GAZA — Diplomatic moves towards a ceasefire in the
Israeli-Palestinian conflict gathered pace on Thursday after US President Joe
Biden called for a de-escalation, but Israel kept up its bombardment of Gaza
and Hamas rocket fire resumed after a pause.
اضافة اعلان
A senior official in the Hamas group predicted a ceasefire
within days. An Israeli minister said Israel would halt its offensive only when
it had achieved its goals.
Rocket attacks on Israel stopped for eight hours on Thursday
— the 11th day of hostilities — before resuming against communities near the
Israel-Gaza border.
Israel kept up its air strikes in Hamas-run Gaza, saying it
wanted to deter the Islamist group from future confrontation after the current
conflict halted.
Since the fighting began on May 10, health officials in Gaza
say 228 Palestinians have been killed in aerial bombardments that have worsened
an already dire humanitarian situation.
Israeli authorities put the death toll to date at 12 in
Israel, where repeated rocket attacks have caused panic and sent people rushing
into shelters.
Biden on Wednesday urged Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin
Netanyahu to seek a "de-escalation". An Egyptian security source said
the sides had agreed in principle to a ceasefire but details needed to be
worked out.
A Hamas political official, Moussa Abu Marzouk, said he
believed the efforts to reach a ceasefire would succeed.
"I expect a ceasefire to be reached within a day or
two, and the ceasefire will be on the basis of mutual agreement."
Asked on Israel's Kan public radio if a truce would begin on
Friday, Intelligence Minister Eli Cohen said: "No. We are definitely
seeing very significant international pressure... we will finish the operation
when we decide we have attained our goals."
Qatar-based Al Jazeera television reported that UN Middle
East peace envoy Tor Wennesland was meeting Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh in
Qatar.
Israel carried out over a dozen air strikes on Gaza after
midnight, targeting what it claimed was a weapons storage unit in the home of a
Hamas official, and military infrastructure in the homes of other commanders
from the group.
Hamas-run radio said a woman was killed and four children
were wounded in one attack on the town of Khan Younis in southern Gaza.
Witnesses said several main roads were also damaged in the air strikes.
Nearly 450 buildings in Gaza have been destroyed or badly
damaged, including six hospitals and nine primary care health centers, the
United Nations humanitarian agency has said. More than 52,000 people have fled
their homes and most are sheltering in UN-run schools in Gaza, which is
blockaded by Israel and Egypt.
Israelis living in areas frequently targeted by rocket fire
began their workday on Thursday without the usual sound of warning sirens. But
after an eight-hour break, the sirens blared again in southern Israel. No
casualties or damage were reported.
Israel said some 4,000 rockets have been launched at it from
Gaza, some falling short and others shot down by its Iron Dome air defenses.
Diplomacy
Washington and several Middle East governments have sought
an end to the violence through diplomacy. The United Nations General Assembly
was due to meet on the conflict on Thursday with several foreign ministers
taking part, but it was not expected to take action.
The US mission said it would not support a French call for a
resolution in the 15-member UN Security Council, saying it believed such
actions would undermine efforts to de-escalate violence.
Commenting on Biden's push to lower the intensity of
fighting in a movement towards a ceasefire, Gilad Erdan, Israel's ambassador to
the United States and the United Nations, said Israel also wanted to see
hostilities end quickly.
But, he told Kan radio, "for this to happen ... we have
to feel that Hamas infrastructure has been hit significantly, and that it
understands that it won't be worth it to fire rockets again at Israeli citizens
several weeks from now."
Any ceasefire is unlikely to address the fundamental issues
in the conflict. Palestinian aspirations for an independent state free of
Israeli occupation have received several setbacks in recent years, while an
international peace process based on finding a two-state solution which also
guarantees Israel's security has run aground.
Hamas began firing rockets on May 10 in retaliation for what
it called Israeli rights abuses against Palestinians in occupied Jerusalem
during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.
The rocket attacks followed Israeli police clashes with
worshippers at Al-Aqsa Mosque/Al-Haram Al-Sharif in Jerusalem and efforts by
Israeli settlers to evict Palestinians from a neighborhood in occupied East
Jerusalem.
The hostilities are the most serious between Hamas and
Israel in years, and, in a departure from previous Gaza conflicts, have helped
fuel street violence in Israeli cities between Jews and Arabs.
The conflict has also stoked violence in the occupied West
Bank, where Palestinian officials said at least 21 Palestinians have been killed
in clashes with Israeli occupation forces or other incidents since May 10.
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