Hamas and Israel urged to step back from the brink
WORLD leaders pleaded for peace between Israel and Hamas amid warnings of ‘full-scale war’ after dozens of people were killed in escalating violence.
The UN Security Council went into emergency session and the International Criminal Court in The Hague said it was watching for war crimes. At least 65 Palestinians and six Israelis have died since clashes at the al-Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem on Friday.
Boris Johnson said Britain was ‘deeply concerned by the growing violence’ and urged both sides ‘ to step back from the brink’.
Tor Wennesland, UN special envoy to the Middle East, tweeted: ‘Stop the fire immediately. We’re escalating towards a full-scale war. Leaders on all sides have to take the responsibility of de-escalation.’
But Israeli defence minister Benny Gantz said air strikes on Gaza would continue after more than 1,000 rockets were fired into Israel from the Palestinian enclave.
‘We will not listen to moral preaching against our duty to protect the citizens of Israel,’ he said.
The Hamas government in Gaza rejected pleas for peace. ‘ If Israel wants to escalate we are ready for it,’ said its leader Ismail Haniyeh.
Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu promised to respond with an ‘ iron fist’ as he declared a state of emergency in the northern town of Lod, where rioting broke out at the funeral of a Palestinian Israeli reportedly killed by a Jewish gunman.
A synagogue, a Muslim cemetery and dozens of vehicles were set on fire in the
A Palestinian man holds an injured girl in Gaza City mixed-population town. Mr Netanyahu said: ‘These events have no excuse. This is fundamental hate.’ At least 14 children have been killed including Israeli Arab Nadin Awad, 16, who died with her father when a Hamas rocket hit her home in Lod. Her cousin Ahmad Ismail said: ‘Even if we had wanted to run, we don’t have a safe room.’ Israel accused Hamas leaders in Gaza of using civilians as human shields as it destroyed multi-storey tower blocks with missile strikes. The Israeli military said it had killed at least three Hamas leaders in the attacks – the fiercest since 2014 when more than 2,000 Palestinians and 73 Israelis died.