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Israel continues to pound Gaza; diplomats seek ceasefire

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The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration halted air travel to or from Tel Aviv, Israel for at least 24 hours after a rocket fired from Gaza struck near the Ben-Gurion International Airport. CREDIT: REUTERS/MOHAMMED SALEM
The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration halted air travel to or from Tel Aviv, Israel for at least 24 hours after a rocket fired from Gaza struck near the Ben-Gurion International Airport.
CREDIT: REUTERS/MOHAMMED SALEM
Israeli forces pounded multiple sites across the Gaza Strip on Wednesday, including the enclave’s sole power plant, and said it was meeting stiff resistance from Hamas Islamists, as diplomats sought to end the bloodshed.

In a blow to Israel’s economy, U.S. and European air carriers halted flights in and out of Tel Aviv citing security worries after a militant rocket from Gaza hit a house near the airport. Israel urged a re-think, saying its airspace was safe.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry was in Egypt and U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon in Israel, spearheading international efforts to secure a ceasefire. Hamas ally Qatar was also working in the background to seek a solution.

Israel launched its offensive on July 8 to halt missile salvoes by Hamas Islamists, which was angered by a crackdown on its supporters in the nearby occupied West Bank and suffering economic hardship because of an Israeli-Egyptian blockade.

After failing to halt the militant barrage through days of aerial bombardment, Israel sent ground troops into Gaza last Thursday, looking to knock out Hamas’s missile stores and destroy a vast, underground network of tunnels.

Some 630 Palestinians, many of them children and civilians have died in the conflagration, including a seven-year-old hit by a shell in southern Gaza early Wednesday, a medic said.

Some 29 Israeli soldiers have been killed, including a tank officer who was shot by a Palestinian sniper overnight. Two civilians have been slain by rocket fire. The military says one of its soldiers is also missing and believes he might be dead. Hamas says it has seized him, but has not released his picture.

Clouds of black smoke hung over the densely populated Mediterranean enclave, with the regular thud of artillery and tank shells filling the air.

“We are meeting resistance around the tunnels … they are constantly trying to attack us around and in the tunnels. That is the trend,” said Israeli military spokesman Lieutenant-Colonel Peter Lerner.

He said 30 militant gunman had been killed overnight, bringing the total to 210 since the offensive started.

Hamas’s armed wing, the Izz el-Deen Al-Qassam, said its fighters had detonated an anti-personnel bomb as an Israeli army patrol passed, killing several troops. There was no immediate confirmation from Israel.

There was also violence in the occupied West Bank, where a Palestinian was shot dead by Israeli troops near Bethlehem. The army said soldiers fired a rubber bullet at him during clashes with Palestinians hurling rocks and Molotov cocktails.

PALESTINIAN DEMANDS

The Palestinian decision-making body led by U.S.-backed President Mahmoud Abbas on Wednesday endorsed demands by Hamas for halting Gaza hostilities with Israel, a closing of ranks that may help Egyptian-mediated truce efforts.

Egypt has tried to get both sides to hold fire and then negotiate terms for protracted calm in Gaza, which has been rocked by regular bouts of violence since Israel unilaterally pulled out of the territory in 2005.

Hamas, which refuses to recognize Israel’s right to exist, has baulked at Cairo’s offer, saying it wanted assurances of relief from an Israeli-Egyptian blockade and other concessions. The dispute was further complicated by distrust between Egypt under President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi and Hamas.

In a move that could effectively turn Abbas into the main Palestinian point person for a Gaza truce, his umbrella Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) on Wednesday formally supported core conditions set by the Hamas-led fighters.

Egyptian sources, speaking on Tuesday as top U.S. diplomat Kerry visited Cairo to advance truce efforts, said a unified Palestinian position could help achieve a deal. Unlike Hamas, the PLO has pursued peacemaking for two decades.

Israel faced mounting international alarm at the civilian death toll, as well as increased economic pressure from lost tourism revenues after the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) took the rare step on Tuesday of banning flights to Tel Aviv’s Ben-Gurion International Airport for at least 24 hours.

European airlines also canceled flights to Israel, whose own carriers continued to operate.

An Israeli official said Netanyahu had asked Kerry to help restore the U.S. flights. A U.S. official said the Obama administration would not “overrule the FAA” on a security precaution but noted the ban would be reviewed after 24 hours.

FOCUS ON HAMAS

Because Washington, like Israel and the European Union, deems Hamas a terrorist group, they have no direct contact and Washington must rely on proxies such as Egypt, Qatar and Turkey.

In a sign of the intensity of the U.S. diplomacy, Kerry spoke to Netanyahu and to Qatari and Turkish foreign ministers after meeting Sisi for two hours, a senior U.S. official said.

