Bennett, a former ally of Netanyahu, said he took the step in order to prevent yet another election after four inconclusive elections in two years….reports Asian Lite News
Former Israeli Defence Minister Naftali Bennett, also leader of the pro-settler party of Yamina, announced that he has accepted a coalition deal with centrist Yair Lapid to form “the government of change” to oust Benjamin Netanyahu, the country’s longest-serving Prime Minister.
Bennett said in a statement on Sunday that he and Lapid, leader of the centrist Yesh Atid party, will work to put together a coalition government following the March 23 elections, reports Xinhua news agency.
“I intend to do all I can to form a unity government with my friend Yair Lapid to rescue the county from the tailspin and return Israel to its course,” he added.
Bennett, a former ally of Netanyahu, said he took the step in order to prevent yet another election after four inconclusive elections in two years.
Lapid has till Wednesday to form a new government, otherwise there will be new elections – the fifth in the past two years with all previous four of them having failed to produce a clear majority.
Lapid’s centrist party came in second in the elections on March 23, behind Netanyahu’s right-wing Likud.
After the March elections, Netanyahu had failed to form a government, so President Reuven Rivlin appointed Lapid to do so.
He has until Wednesday to form a new coalition government.
Bennett and Lapid have agreed to rotate as Prime Ministers, with Bennett serving first, according to Israel’s state-owned Kan TV news.
Lapid is trying to ensure the support of several small parties that are far apart on the political spectrum, in order to form a minority government that would be acceptable to Arab deputies.
They are united above all by their rejection of Netanyahu, who is currently being tried for corruption.
However, the smaller parties have widely diverging political goals.
If Lapid succeeds, it would end bring an end to the era of Netanyahu, in office since 2009, as well as from 1996 to 1999.
Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry (R) meets with Israeli Foreign Minister Gabi Ashkenazi in Cairo, Egypt, May 30, 2021. (Str/Xinhua/IANS)
The trip is the first formal visit by an Israeli Foreign Minister to Egypt in nearly 13 years….reports Asian Lite News
Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry and his visiting Israeli counterpart Gabi Ashkenazi discussed solidifying the ongoing ceasefire in place between Israel and the Islamist Hamas in the Gaza Strip, as well as ways to revive the Israel-Palestine peace process.
The trip is the first formal visit by an Israeli Foreign Minister to Egypt in nearly 13 years.
During their meeting on Sunday, Shoukry and Ashkenazi agreed to continue consultations between the two countries and the Palestinian Authority “to explore ways out of the current stalemate in the peace track”, the Egyptian Foreign Ministry said in a statement.
The talks also addressed the necessary measures to facilitate the reconstruction of Gaza Strip following the recent Israeli bombings that caused massive damages to the enclave’s infrastructure.
Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry (R) meets with Israeli Foreign Minister Gabi Ashkenazi in Cairo, Egypt, May 30, 2021. (Str/Xinhua/IANS)
Egypt has allocated $500 million for the reconstruction.
Ashkenazi’s visit came 10 days after the Egypt-brokered ceasefire on May 21 that ended the 11-day bloodshed in and around the Gaza Strip, which left at least 248 Palestinians and 12 Israelis dead.
During the meeting, Shoukry called for taking further measures during the current truce to reinforce calm and provide the necessary conditions for “creating an atmosphere conducive to reviving the desired political path”.
He also reiterated Egypt’s fixed position in support of the establishment of an independent Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as its capital based on the 1967 borders.
The Foreign Minister also referred to the two-state solution as “the only way to achieve just and lasting peace, as well as the desired regional security and stability”, emphasizing the Palestinian people’s right to self-determination.
Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry (R) meets with Israeli Foreign Minister Gabi Ashkenazi in Cairo, Egypt, May 30, 2021. (Str/Xinhua/IANS)
On his part, Ashkenazi said that “Egypt is an important regional ally, committed to security and stability, and the maintenance and expansion of peace in the region”.
“We all need to act to prevent strengthening extremist elements that threaten regional stability, and to ensure the return home of the missing persons and prisoners held by Hamas,” he said.
