The conflict between Israelis and Palestinians continues to intensify despite calls from the international community to end the violence.
This Saturday the president of the United States , Joe Biden, called Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas in an attempt of stop the fighting.
His call came after Israeli bombings in Gaza killed people in a refugee camp and destroyed a building that housed offices of various foreign media.
At the same time, hundreds of Palestinian missiles were fired at Israel, causing one death.
And the violence has only escalated this last week , causing at least 145 killed in Gaza, including 41 children, according to Palestinian authorities. Israel for its part reported 10 dead , including two minors.
The situation has led the UN Security Council to convene an emergency meeting for this Sunday and the US to send a representative to Tel Aviv to participate in dialogues with Israeli, Palestinian and UN authorities.
Its objective, according to US diplomats, is to underline the need for “a sustainable calm” .
“What have you done to deserve this?”
This Saturday, 10 Family members died after being hit by an Israeli bombardment in a refugee camp in western Gaza.
A baby of only five months, Omar Al-Hadidi, was the only survivor. His mother, four brothers, his aunt and four cousins were killed.
The baby’s father, Mohammad Al-Hadidi, was not at home at the time of the attack. “There were no missiles there, only women and children, no missiles, only peaceful children celebrating. Eid, what have they done to deserve this? “, he told the agency Reuters.
A doctor who treated Omar noted that the baby was in poor condition: “His femur is broken and has wounds all over his body but fortunately after a first inspection he is stable “.
The Defense Forces of Israel (IDF) reported that Palestinian militants fired 278 missiles from Gaza, which hit homes in the southern cities of Ashdod, Beersheba and Sderot.
The Army also said that “many dozen” missiles that crossed into Israel were intercepted for its defense system, the so-called “iron dome”.
One of the missiles hit a street in Ramat Gan, a Tel Aviv suburb, killing a man. According to local media, he died after being hit by shrapnel in his apartment.
On the same day, an Israeli bombing also destroyed a multi-story building that housed media offices, including the Associated Press (AP) and Al-Jazeera , as well as other offices and apartments.
In a statement, the Israeli Army assured that the building housed military assets belonging to Hamas, the Palestinian militant group that controls Gaza. The owner of the building denied it.
AP reported that the building was attacked about an hour after Israeli forces ordered people to evacuate the vicinity .
The agency’s chief executive, Gary Pruitt, noted: “This is an extremely alarming development of the situation. We narrowly avoided a terrible loss of life. A dozen AP journalists and freelancers were inside the building and fortunately we were able to evacuate them in time. ”
“The world will know less about what is happening in Gaza because of what happened today,” he lamented.
On Saturday afternoon, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stated that Israel would “continue to respond firmly” , insisting that they were taking measures to limit the number of civilian casualties.
Israel assures that dozens of people killed in Gaza were militants of the Islamist group and that some of the deaths were caused by failed rockets in the territory.
The biggest offensive of the week
This Saturday’s escalation occurred after the Army Israel will launch its biggest offensive in the week against Gaza since the violence broke out on Monday , with an intense bombardment from ships, fighter jets and helicopters.
This offensive raised the concerns of the population about a possible entry of troops into Gaza, a measure that would mean an unprecedented escalation since the war of 2014.
Many inhabitants from the Gaza Strip who live near the border began to flee their homes for fear of a ground incursion by Israeli troops, although Israel did not take that dreaded step .
This week, in addition, the violence also spread to the Palestinian territory of the West Bank, where at least 10 people were killed in clashes with Israeli forces, who responded with rubber bullets and live fire at the dropping of gasoline bombs.
As the fighting intensified, serious incidents of business burnings and lynchings also occurred in Israel in cities with Arab and Jewish populations, which led the country’s president to warn of a “civil war.”
Calls to stop the hostilities: Biden’s call
This Saturday US President Joe Biden spoke separately with Benjamin Netanyahu, Prime Minister of Israel; and with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas.
Biden told Netanyahu that the United States continues to support Israel’s right to defend itself, the White House reported.
The president expressed his concern about the deaths on both sides and called for the protection of journalists, after the collapse of the building that housed the offices of international press.
Netanyahu told Biden that Israel “is doing everything to avoid injuring innocent civilians.”
In conversation with Abbas, the first that he maintains as president, Biden expressed his commitment to “strengthen US-Palestinian cooperation.” He also said that Hamas’ missile attacks on Israel had to stop.
Both leaders “expressed their shared desire that Jerusalem be a place of peaceful coexistence for people of all religions and origins,” according to a statement from the White House.
His call came after his envoy, Hady Amr, arrived in Tel Aviv for talks with Palestinians, Israelis and UN officials in hopes of get a ceasefire.
The UN Secretary General, Antonio Guterres, also advocated this week for “an immediate de-escalation and a cessation of hostilities between Gaza and Israel. ”
Both sides need to be able to say that they have won
Analysis by Jeremy Bowen, BBC Middle East editor
The end of the wars between Hamas and Israel has followed a pattern since Hamas took control of Gaza in 2014.
Int Mediators Nationals have discussed various ceasefire options. That is what the Americans, the Egyptians, the UN and others are trying to do now.
For that to work, both sides need to be able to tell their people that they have won.
Hamas will mean that it is the real protector of Palestinian rights, not only in Gaza but also in the occupied West Bank , including Jerusalem.
Israel will want to demonstrate to its population that it has caused serious damage to Hamas’s infrastructure. A widely used phrase is that of “restoring deterrence”: that means showing your enemies that attacking Israel will only cause more pain and suffering.
It will be difficult for both sides to find the words to grieving families or traumatized children.
“Your house can become your grave”
AND is that fear among civilians on both sides is wreaking havoc.
Najwa Sheikh-Ahmad, a mother from Gaza, noted Wednesday night: “You cannot sleep… Anywhere. now your house can become your grave “.
” You can’t feel safe. As a mother, it is scary, it is very exhausting for my feelings, my humanity, ”she told the BBC’s Today program.
An apartment building was destroyed in the Israeli city of Petah Tikva shortly after residents had moved into bomb shelters.
“We heard an alarm and suddenly there was a bang. Smoke began to enter the shelter and my neighbor, who was sitting in a chair next to me, flew out ”, explained a resident to the Ynet portal.
The beginning of the latest escalation
This black week was unleashed on Monday after a long period of tension between Israelis and Palestinians in East Jerusalem.
Hamas had threatened to attack Israel, after more than 300 Palestinians were injured in clashes with the Israeli police in the Esplanade of the Mosques, where the Al Aqsa is located, the third holiest place for Muslims.
In turn, these incidents occurred after disputes and clashes over plans to evict some Palestinian families from their homes s in the neighborhood of Sheikh Jarrah.
A group of Jewish settlers claim some of their land and property in Israeli courts , hence the threat of eviction on Palestinian families in Sheikh Jarrah, “one of the main Palestinian neighborhoods of East Jerusalem, where Palestinians have complained in recent years of the increasing number of Jewish settlers arriving, ”explains Mohamed Yehia, editor of the Arab service of the BBC.
- “The Israeli-Palestinian conflict has been ignored by the world”
Israel considers the entire city as its capital, although it is not recognized as such by most of the international community.
Thus, in recent years, the Israeli government and settler groups have worked to settle Jews in Palestinian areas near the old city.
For their part, the Palestinians claim East Jerusalem as the future capital of their long-awaited independent state.
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