The war in Gaza will continue for at least another seven months, Benjamin Netanyahu’s national security adviser has suggested as more tanks rolled into Rafah on Wednesday May 29.
“We expect another seven months of combat in order to shore up our achievement and realise what we define as the destruction of Hamas and Islamic Jihad’s military and governing capabilities,”
Tzachi Hanegbi said in a radio interview with Kan, the Israeli public broadcaster.
He went on to insist that fighting in Rafah “is not a pointless war”, reiterating that Israel’s aim was to end the terror group Hamas’s rule in Gaza.
Gaza could be called Gaza Strip a famine-stricken zone where sewage water is overflowing between tents, and where people are without any supply of water and no prospect of better times.
They have been urged several times to go to a place in Gaza to be safe there, but again and again they were also fired upon by the Israeli army.
Mr. Amjad Shawa, director of the Palestinian NGOs Network in Deir el-Balah said the situation was deteriorating by the minute and was made worse by the
“ruthless, merciless bombardment by the Israeli warplanes.”
Of all the statements in the West about inhumanity and calls to stop violence, Israel does not care much.
Muhammad Eida, a director of a Palestinian NGO, said Israel’s goal was to “starve the population” in Gaza. We cannot get rid of that impression either. We are also increasingly receiving confirmation of what we have long said, that Israel is trying to eradicate a population group. There is a real genocide going on in the Gaza strip.
The director of the Centre of the Defence of Liberties and Civil Rights, Helmy al-Araj, at the end of May, slammed the United States for sending Israel the weapons that bombed a tent camp in Rafah that killed dozens of Palestinians.
He said:
“We reiterate that the US is an accomplice in this crime, as they continue to support Israel and provide them with arms.”
The leaders of the Group of Seven nations gathering at the Italian luxury resort of Borgo Egnazia are still capable of pulling together. They sealed an agreement yesterday to provide Ukraine with about $50 billion of fresh aid in the form of loans repaid using the profits generated by frozen Russian sovereign assets. But there emerged fresh doubts over a truce in the devastating war in Gaza after US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said some of Hamas’s latest demands on a cease-fire proposal backed by Biden are unacceptable. Washington has also been unable to explain why Israel, which has said it won’t stop until the Palestinian militant group is destroyed, would agree to a proposal that lets the group survive.
White House National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan said on Wednesday many of Hamas’ proposed changes were minor “and not unanticipated” while others differed more substantially from what was outlined in a UN Security Council resolution on Monday backing the plan put forward by US President Joe Biden.
Earlier on Wednesday, Izzat al-Rishq, from Hamas’ political bureau based outside Gaza, said its formal response to the U.S. proposal was “responsible, serious and positive” and “opens up a wide pathway” for an accord. Hamas also wants written guarantees from the U.S. on the ceasefire plan, two Egyptian security sources said.
Negotiators from the US, Egypt and Qatar have already tried for months to mediate a ceasefire in the conflict which has killed tens of thousands of Palestinians and devastated the heavily populated enclave – and free the hostages, more than 100 of whom are believed to remain captive in Gaza.
A UN inquiry has alleged that both Israel and Hamas committed war crimes early in the Gaza war, and that Israel’s actions also constituted crimes against humanity because of the immense civilian losses.
The UN Commission of Inquiry (COI) produced two parallel reports, one focusing on the 7 October attacks and another on Israel’s response Israel, which did not cooperate, dismissed the findings as the result of anti-Israeli bias.
The reports released in Geneva, which cover the period to December, found both sides had committed war crimes including torture; murder or willful killing; outrages upon personal dignity; and inhuman or cruel treatment.
Evidence gathered by such UN-mandated bodies can form the basis for war crimes prosecutions. It could be drawn on by the International Criminal Court, where prosecutors last month requested arrest warrants for Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, his defence minister and three Hamas leaders for alleged war crimes. Israel have forcibly denied the accusations.
As diplomats sought a ceasefire deal, Israel continued assaults in central and southern Gaza that are among the bloodiest of the war. Mr Netanyahu has repeatedly said Israel will not commit to end its campaign before Hamas is eliminated.
Some View on the World 