Abbas backs Hamas ceasefire demands as Gaza death toll reaches 649

Wednesday, 23 July 2014

Abbas backs Hamas ceasefire demands as Gaza death toll reaches 649

A relative carries a nine-year-old Palestinian girl, Shahed Qishtah, into the Kamal Adwan hospital in Beit Lahia after she was injured in an Israeli strike while playing on July 22, 2014 in the northern Gaza Strip. Shahed died later of her injuries.(Photo: AFP - Marco Longari)

Published Wednesday, July 23, 2014

Updated 10:26 am: The Palestinian Authority on Wednesday endorsed demands by Hamas for halting Gaza hostilities with Israel, a closing of ranks that may help Egyptian-mediated truce efforts as the Palestinian death toll in the Israeli assault rose to 649.

As the violence entered its 16th day, Palestinian emergency services said that at least six people were killed early Wednesday during prolonged shelling of the southern town of Khan Younis and 20 more were wounded, most of them seriously.

Two more were killed by Israeli fire in the north of the Strip, they said. According to Gaza Health Ministry spokesperson Ashraf al-Qudra, at least 4,120 Palestinians have been wounded since the beginning of the US-backed Israeli aggression.

Hamas and other armed factions had balked at a truce proposal drafted by the Israeli-backed regime in Cairo, saying they wanted assurances of relief from an Israeli-Egyptian blockade and other concessions.

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

"The Gaza demands of stopping the aggression and lifting the blockade in all its forms are the demands of the entire Palestinian people and they represent the goal that the Palestinian leadership has dedicated all its power to achieve," senior PLO official Yasser Abed Rabbo said in Ramallah.

"We are confident Gaza will not be broken as long as our people are standing beside it to support it through all possible means until the invaders understand that our great people inside the homeland and outside will not leave Gaza alone."

Abbas' Fatah faction on Tuesday proposed a truce followed by five days of negotiations on terms.

There was no immediate response to the PLO statement from Hamas or Israel, which pressed the Gaza offensive it began on July 8.

Abbas pledged that Israel would be held accountable for Gaza deaths.

"We will pursue all those who commit crimes against our people, however long it takes," he said in televised comments ahead of an emergency meeting of the Palestinian leadership in Ramallah.

The meeting's concluding statement called for "widespread popular protest in solidarity with Gaza and the resistance."

Shortly afterwards, Israeli forces shot dead a Palestinian man in clashes at the West Bank village of Hussan, near Bethlehem, Palestinian security sources told AFP.

Israel said it would only halt its Gaza offensive after laying waste to a sophisticated network of tunnels allegedly used for cross-border attacks.

Gaza Tunnels Doom

A ceasefire "won't happen before we really finish the tunnels project," Justice Minister Tzipi Livni said.

She said Hamas's "completely unacceptable" preconditions for a truce had "no chance of being accepted by anyone."

Hamas has laid out a list of demands for halting its fire, including a lifting of Israel's eight-year blockade on Gaza, the release of dozens of prisoners, and the opening of its Rafah border crossing with Egypt.

The Egyptian plan for a ceasefire does not specify a timeline for easing the blockade, saying "crossings shall be opened and the passage of persons and goods through border crossings shall be facilitated once the security situation becomes stable on the ground."

Since the Egyptian army toppled President Mohammed Mursi in July 2013, relations between Egypt and the besieged Palestinian enclave have been severely frayed, as Sisi accuses Hamas of being allied with Mursi’s Muslim Brotherhood movement.

An Egyptian ceasefire proposal was rejected by Hamas last week as the Palestinian group said it had not been consulted by Egypt.

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, on a visit to Tel Aviv, appealed on Tuesday for Israel and Hamas to "stop fighting" and "start talking."

Following top-level talks in Cairo, Ban went to Tel Aviv and appealed to both sides to lay down arms.

"Stop fighting, start talking and take on the root causes of the conflict so that we are not at the same situation in the next six months or a year."

The UN chief described rocket fire by Hamas and other Palestinian groups as "shocking" and said it must "stop immediately."

He added that Israel must exercise "maximum restraint" in Gaza -- in contrast to his stronger exhortations for Palestinians -- and he urged it to take a hard look at some of the root causes of the conflict "so people will not feel they have to resort to violence as a means of expressing their grievances."

Meanwhile in Cairo, Kerry discussed ceasefire proposals with Egypt's President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi.

The top US diplomat again placed the onus on Hamas to accept a ceasefire, backing an Egyptian truce initiative as a "framework" to end the fighting.

Meanwhile in Gaza, Israeli fire on Tuesday hit a UN school sheltering the displaced for the second time in two days, said the United Nations' Palestinian refugee agency, UNRWA.

"UNRWA condemns in the strongest possible terms the shelling of one of its schools in the central area of Gaza," it said in a statement.

"The location of the school and the fact that it was housing internally displaced persons had been formally communicated to Israel on three separate occasions. We have called on the Israeli authorities to carry out an immediate and comprehensive investigation."

During the offensive, more than 100,000 Gazans have fled their homes, seeking shelter in 69 schools run by UNRWA.

Early Wednesday the Israeli military announced the deaths of two soldiers killed in the Gaza fighting the night before, bringing the Israeli toll to 29 soldiers and two civilians.

The army on Tuesday confirmed the death of a soldier who Hamas claimed it had kidnapped, but said his remains were unaccounted for.

The European Union appealed to Israel to keep its military operation in Gaza "proportionate" and for "all sides to implement in good faith an immediate ceasefire," a statement from a meeting of European foreign ministers in Brussels said.

It added that "All terrorist groups in Gaza must disarm," a comment welcomed by Israel.

(AFP, Reuters, Al-Akhbar)