The top Israeli diplomat added that he and Shoukry also “discussed enhancing economic and trade cooperation, including the renewal of direct flights between our countries”.
Ashkenazi’s trip to Cairo coincided with Egypt’s sending of a high-profile security delegation to Israel and Palestine to discuss related issues and thetruce.
The security delegation will discuss ways to reach a comprehensive truce in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
Israel FM in Egypt for Gaza ‘permanent ceasefire’ talks
Egypt played a pivotal role in brokering a ceasefire earlier this month between the Israelis and Gaza’s Palestinian Islamist rulers Hamas, bringing an end to 11 days of fighting….reports Asian Lite News
Israeli foreign minister Gabi Ashkenazi arrived in Cairo Sunday to discuss with his Egyptian counterpart Sameh Shoukry the establishment of a “permanent ceasefire” between Israel and Gaza’s Hamas rulers.
Ashkenazi tweeted in Arabic, English and Hebrew that his Cairo trip is “the first formal visit of an Israeli FM in 13 years”.
“We will discuss establishing a permanent ceasefire with Hamas, a mechanism for providing humanitarian aid & the reconstruction of Gaza with a pivotal role played by the intl. community,” he added.
He also noted that his government was “fully committed” to repatriating Israeli prisoners held by Hamas.
Egypt played a pivotal role in brokering a ceasefire earlier this month between the Israelis and Gaza’s Palestinian Islamist rulers Hamas, bringing an end to 11 days of fighting.
Senior Egyptian security officials confirmed to AFP Sunday that Hamas’s leader Ismail Haniyeh would also be in Cairo for discussions but would not provide further details.
Concurrently, Egypt’s intelligence chief Abbas Kamel leading a high-level security delegation is expected in Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories, the officials added.
“President (Abdel Fattah) al-Sisi instructed the general intelligence chief to discuss with the Israeli Prime Minister (Benjamin Netanyahu) and concerned authorities the fixing of a permanent ceasefire and the latest developments on the Palestinian front,” they said.
Sisi, who has has restored his country’s role as a regional heavyweight, also tasked Kamel with ending political divisions between rivals Hamas in Gaza and Fatah in the West Bank, the officials said.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (2nd R) and Jewish Home party leader Naftali Bennett (2nd L) hold a press conference in Jerusalem
Israel has held four elections in the past two years but all have failed to produce a clear majority…reports Asian Lite News
Opponents of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu are expected to form a coalition in order to establish a new government ahead of a deadline which would otherwise mean new elections.
Israel has held four elections in the past two years but all have failed to produce a clear majority, reports dpa news agency.
Former Defence Minister Naftali Bennett of the pro-settler Yamina party has decided to opt for an alliance with opposition leader Jair Lapid of Yesh Atid, Israeli radio reported on Sunday.
An official announcement is expected soon.
Bennett was reportedly planning to inform party members on Sunday.
He agreed with Bennett that the two would share the office of Prime Minister, with Bennett initially to take the role for two years, and then to be replaced by Lapid.
Lapid’s centrist party came in second in the elections on March 23, behind Netanyahu’s right-wing Likud.
After the March elections, Netanyahu had failed to form a government, so President Reuven Rivlin appointed Lapid to do so.
Lapid’s pro-reform party planned to continue coalition talks Sunday with Gideon Saar’s right-leaning New Hope.
Bennett at the pre-election foreign-policy debate at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem(Wikipedia)
It has already reached agreements with the left-liberal Meretz Party, the Labour Party and former Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman’s nationalist Yisrael Beitenu party.
Lapid is trying to ensure the support of several small parties that are far apart on the political spectrum, in order to form a minority government that would be acceptable to Arab deputies.
They are united above all by their rejection of Netanyahu, who is currently being tried for corruption.
However, the smaller parties have widely diverging political goals.
Lapid’s mandate to form a government will run out on Wednesday midnight.
If he succeeds, it would end bring an end to the era of Netanyahu, in office since 2009.