“The Egyptians have provided a framework and a forum for them to be able to come to the table to have a serious discussion together with other factions of the Palestinians,” Kerry said. “Hamas has a fundamental choice to make and it is a choice that will have a profound impact for the people of Gaza.”

Hamas says it will keep fighting until its demands are met, including the release of several hundred supporters recently arrested in the West Bank and a freeing up of Gaza’s borders.

Adding to the enclave’s woes, residents said Israel shelled their power plant which provides electricity to half the people of Gaza. Electricity supplies from Israel were hit last week, with Israel saying militant rockets had damaged infrastructure.

The upcoming Eid al-Fitr festival – Islam’s biggest annual celebration that follows the end of the fasting month of Ramadan this weekend – could provide all sides with a convenient moment to agree to a cease-fire.

Asked about Eid, a senior Obama administration official said: “It’s a potential opportunity. We want there to be a cease-fire as soon as possible basically, and insofar as that’s a marker that can compel Hamas to the table that would be a good thing, but the bottom line is they’re going to have to stop firing rockets.”

The Israeli army spokesman said that while militants continued to fire out of Gaza, there had been “a substantial decline” in attacks over the previous 24 hours.

Reuters

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6 responses to “Israel continues to pound Gaza; diplomats seek ceasefire”

  1. Satish Chandra Avatar
    Satish Chandra

    (July 22, 2014) : I have pointed out that India is now the sole superpower — because of its nuclear warheads emplaced in Washington, New York and other U.S. cities ready to be exploded to destroy Washington and New York with a warning that additional U.S. cities will be destroyed if there is any retaliation or sign of retaliation — and can compel the United States to do anything it wants it to do and, through the United States, compel any other country to do whatever it wants it to do. At present, India’s nuclear forces stand ready to destroy Washington and New York with a warning that additional U.S. cities will be destroyed unless it uses its ICBMs to destroy Tel Aviv, Haifa and Jerusalem if Israel does not stop its invasion of Gaza.

    (July 20, 2014) CAN TAMIL BE COMPARED TO SANSKRIT?

    Tamilian Jayalalitha objects to observing a Sanskrit week and demands a “classical languages week” putting Tamil at the same level as Sanskrit. Sanskrit mantras can command the forces of nature; anyone can see videos of thousands of practitioners of Transcendental Meditation spectacularly overcoming gravity every day and this is a trivial example of the power of Sanskrit. Can Tamil do that? No language can be compared to Dev Bhasha Sanskrit. I was aghast to see on Bharat-Rakshak — a collection of bhangis and chamars — someone say Jews are the Brahmins of the Middle East, defiling the word ‘Brahmin’ and defiling India. Any Indian, no matter what his caste, is higher than a Westerner who by definition are ‘mlecchas’ and the lowliest worm is higher than a Jew. To restore social order, Jews and Americans must be denied entry to India just as they would be denied entry to a temple.

    (July 17, 2014) MALAYSIAN AIRLINER THAT CRASHED IN UKRAINE WAS BROUGHT DOWN BY MICROWAVE SIGNALS FROM UNITED STATES NATIONAL SECURITY AGENCY SATELLITES. See ‘Indian Air Force Pilots’ Murder’ : IndianAirForcePilotsMurderDOTblogspotDOTcom . This was done to keep the conflict alive and keep the former republics from reuniting as I had suggested below :-

    Russia and Ukraine are a single country temporarily separated by the machinations of the CIA. They should forget everything and re-unite with the help of other republics that were part of the same country, with no role for the EU or the UN. A body of representatives of the former republics including Russia and Ukraine should by consensus make all decisions which everyone has to abide by. The separate republics are the result of a voluntary dissolution of a utopian state because of its leaders’ willingness to experiment. By now it is clear that the republics should re-integrate.

