and Palestinian affairs, to travel immediately to the region.
World powers call for immediate ceasefire
Calls grew on Wednesday for an immediate de-escalation of violence after intense hostilities between the rivals.
In Russia, President Vladimir Putin urged the warring factions to halt fighting in a call with Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who said the world needs to give Israel a “strong” lesson.
British PM Boris Johnson urged Israel and the Palestinians to “step back from the brink”, tweeting, “The UK is deeply concerned.”
Germany said Israel had a “right to self-defence” against deadly rocket fire by Palestinian militants.
“The German government condemns these incessant rocket attacks from the Gaza Strip against Israeli cities in the strongest terms,” Chancellor Angela Merkel’s spokesman Steffen Seibert said.