Palestine: Israel is ‘deaf’ to calls for truce

Palestinian Authorities say Israel has turned “deaf” to calls for truce, even as both sides escalated their warmongering on the conflict in Gaza on Thursday, in spite of international pressure to ceasefire.

In a statement on Thursday, the Embassy of Palestine in Kenya said the world must sustain pressure on Israel to first stop raiding Palestinian lands as they committed atrocities first.

“The current episode of escalation is a direct result to the impunity that Israel has wrongfully enjoyed for a long time, encouraging it to repeatedly violate its commitments under International Law and International Humanitarian Law,” the Palestinian Mission said on Thursday.

Accusing Israel of committing ‘apartheid’, Palestine says Israel should be stopped from curtailing “the future of the Palestinians.

“Regrettably, the calls of Members of the United Nations Security Council, EU Member States, UN secretary General, The Chairperson of the African Union Commission, The League of Arab States, the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, The United Nations Human Rights Council, Human Rights Watch, and Amnesty International, fell on the deaf ears of Israel, the occupying power.”

The comments came hours after Israel felled a ten-storey building in Gaza which it said was hosting Hamas, the faction of the Palestinian government that governs the area.

A statement released by Shin Bet, the Israeli Internal Security agency, said it had killed several commanders of Hamas, including its military chief identified as Bassem Issa, head of cyber command Jumaa Tahle, research and development chief Jamal Zibde and production engineer Hazem Hatib among more than two dozens of militants killed in aerial bombardments.

Civilian casualties

On Wednesday night, Lt-Col Jonathan Conricus, the International Spokesperson for the Israeli Defence Forces said his country will continue to target commanders of Hamas which he also blamed for a series of civilian casualties inside Palestinian territories.

“For Hamas, anybody who is a part of it or anybody who is supporting it is a terrorist target,” he said during a virtual press conference.

“What we are doing now is responding to their aggression and their attacks and making sure they pay a heavy price,” he told a virtual press conference indicating they were working under standing orders to continue with the operation while minimising civilian casualties.

The conflict, the heaviest since 2014, started on Saturday after Israeli forces attacked worshippers at the iconic Al-Aqsa mosque in East Jerusalem.

It was the escalation of tensions related to evictions of Palestinians in Sheikh Jarrah neighbourhoods of the area.

Since 1972, Palestinian families residing there have fought court battles against eviction as some Jewish communities claim the area was their land before 1948, the year the Israeli state was created.

It touched off the land question in Gaza, where Palestinians have accused Israel of land grabbing. Palestine claims 53 people including 14 children were killed in aerial raids by Israel.

Misfired rockets

Israel disputed the figures, saying most of the casualties were caused by Hamas’ misfired rockets. It said it has only targeted militants and warned civilians before raiding.

Hamas has fired more than 1,000 rockets into Israel, according to a tally by the IDF “with an abnormal amount of rockets falling short” inside Gaza.

Since Israel began the offensive on Monday, authorities in Gaza claim 53 people have been killed including 14 children. Some 300 others were wounded, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry. 

The international community, including the UN Security Council, has called on both sides to deescalate tensions.

But Lior Haiat, the International Spokesman for the Israeli Foreign Ministry said Hamas was blaming his country for its own blunders. 

“The full responsibility of these deaths of civilians and the situation we have got in rests with the terrorist organisations in Gaza... Some of the kids were killed by rockets fired from Gaza but fell short,” Haiat added when questioned on the death toll of children in the Gaza strip.

“We do expect the international community to recognise Israel’s right to self-defence... and to condemn the terrorist attacks from Hamas.”