Israel’s blatant disregard for the laws of war by bringing down the building which housed major international media outlets shows that not only did Israel have no intention of stopping the bombardment in Gaza but wanted – or even needed – to mute the voice of the media in Palestine … writes Taha Coburn-Kutay
With solidarity for the Palestinians being shown in major cities like Melbourne, Paris, London, New York, Frankfurt, Berlin, Johannesburg, Cape Town, Karachi, Rabat and many more, the Western media – which is largely funded by major Jewish corporations and lobbying groups – are on a sticky wicket.
This dilemma was most recently highlighted by the Foreign Minister of Pakistan, Shah Mehmood Qureshi, in an interview with CNN, where he was accused of being antisemitic for passing a comment on the Western media promoting the Zionists’ occupation of Palestine. Mr Qureshi was quick in rebutting this accusation and highlighted that Israel has misused its power by knowingly killing children and other innocent civilians.
Leaders of Western governments were quiet before their own officials started asserting pressure on them to call for a ceasefire. The world has witnessed how Israel has misused the firepower and technology that it has amassed using funds largely donated by The United States of America. Meanwhile, Jordan, Egypt and Pakistan have played major roles in achieving the current ceasefire yet have not been credited by Western media for this, rather have been painted as secondary players with the USA and its allies taking centre stage in negotiations. Putting pressure on Israel to maintain the current ceasefire, the real peacekeepers Jordan, Egypt and Pakistan have warned there will be consequences—one need not think to hard what this may mean for the wider region.
The Western media saw increased traffic on both old and new media platforms, with the traditional support for Israel waning as younger generations showed support for Palestine. With supply and demand leading the market, as viewers become sympathetic toward Palestine, media will eventually reflect this shift in how it covers the ongoing Israel-Palestine issue. Israel’s blatant disregard for the laws of war by bringing down the building which housed major international media outlets shows that not only did Israel have no intention of stopping the bombardment in Gaza but wanted – or even needed – to mute the voice of the media in Palestine.
Smoke billows following an Israeli airstrike on Jala Tower, which housed offices of Al-Jazeera TV and Associated Press as well as residential apartments, in Gaza City. (Photo by Rizek AbdeljawadXinhuaIAN
But mainstream media is no longer the only player in these conflicts. For the first time in generations, people all over the world turned their attention to the tumultuous strip of land known as Gaza and largely gave their support for Palestine. What changed? Social media. One of the major factors that affected how this conflict was reported this time around was the amount of civilian-led news that was released from Gaza via social media, putting pressure on mainstream media to report on what they were sharing. But as more videos, photos and reports of Israel targeting civilians in Gaza were shared, Facebook started to censor posts in support and solidarity of Palestine, while pro-Israel content was largely left untouched. Facebook claims this was an error in their algorithm – its up to us as users of the platform to decide if we believe that.
With the most current conflict, support for Palestine in the UK was overwhelming. This may be a redefining moment for how media covers and shows a conflict like Israel-Palestine, as the masses will gravitate toward the media outlet that best reflects their own views. Advertisers will always go with media outlets with highest viewership and readers, adding further pressure on the media to show a balanced view of these conflicts, which is what the public is demanding.
The world has waited more than seven decades for the so-called Superpowers to broker peace in one of the world’s most tumultuous regions. Western media has blood on their hands by furthering the instability by not reporting a balanced view of the conflict. After more than 70 years, it is now normal people across the world who are affecting the most change by shunning biased media, using social media to report a balanced story, and showing their leaders that we will no longer accept silence on these conflicts as being ‘neutral’ – indeed, saying nothing, is saying something.
A Palestinian boy sits on sacks of flour at a United Nations food distribution center in Al-Shati refugee camp in Gaza City
Government’s offices will work on cleaning and opening the streets and roads, and provide relief to those were affected by aerial attacks,said Salama Ma’rouf …reports Asian Lite News
Government offices in the Gaza Strip will reopen on Sunday following the end of the 11-day bloodshed between Israel and militant groups in the Hamas-controlled besieged enclave, an official said.
Head of the Hams-run government press office, Salama Ma’rouf confirmed the development during a news conference here, Xinhua news agency.