    Ukrainians should at least suspend their strife till after the destruction of the United States. Indians are going crazy that, in response to my reference to Modi fighting for a U.S. visa, the United States wants to “honor” Modi by having him address a joint session of U.S. Congress. They are silent about the honor given to the greatest Indian of all time:- “”India’s greatest scientist and greatest living Indian publicly tortured in Harvard seminar, systematically and totally starved for up to 3 weeks at a time, made semi-starved and homeless and even blind for years, kept under 24-hour audio and video surveillance as well as surveillance of [and interference with] communications and electrical typewriter and computer use, document creation and photocopying, etc., by satellite for more than past 3 decades, systematically harassed and in poverty and neutralised and robbed of his work at the cost of hundreds of millions of dollars per year, robbed of crores in his money and property in India by C.I.A.-RAW, forced back into exile in the U.S., all with full cooperation and participation of India’s RAW and India’s C.I.A.-RAW-controlled prime ministers, politicians and media — to keep India poor, weak and enslaved” and how this means the nuclear destruction of New Delhi and then the coast-to-coast destruction of the U.S.; see my blog titled ‘Nuclear Supremacy For India Over U.S.’ which can be found by a Yahoo/Google search with the title; my biography can be found in Marquis’ Who’s Who in the World, 2014 and earlier editions.” In the past few years I have had India’s nuclear forces emplace India’s nuclear warheads in Washington, New York and other U.S. cities, ready to be exploded. Simultaneously destroying Washington, New York and New Delhi (RAW headquarters, South Block and North Block) with a warning that additional U.S. cities will be similarly destroyed, with nuclear warheads already emplaced in them, if there is any retaliation or sign of retaliation, will immediately make India the supreme military and economic power in the world even before implementing my proposal about money which can make India’s economy grow 30% per year or more. IndiasLegitimateRulerSatishChandraDOTblogspotDOTcom

    FORGET PALESTINIANS, NO ONE HAS DONE MORE DAMAGE TO INDIA THAN THE JEWS. CUT OUT SUSHMA SWARAJ’S UGLY TWAT AND THROW HER ON A DUNG HEAP.

    I have said no one has done more damage to India, in science and in everything else, than the Jews. See ‘This Is What the Jews, Americans and RAW Have Been Doing’ : ThisIsWhatTheJewsHaveBeenDoingDOTblogspotDOTcom . In a letter dated July 27, 1982 to Indira Gandhi as prime minister I referred to an act, by American Jews, that was “the equivalent of an annihilatory nuclear first strike on India”. In her reply dated July 29, 1982 she wrote “Dear Mr. Chandra, I have received your letter dated July 27, 1982 and am passing it on to my Principal Secretary to deal with it. Sincerely, Indira Gandhi”. In December, 1982 I wrote to her “There was sudden, terminal, overwhelming violence against me during a seminar at Harvard University and rather similar occurrences earlier… India can expect sudden, annihilatory violence … with nuclear weapons … against its population … unless it can mount a decisively superior force to stop it”. Following my advice, India’s strategic program, including the Integrated Guided Missile Development Programme and the Centre for Advanced Technology, was started to give India victory in a nuclear war with the United States and because of my influence on her, Indira Gandhi as prime minister was assassinated by CIA-RAW and later when Rajiv Gandhi realized the truth of what I had written to her after the American invasion of Iraq which was the first Gulf War, he was also assassinated by CIA-RAW. In the past few years, I have had India’s nuclear forces emplace nuclear warheads in Washington, New York and other U.S. cities and India is now in a position to destroy the United States without being destroyed. In fact, India is in a position now to destroy the United States without itself suffering a single casualty by triggering its nuclear warheads emplaced in Washington and New York with a warning that additional U.S. cities will be similarly destroyed if there is any retaliation or sign of retaliation. Goonda Modi and his Cabinet are determined to keep India in slavery.

    For the past 37 years, the U.S. National Security Agency has kept me under 24-hour audio, video and communications surveillance by satellite and feeds of this surveillance are provided to India’s RAW as well as to Russian intelligence. When he was president, Bill Clinton held a White House conference on “The New Economy” which results from my proposal about money described in “How India’s Economy Can Grow 30% Per Year Or More” : HowIndiasEconomyCanGrowDOTblogsourDOTcom . The CIA has been stealing my intellectually property for the past 37 years while inflicting as much injury and degradation on me as possible with the fullest participation of just about everyone who is anyone in the American government, media, academia, etc.; this is one reason why the United States has to be destroyed by India’s nuclear forces.

    Satish Chandra

    1. 5thDrawer Avatar
      5thDrawer

      (this guy is in a ‘caste’ of his own ….. send him a Holy Cow, Batman. ;-))

      1. MekensehParty Avatar
        MekensehParty

        I wanted to comment on his delusions but hey, we have plenty of clowns in here (me included) so let the guy fart it all out and sleep better.

        1. 5thDrawer Avatar
          5thDrawer

          I guess. We can see it’s all Brahmin Bull anyway. 🙂

  2. MekensehParty Avatar
    MekensehParty

    This war is about cleaning Hamas from all Iranian influence and leaving the Qatari Hamas stooges alive so that they can fill in the empty spots. Israel will keep hammering Gaza and Hamas will keep refusing cease-fires until the job is done, a job they both agree on.

    1. 5thDrawer Avatar
      5thDrawer

      Sounds workable …

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