abomokhtar
24-07-2014, 06:41 PM
How much more of a pummelling can Gaza take? The fatality count mounts to around 750 Palestinians (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/palestinianauthority/) and 35 Israelis (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/israel/). The civilian infrastructure in Gaza is creaking under the Israeli assault. Power, water and medicines are fast disappearing from Gaza, not least after Israeli strikes on its sole power plant.
At last, the diplomatic efforts for a ceasefire have moved out of first gear, with US Secretary of State, John Kerry, and the UN Secretary-General, Ban Ki-moon, doing the rounds. As was the case during Israel’s previous wars with Gaza, initial understanding of the Israeli position among international leaders gives way to increasing horror and outrage at the scale of the onslaught and the mountains of rubble.
An immediate ceasefire was the desirable outcome. Hamas rejected initial offers and has to answer for doing so. This in no way excuses the Israeli aggression that has been heaped on this overpopulated, under-resourced strip of land.
Israeli officials claim that they offered “quiet for quiet”. A ceasefire for Israelis equals a normal life. But that's not the case Palestinians, for whom the seven-year blockade is a daily aggression. For ordinary Palestinian citizens, the blockade means being unable to fish beyond three nautical miles off the shore of Gaza. They cannot travel and trade freely, meaning that 70 per cent of the population is aid dependent, a figure that has surely risen over the last three weeks. Palestinians briefly had an airport, only to see it bombed. They were even promised a port under Oslo, but nothing materialised.
The key Palestinian demand is that they escape becoming what David Cameron in 2010 referred to “a giant open prison in Gaza." As one Palestinian from Gaza said to me: “We are all prisoners, including women and children. Our kids are born in captivity. What would Americans do it they were born in Alcatraz? Would they just sit back and wait to be released?”
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/10988692/Unless-Israel-lifts-its-blockade-of-Gaza-no-ceasefire-can-work.html
At last, the diplomatic efforts for a ceasefire have moved out of first gear, with US Secretary of State, John Kerry, and the UN Secretary-General, Ban Ki-moon, doing the rounds. As was the case during Israel’s previous wars with Gaza, initial understanding of the Israeli position among international leaders gives way to increasing horror and outrage at the scale of the onslaught and the mountains of rubble.
An immediate ceasefire was the desirable outcome. Hamas rejected initial offers and has to answer for doing so. This in no way excuses the Israeli aggression that has been heaped on this overpopulated, under-resourced strip of land.
Israeli officials claim that they offered “quiet for quiet”. A ceasefire for Israelis equals a normal life. But that's not the case Palestinians, for whom the seven-year blockade is a daily aggression. For ordinary Palestinian citizens, the blockade means being unable to fish beyond three nautical miles off the shore of Gaza. They cannot travel and trade freely, meaning that 70 per cent of the population is aid dependent, a figure that has surely risen over the last three weeks. Palestinians briefly had an airport, only to see it bombed. They were even promised a port under Oslo, but nothing materialised.
The key Palestinian demand is that they escape becoming what David Cameron in 2010 referred to “a giant open prison in Gaza." As one Palestinian from Gaza said to me: “We are all prisoners, including women and children. Our kids are born in captivity. What would Americans do it they were born in Alcatraz? Would they just sit back and wait to be released?”
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/10988692/Unless-Israel-lifts-its-blockade-of-Gaza-no-ceasefire-can-work.html