“After the ceasefire came into effect, all governmental institutions began to work on plans to record the damage and they will start fixing the damaged infrastructure and other basic services in the Gaza Strip,” he said.
Ma’rouf added that the government’s offices will work on cleaning and opening the streets and roads, and provide relief to those were affected by the tit-for-tat aerial attacks that were halted following the Egypt-brokered ceasefire on May 2q.
A street directly hit by a rocket fired from the Gaza strip is seen in the central Israeli city of Holon on May 12, 2021. (Gideon Markowicz/JINI via Xinhua/IANS)
He said that during the Israeli airstrikes, 248 Palestinians were killed, including 66 children, 39 women, 17 elderly and five handicapped.
On the Israeli side, there were 12 fatalities.
He added that “303 buildings, including high-rises were completely destroyed by the Israeli bombs”, and “some agricultural, commercial, governmental and industrial buildings were completely destroyed”.
The fighting between Israel and the Hamas-led militant groups began on May 10, after the Gaza militants fired barrages of rockets at Israel in protest to the Israeli measures in East Jerusalem.
A tit-for-tat trade of fire broke out, where Israeli fighter jets carried out hundreds of airstrikes on the Gaza Strip.
Israel said that it targeted the infrastructure of Hamas and other militant groups in the enclave.
Smoke billows following an Israeli airstrike on Jala Tower, which housed offices of Al-Jazeera TV and Associated Press as well as residential apartments, in Gaza City. (Photo by Rizek AbdeljawadXinhuaIAN
The Israeli-Palestinian conflict will never be settled through violence. Both sides must wake up and decide whether to chart a new path leading to a mutually gratifying peace or continue a self-consuming conflict that leaves nothing but equally shattered people living in constant horror and fear, writes Dr Alon Ben-Meir
The ongoing, bloody Israeli-Palestinian conflagration offers yet another bitter reminder that there is no escape from a tragic reality that both have created and shaped. This is a reality bursting with hatred, vindictiveness, and venom, as both sides failed to reconcile seventy-three years of enmity despite the inevitability of coexistence. They must choose between peace, security, and progress, or cling to their illusion that they can rid themselves of the other, only to find out the weight of the price and the untold suffering and pain they will endure. It is time to finally face the truth, as the current gory hostilities will offer just another prelude for more to come. Thousands upon thousands of Israelis and Palestinians will die meaningless deaths for no reason but their leaders’ moral decadence and illusions.
An immediate ceasefire must now be brokered, not only for the sake of sparing more destruction and death, but for creating an atmosphere for the resumption of peace talks, to which both sides must commit—and commit now—to seek a peace agreement based on a two-state solution. Otherwise, the current conflagration will only broaden the vicious cycle of wanton violence, further contaminating the festering wounds from which generations have suffered. Both sides failed to right their wrongs, clinging to falsehoods and an alternate reality while their people ending up paying the price.
Israeli leaders on the right have successfully portrayed the Palestinians as irredeemable foes to be suspected, castigated, and contained, as they presumably pose an existential danger. They brainwash the Israeli Jews to believe that only right-of-center policies offer everlasting security, prosperity, and growth and would quell any Palestinian resistance or threats of terror. Instead of seeking an end to the current hostilities and restoring calm, nearly every single leader of the plethora of political parties advocated more forceful counter-attacks to inflict as much damage and loss of human life among the Palestinians. They want to demonstrate their bravado, lest they be accused of being soft on terror, if not traitors, but they are cowards for caving in rather than mustering the courage and daring to speak the truth.
For the past decade, not a single Israeli party, especially Netanyahu and his Likud, has brought the Israeli-Palestinian conflict to the fore in earnest, pretending as if there is no Palestinian problem. The occupation became a normal state of being, and Israelis resigned themselves to a state of no war and no peace as the best suitable solution to prevent the Palestinians from establishing a state of their own.
