Israeli air strikes killed four Palestinians in the Gaza Strip on Friday, two in Deir al-Balah and two in Nusseirat, an emergency services spokesman said.The strike in Nusseirat hit a house, killing two men aged 24 and 22, and that in Deir al-Balah open farmland, Ashraf al-Qudra told reporters.The latest deaths come as the Israeliarmy said Friday that its troops hit 160 targets since the collapse of a temporary ceasefire on Tuesday while a Hamas leader said assassinations make the movement stronger.Early Thursday, Israeli air strikes killed three senior Hamas commanders, a day after an air strike killed the wife and two childrenof the head of the Izz al-Din QassamBrigades, Hamas armed wing, Mohammed Deif.The Qassam Brigades responded to Thursdays assassinations by firing rockets in the early evening at the Ben Gurion International Airport in Tel Aviv. The group had earlier warned international airlines to halt flights to the airport on Thursday morning, but the morning passed without incident.We assure everybody that we will continue to move ahead, even with the pains we feel at the absence of our leaders in the field, Ismail Haniyeh, deputy head of Hamas political office, said late Thursday.The history of our movement had proved that it becomes stronger afterthe assassination of its leaders, he added in a statement.Analysts say the racheting up of fighting between Israelis and fightersin Gaza reflects a long intractable conflict that is in a moment of particular political deadlock.Some say a deal may have been close during negotiations in Cairo earlier this week, but now that both sides have returned to fighting, neither can afford to step back politically as they are under pressureto legitimise the death toll on both sides.You are stuck with it now because both sides know that they need a ceasefire, but both of them might be questioned for what they did. Was it really necessary to get what you could have gotten years ago? said Yossi Mekelberg, an associate felllow at Chatham Houses Middle East and North Africa Programme. Everyone knows what needs to be done and no one has the courage to do it, Mekelberg said. It’s an analogy for the whole conflict.At least 2,086 Palestinians, mostly civilians, and 67 Israelis have been killed since fighting began on 7 July.UN warns renewed violence threatens aid deliveryAs fighting continued, UN aid workers stepped up calls on Thursday for an urgent Gaza ceasefire, warning that spiralling violence endangered their ability to respond to the needs of the 1.8 million affected population.The head of UNICEFs field office in Gaza, Anne-Claire Dufay, told AFP that renewed hostilities were threatening the delivery of aid to hundreds of thousands of children with acute needs.We urgently need a few hours of ceasefire per day so we can provide support to affected children and families, Dufay told AFP.Work to repair infrastructure damaged during the six-week Israeli offensive has temporarily halted since hostilities resumed on Tuesday as truce talks unravelled, she said.UNICEF teams had also had their movement restricted, Dufay said.In the current context we should at least have a few hours a day for a humanitarian ceasefire corridor, shesaid.Ramesh Rajasingham, head of the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) in Gazaand the West Bank, said there was an urgent need for an immediate ceasefire.The number of displaced Palestinians has risen to 435,000, the UN says, since truce talks collapsed in Cairo.The United Nations warned that the number of displaced is expected to increase further with an extra 23,000people already seeking shelter at 82 UN and seven government schools.Rajasingham said constant movement between homes and shelters, when ceasefires begin and end, was traumatic, particularly for children.It is extremely difficult for us to do our job, to save lives, protect and assist those in need, including for medical staff to save lives, of aid workers to meet needs, for specialists to clear unexploded munitions, or for technicians to repair damage to infrastructure vital to the population, he said.In the long run, a permanent halt in violence stemming from a durable ceasefire is crucial to mitigating the humanitarian disaster in the Gaza Strip, he added.
Posted on: Fri, 22 Aug 2014 10:45:54 +0000
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