No ceasefire in sight as Israel continues to pummel Gaza
Air raids cause more deaths in Gaza Strip as Israel insists it’s not yet ready to set a time frame for an end to hostilities
GAZA/JERUSALEM: Israel said on Wednesday it was not setting a time frame for an end to hostilities with Gaza as its military pounded the Palestinian enclave with airstrikes and Hamas militants unleashed new cross-border rocket attacks.
In a sign of diplomatic movement, however, an Egyptian security source said the two sides had agreed to a ceasefire in principle after help from mediators, but details were being negotiated in secret amid public denials of a deal to prevent it from collapsing.
Palestinian medical officials said 219 people had now been killed in 10 days of aerial bombardments that have destroyed roads, buildings and other infrastructure. Israeli authorities put the death toll at 12 in Israel. Regional and Us-led diplomatic efforts to secure a ceasefire have intensified but so far failed.
We’re not standing with a stopwatch: Netanyahu
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu made no mention of any halt to the fighting in public remarks at a briefing to foreign ambassadors to Israel, saying his country was engaged in “forceful deterrence” to prevent future conflict with Hamas.
In remarks reported by Israeli media from a closed questionand-answer session, he was quoted as saying, “We’re not standing with a stopwatch. We want to achieve the goals of the operation. Previous operations lasted a long time so it is not possible to set a time frame.”
In a 25-minute attack overnight, Israel bombarded targets including what its military said were tunnels in the southern Gaza Strip used by Hamas.
Some 50 rockets were fired from the enclave, the Israeli military said, with sirens sounding in the coastal city of Ashdod, south of Tel Aviv, and in areas closer to the Gaza border. There were no reports of injuries or damage overnight but days of rocket fire have unsettled many Israelis.
In Gaza, the damage from Israeli air raids has left large craters and piles of rubble across the coastal enclave, and deepened long-running concerns about living conditions.
Israel, which blames the latest hostilities on Hamas, says it issues warnings to evacuate buildings that are to be fired on and that it attacks only what it regards as military targets. “We try to target those who target us. With great precision,” Netanyahu told the foreign envoys.
“As surgical an operation as it is, even in a surgical room in a hospital you don’t have the ability to prevent collateral damage around affected tissues. Even then you can’t. And certainly in a military operation you cannot.”
Hamas began firing rockets nine days ago in retaliation for what it said were Israeli rights abuses against Palestinians in Jerusalem during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.
Hamas’s leading role in confronting Israel over Jerusalem, an issue that resonates with many Palestinians, poses a challenge to its main rival, West Bank-based President Mahmoud Abbas, who last month cancelled a parliamentary election in which the group appeared likely to make gains.
France called on Tuesday for a UN Security Council resolution on the violence. Diplomats said the US told the Council a “public pronouncement right now” would not help calm the crisis.
US criticises Erdogan’s controversial remark
The US state department rebuked Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan over what it called anti-semitic remarks he made while lashing out at the Biden administration over its support for Israel in its conflict with the Palestinian militant group Hamas.
“The US strongly condemns President Erdogan’s recent antisemitic comments regarding the Jewish people and finds them reprehensible,” said Ned Price, a department spokesman.
The statement didn’t cite specific references, but Erdogan, after a cabinet meeting on Monday, had denounced Israel and its allies over the violence that erupted last week. He claimed that Austria, in its support of Israel, was trying to atone for the Holocaust by “making Muslims pay a price” for it. According to Iran’s Fars news agency, he called Israeli military attacks in the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip a “massacre” and labelled Israel a “terrorist” country.
In Beijing, the Israeli embassy has accused China’s state broadcaster of “blatant anti-semitism” in a report on US policy during the ongoing violence.
A presenter on CGTN, the English-language arm of Chinese state broadcaster CCTV, on Tuesday had mentioned several elements of anti-semitic conspiracy theories while discussing the US government’s support for Israel.