Israel’s parliament passed a resolution against the creation of a Palestinian state on Thursday, sparking international criticism and American embarrassment as Israel pounded the Gaza Strip despite calls for a ceasefire.
What there is to know
- The war was triggered on October 7 by an attack by Hamas commandos infiltrated from Gaza into southern Israel.
- This resulted in the death of 1,195 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP count based on official Israeli data.
- Of the 251 people abducted, 116 are still being held in Gaza, 42 of whom are dead, according to the army.
- In response, Israel launched an offensive in the Palestinian territory, which has so far killed 38,848 people, mostly civilians, including at least 54 in the past 24 hours, according to data from the Health Ministry of the Hamas-led Gaza government.
At 10e months of the war triggered on October 7 by an unprecedented attack by Hamas against Israel, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visited troops in Rafah, in the south of the Palestinian territory. He welcomed, according to his office, the “military pressure” exerted on the Palestinian Islamist movement as a means of “advancing” an agreement for the release of the hostages held in Gaza.
The symbolic resolution, adopted by the Knesset, “firmly opposes the creation of a Palestinian state west of the Jordan River” in the West Bank, a Palestinian territory occupied by Israel since 1967, or in Gaza.
Such a state would constitute “an existential danger” to Israel, states the resolution, voted on ahead of a visit to Washington by Mr Netanyahu, who is due to address Congress on July 24 and is due, according to the White House, to meet with President Joe Biden if the latter has recovered from COVID-19.
PHOTO AVI OHAYON/GPO, PROVIDED BY REUTERS
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visits troops in Rafah.
In the devastated Gaza Strip, which is under siege by Israel, the Hamas Health Ministry reported at least 37 deaths, mostly women and children, in Israeli strikes.
“We watch our children die and we wake up and sleep in fear,” laments a Palestinian woman standing in the rubble of her home, who said she lost her daughter, grandchildren and son-in-law in the central Deir al-Balah area.
PHOTO BASHAR TALEB, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
People carry the body of a person after corpses were dug up from a temporary grave at al-Amal hospital in Khan Younis and handed over to their families for burial.
The army claimed to have “eliminated” two commanders of the Islamic Jihad, an ally of Hamas, in Gaza and “several terrorists” in Rafah.
” Bloodbath “
The Hamas attack on October 7 in southern Israel resulted in the deaths of 1,195 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP count based on official Israeli data.
Of the 251 people abducted, 116 are still being held in Gaza, 42 of whom are dead, according to the army.
The large-scale Israeli offensive launched in response in Gaza has so far killed 38,848 people, mostly civilians, according to data from the Health Ministry of the Hamas-run Gaza government.
PHOTO BASHAR TALEB, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
Women stand near the grave of a family member after bodies were dug up from temporary graves at al-Amal hospital in Khan Younis, southern Gaza Strip.
Mr Netanyahu is sticking to his guns to continue the war to eliminate Hamas – in power in Gaza since 2007 and considered a terrorist group by the United States, the European Union and Israel – and to free all the hostages.
“The bloodbath in Gaza must stop immediately,” declared the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, before the European Parliament, calling for “an immediate ceasefire” and “the release of the hostages.”
“Health disaster”
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres was “very disappointed” by the Knesset vote, his spokesman said. “We cannot vote away the two-state solution,” which he called “the only viable path” to resolving the decades-old Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
PHOTO SERGEI SAVOSTYANOV, SPUTNIK AGENCY ARCHIVES BY REUTERS
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres
Without commenting on the adoption of the resolution, US National Security Council spokesman John Kirby reaffirmed the United States’ faith “in the power and promise of the two-state solution.”
France expressed its “consternation” after this resolution, condemned by Egypt and Jordan.
The war has plunged the Palestinian territory into a humanitarian disaster with more than half of its 2.4 million people displaced and in dire need.
The NGO Oxfam has denounced “Israel’s use of water as a weapon of war”. And the Dutch peace-promoting NGO PAX has pointed to the health threat in a territory “drowned” under waste and rubble.
The Hamas Health Ministry claimed that a polio virus had been detected in Gaza “in sewage” during tests conducted in coordination with UNICEF, suggesting “a real health disaster.” The Israeli Health Ministry said that the presence of a polio virus “type 2 has been detected in sewage samples” from Gaza.
Mr Netanyahu, for his part, cancelled an order given by his defence minister to set up a field hospital in Israel to treat children from the Palestinian territory, where the health system is bled dry.
On Israel’s northern front in Lebanon, five people, including a commander of the Lebanese Hezbollah and another from an allied group, were killed in Israeli strikes, according to these groups and a security source. In response, Hezbollah launched “explosive drones” on two military bases in northern Israel.