Gaza conflict rages on!

Agencies | Gaza

The Daily Tribune – www.newsofbahrain.com

Rockets and artillery fires continued to take lives and pound the Gaza strip yesterday, defying all ceasefire efforts and leaving no sign of an end to the worst escalation since 2014.

Missiles also brought down a 12-storey Gaza tower block that housed news media organisations. US and Arab diplomats are seeking to halt almost a week of conflict but efforts have yet to gain traction.

Palestinian medics said the Israeli bombardment killed more than 15 Palestinians in Gaza overnight and yesterday. Casualties also include a woman and four of her children who died when rockets hit their house in a refugee camp.

Attacks also killed five others. Since the conflict erupted on Monday, at least 145 people, including 41 children, have been killed in Gaza.

Israel has reported ten dead, including two children. The tower block destroyed in the attack yesterday housed the US Associated Press and Qatar-based Al Jazeera media operations, and other offices and apartments.

However, all of them evacuated the building based on an attack warning, and no one was injured. The United States told Israel “that ensuring the safety and security of journalists and independent media is a paramount responsibility,” White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said.

US President Joe Biden later spoke to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to urge calm.

Both sides said the US President reaffirmed his support for a two-state solution to the conflict, and the White House said Biden was committed to “strengthening the US-Palestinian partnership”, which reached a nadir under the Trump administration.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas received an “important” phone call on Saturday from US President Joe Biden, Abbas’s spokesman said, the first call between the two leaders since Biden took office in January.

Biden’s envoy Hady Amr, deputy assistant secretary for Israel and Palestinian affairs, arrived in Israel on Friday, before a meeting on Sunday of the UN Security Council. The US Embassy said that the envoy aimed “to reinforce the need to work toward a sustainable calm”. The United Arab Emirates and Bahrain called on Friday for a ceasefire and talks, offering condolences to all victims.