Suppressing the Palestinians and making their lives miserable was the unspoken motto behind a malicious campaign to force as many Palestinians to leave in order to quench their voracious lust to seize Palestinian land. Forced evictions, night raids, unlawful incarceration, uprooting trees, and house demolitions became routine–commonplace–while they exploited Palestinian resistance to justify their bigoted policy, oblivious that they must coexist with the very people they loathe, despise, reject, and denounce.
Palestinian leaders, moderate or extremist, do not fare any better. They betrayed their people, misleading them to believe that the day of liberation was near. They promised the right of return, knowing it will never be realized, using the refugees as hostages to serve their interest and hunger for power. Plagued with division, fierce rivalry and corruption became the hallmark of the Palestinian leadership. Instead of building a nation in which they can take pride, they squander every opportunity to make peace and end their peoples’ ever-debilitating plight.
They poison their public with cruel falsities, linking their salvation to Israel’s destruction. Seventy-three years later, the refugees continue to languish in despicable camps while Israel became a global power. To this day, Hamas, Islamic Jihad, and their like continue to preach the gospel of Israel’s imminent destruction, when their own ruin is hanging on Israel’s whims.
I challenge every Palestinian to show me under what circumstance will the right of return come to fruition, when resettlement and/or compensation offers the only solution? I challenge every Israeli to show me how Israel can force the Palestinians to abandon their right to make East Jerusalem the capital of their future state. I challenge every Palestinian to show me how they can force Israel to relinquish most of the settlements in the West Bank. I challenge every Israeli to show me how they can maintain the occupation indefinitely without unending violence and disastrous uprisings.
I challenge every Israeli and Palestinian to show me, is there a way out of coexistence? The interdispersement of Israeli and Palestinian populations in the West Bank, Jerusalem, and Israel proper is not a choice, but an unshakable fact. They must either cooperate and collaborate, and live-in harmony, security, and peace, or continue to kill each other, leaving no winners but losers. Hopelessness, despair, and the next bloody conflagration will await them around the corner.
It’s time for the United States to warn both sides that this endemic conflict must come to an end. President Biden must seize the unfolding tragedy and seek a breakthrough where his predecessors have failed. It must begin with a reconciliation process for a determined period of time with the objective of reaching a lasting peace. The Saudis must be enlisted to entice Israel with normalization, and encourage it to end the occupation. At the same time, the Saudis must persuade the Palestinians that their aspiration for a state depends on their forsaking the use of force.
The solution is there for all to see, provided that both sides negotiate in good faith. US and Saudi mediation will be essential until both sides reach an equitable solution. It is a call that Biden must make, forcing the Israelis and Palestinians to wake up to the only reality and not deprive another generation of living in peace that has tragically eluded three generations before.
(Dr. Alon Ben-Meir is a professor of international relations at the Center for Global Affairs at NYU. He teaches courses on international negotiation and Middle Eastern studies.)
France, which has been calling for a rapid ceasefire for several days, said it supports mediation led by Egypt, reports Asian Lite News
France has proposed a resolution with the UN Security Council, in coordination with Egypt and Jordan, calling for a ceasefire in the Israel-Gaza conflict, the president’s office said late Tuesday.
French President Emmanuel Macron and his Egyptian counterpart Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, who is in Paris for summits on Africa, agreed on the resolution in a video conference with Jordan’s King Abdullah II, the statement said.
“The three countries agreed on three simple elements: The shooting must stop, the time has come for a ceasefire and the UN Security Council must take up the issue,” the Elysee Palace said.
France, which has been calling for a rapid ceasefire for several days, said it supports mediation led by Egypt.
Macron had on Monday underlined the importance of Egyptian mediation after talks in Paris with Sisi, a key ally and defence client of France despite activists’ concerns over Cairo’s rights record.
The UN Security Council has failed to adopt a simple declaration on the conflict, with the United States, a staunch Israel ally, having rejected three prior statement drafts proposed by China, Norway and Tunisia which called for an end to the fighting.
China’s UN ambassador Zhang Jun said that during a closed-door meeting, members “heard the proposal made by our French colleague in the Council and for China, definitely, we are supportive to all effort facilitating the ending of the crisis and the coming back of peace in the Middle East.”
