Israel sustains Gaza bombing as rift with US grows
GAZA STRIP, Palestinian Territories—Israel bombed Gaza on Thursday as a top White House adviser was due to arrive in Jerusalem with a rift growing over US calls for its ally to exercise restraint.
The war, now in its third month, began after the Oct. 7 attacks on Israel by Palestinian militant group Hamas that Israeli officials say killed 1,200 people, mostly civilians.
It has left besieged Gaza in ruins, killing more than 18,600 people, mostly women and children, according to the Hamas-run health ministry, and devastating homes, roads, schools and hospitals.
The ministry said Israeli air strikes early Thursday had killed at least 19 people across the Gaza Strip.
In the West Bank, which has also seen a surge in violence since Oct. 7, the Palestinian Authority said two people were killed in Israeli strikes in the city of Jenin.
Doubling downUS President Joe Biden, whose government has provided billions of dollars in military aid to Israel, on Wednesday gave his sharpest rebuke of the war yet, saying Israel’s “indiscriminate bombing” of Gaza was weakening international support.
But Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu doubled down on his offensive, vowing “we are going until the end, until victory, nothing less than that”.
And foreign minister Eli Cohen said the war against Hamas would continue “with or without international support.”
On Thursday, Biden’s national security adviser Jake Sullivan was due to arrive in Jerusalem for talks with Netanyahu and his war Cabinet.
Sullivan told a Wall Street Journal event ahead of his trip he would discuss a timetable to end the war and urge Israeli leaders “to move to a different phase from the kind of high-intensity operations that we see today.”
Netanyahu has said there is also “disagreement” with Washington over how a postconflict Gaza would be governed.
Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh said on Wednesday “any arrangement in Gaza or in the Palestinian cause without Hamas or the resistance factions is a delusion.”
He said Hamas was ready for talks that could lead to a “political path that secures the right of the Palestinian people to their independent state with Jerusalem as its capital.”
‘Darkest chapter’
Diplomatic pressure is mounting on Israel to better protect civilians, with the UN General Assembly this week overwhelmingly backing a non-binding resolution for a ceasefire.
While Washington voted against, the resolution was supported by allies Australia, Canada and New Zealand, who, in a rare joint statement, said they were “alarmed at the diminishing safe space for civilians in Gaza.”
CNN reported on Wednesday citing US intelligence that nearly half of the air-to-ground munitions used by Israel in Gaza since Oct. 7 have been unguided, which can pose a greater threat to civilians.
The head of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, Philippe Lazzarini, said on Wednesday that Gazans were “facing the darkest chapter of their history.”
Growing troop toll
In Israel, the army is coming under growing pressure to limit troop deaths and secure the release of hostages.
It has lost 115 soldiers, including 10 on Tuesday, its deadliest day since the ground assault began on Oct. 27.
In the Oct. 7 attack—the deadliest in Israel’s 75-year history—Hamas also seized around 240 hostages.
Hamas released dozens of hostages in exchange for Palestinian prisoners held by Israel during a weeklong truce last month, but others have been found dead. —AFP