Israel says it has no timeframe
Meanwhile, Israel said it was not setting a timeframe for an end to hostilities with Gaza as its military pounded the Palestinian enclave with air strikes and Hamas unleashed new cross-border rocket attacks.
Palestinian medical officials said 219 people had now been killed in 10 days of aerial bombardments which have destroyed roads, buildings and other infrastructure, and worsened the already dire humanitarian situation in Gaza.
Israeli authorities put the death toll at 12 in Israel, where repeated rocket attacks have caused panic and sent people rushing into shelters. Regional and U.S.-led diplomatic efforts to secure a ceasefire have intensified but so far failed.
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 question-and-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 timeframe.”
In a 25-minute attack overnight, Israel bombarded targets including what its military said were tunnels in the southern Gaza Strip used by Hamas, the Islamist group that governs Gaza.
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.
India’s May 16 statement on the current conflict at the UN Security Council was exceptionally nuanced and well- crafted to evade all the diplomatic minefields that can come in the way of its dual engagement of Israel and the Arabs, reports Atul Aneja
A web of high stakes in its ties with both Israel and the Arab world, especially the oil rich Gulf countries, is pushing India to join the global effort for an early ceasefire in the ongoing conflict between the Israelis and Palestinians in Gaza.
India’s ties with Israel are deep, multi-layered and strategic. New Delhi relies on Israel not only for critical military hardware, but also for high quality intelligence. The two share common concerns about international terrorism, which were reinforced during the Mumbai 26/11 terror strikes. The duo also has an excellent people-to-people relationship, evident from the arrival in droves of Israeli backpackers, especially those who want to chill-out in a safe haven, following their arduous compulsory military service back home. Because of these multiple factors which have spawned an exceptional relationship, India cannot afford to antagonise Israel in the international fora on the Israel-Palestine issue.
Yet, India has a historic relationship with the Arabs as well. India has traditionally supported the Palestinian cause – a position that has echoed warmly in the Arab street and generated enormous goodwill for the Indian people, and industry, in the region. But real, pragmatic reasons have also emerged in recent years which have reinforced India’s bonds with the Arabs.
More specifically, India has to be careful to respect the sensitivities of its friends in the Gulf countries. India depends critically on the Gulf countries for its energy security. Second, the Gulf monarchies employ millions of Indian guest workers, who remit billions of dollars to India’s coffers. The people-to-people warmth between the two could not be better, after the Gulf nations became formidable providers of liquid medical oxygen when Indians needed it most during the Covid-19 second wave.
India, therefore cannot go overboard in its support of Israel during a conflict, in deference to the mainstream sentiment in the Gulf street. Finally, India is mindful that its position towards the Arab world in the past, has echoed domestically, including in Kashmir, which it cannot afford to ignore.
Unsurprisingly, India’s May 16 statement on the current conflict at the UN Security Council was exceptionally nuanced and well- crafted to evade all the diplomatic minefields that can come in the way of its dual engagement of Israel and the Arabs.
In its statement, India rejected Hamas rocket firings into Israel, which has killed an Indian caregiver, Soumya Santhosh. It described the use of formidable force by Israel as “retaliatory strikes” to the Hamas’ “indiscriminatory” rocket attacks, pushing the Israeli action into the grey-zone of self-defence. India’s position is in tune with its rejection of cross-border rocket attacks, in view of Pakistan’s bid to push terrorists across of the Line of Control (LoC).
But simultaneously, India has stuck to the standard UN-backed “two-state” formulation, as the basis for ending the Israel-Palestine conflict. “Immediate de-escalation is the need of the hour, so as to arrest any further slide towards the brink. We urge both sides to show extreme restraint, desist from actions that exacerbate tensions, and refrain from attempts to unilaterally change the existing status quo, including in East Jerusalem and its neighbourhood,” the Indian statement said.
Given the tug-of-war on its position on the conflict, it is in India’s interest that the warring between Israel and the Palestinians in Gaza ends quickly. In seeking peace, India would be inevitably joined by its partners in the Gulf countries, who would sincerely want the violence to end, to preserve their recent position of recognising the state of Israel.
52K displaced
A UN report said on Tuesday that 52,000 Palestinians took refuge at schools run by the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) in the Gaza Strip, as a round of probably heaviest fighting between Israel and Gaza since 2014 has lasted nine days, the Palestinian news agency WAFA reported.
The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said in a press statement that Israeli fighter jets destroyed, either totally or partially, 448 constructions in the Palestinian coastal enclave since May 10, Xinhua reported.
Jens Laerke, a spokesman for OCHA, said in the statement that 132 buildings were completely destroyed and 316 partially destroyed, including six hospitals and nine healthcare centres.
Meanwhile, the government press office in Gaza said Israeli fighter jets carried out at least 1,615 airstrikes on the Gaza Strip in the last nine days, targeting homes, buildings, government establishments and infrastructure.
An Israeli military statement said 60 fighter jets were sent to bomb underground tunnels belonging to Hamas in Gaza while more than 100 missiles were fired in 35 minutes early on Tuesday morning.
Meanwhile, militant groups led by Hamas fired over 100 rockets from Gaza at Israeli towns and cities, but 70 of them were intercepted, the statement added.
According to a statement by the health ministry in Gaza, a total of 213 Palestinians, including 61 children and 36 women, were killed and 1,442 others injured in the recent Israeli air attacks on the besieged Palestinian enclave.
Calls for immediate cessation
Josep Borrell, the European Union’s (EU) foreign policy chief, called on Tuesday for the “immediate cessation of all violence and implementation of a ceasefire” between Israel and Palestine.
At a press briefing after the EU foreign ministers’ video conference on the Middle East situation on Tuesday afternoon, Borrell cited a statement backed by 26 member states but blocked by Hungary’s veto as Budapest supports Israel, Xinhua reported.
The EU has thus been prevented from taking a common position on the escalating Middle East conflict.
“The purpose (of the call for a ceasefire) is to protect civilians and to give full humanitarian access in Gaza,” Borrell said. He added that the violence in the past few days has led to a high number of civilian casualties, including children and women.
“We condemn the rocket attacks by Hamas and other terrorist groups on the Israeli territory, and we fully support Israel’s right to defense, but we have also considered and stated that this has to be done in a proportionate manner and respecting international humanitarian law,” Borrell said.
He said that the security of Israel and Palestine requires a true political solution because only that could bring peace.
He called for reopening the political process, exploring reengagement between the conflicting parties, developing confidence-building measures and improving the living standard of the people in order to open a path towards a potential launching of the peace process, which has been in a stalemate for too long.
Rivlin telephoned Soumya’s husband Santosh and his sister Sophie and expressed condolences on behalf of the Israel government and its people….reports Asian Lite News
The President of Israel, Reuven Rivlin, on Tuesday called up the family of Soumya Santosh, a caregiver from Kerala who lost her life during a Hamas strike in Israel on May 11.
Rivlin telephoned Soumya’s husband Santosh and his sister Sophie and expressed condolences on behalf of the Israel government and its people.
Hailing from Idukki in Kerala, Santosh (30), who worked as a caregiver to an 83-year-old Holocaust survivor in Israel, was among those killed in a rocket attack by the Palestinian Islamist group on May 11.
Sophie, who had worked as a caregiver in Israel for 13 years before returning to Kerala four months back, told IANS, “The President of Israel called us and expressed condolences on behalf of the people of Israel. The President told us that the people of Israel are with us and that the government of Israel will stand with the family at this time of grief and extend all its support to us.”
Israel President Reuven Rivlin. (File Photo: IANS)
It may be noted that the Consul General of Israel to south India, Jonathan Zadka, had met the family of Soumya and expressed his condolences. He had told mediapersons that Soumya was an angel who was killed in a terror attack on the people of Israel.
Zadka told IANS on Tuesday, “From our part, I can only say that President Reuven Rivlin called Santosh earlier today to convey his condolence and show solidarity of the people of Israel with the family. He spoke to him conveying his sympathies and condolences for the loss of Soumya in a terror attack.”
