Gaza
Gaza’s bereaved civilians fear justice will never come
The al-Kawlaks, a family of four generations living next door to each other in downtown Gaza City, were utterly unprepared for the inferno.
Like others, they were terrified by the heavy bombing in Israel’s fourth war with Gaza’s Hamas rulers that began May 10. The explosions felt more powerful than in previous fighting. At night, parents and children slept in one room so they would live or die together.
Yet the relatively well-to-do Rimal neighborhood where the family lived in a cluster of apartment buildings seemed somewhat safer than areas along Gaza’s border with Israel, which had been devastated in this and past fighting.
Then one night disaster struck. Azzam al-Kawlak’s four children had gone to bed, and he and his wife were preparing to join them.
At around 1 a.m. on May 16, a thunderous boom shook his top-floor apartment, followed quickly by a second and third. “The floor cracked below our feet and the furniture was thrown to the wall,” the 42-year-old engineer said.
The four-story building collapsed, with Azzam’s apartment dropping to the ground. The family escaped through the kitchen balcony, now almost ground level. Bizarrely, the laundry hanging on a clothesline seemed untouched.
Read:Israel, Egypt talk truce with Hamas, rebuilding Gaza Strip
It took a day for the full horror to emerge, as bodies and survivors were pulled from the rubble. The family and neighbors used ropes to clear chunks of concrete, working alongside ill-equipped rescue teams.
By nightfall, the family’s death toll stood at 22. Eight bodies were dug out of Azzam’s building and 14 from the one next door. The dead included 89-year-old family patriarch Amin, his son Fawaz, 62, his grandson Sameh, 28, and his great-grandson, 6-month-old Qusai.
Just a day earlier, Qusai’s parents had celebrated a small milestone, his first tooth. Azzam’s two younger brothers were killed. Three nieces — 5-year-old Rula, 10-year-old Yara and 12-year-old Hala — were found in a tight embrace, their bodies the last to be pulled out, said Azzam’s surviving older brother, Awni.
The bombing along several hundred meters (yards) of al-Wahda Street took just minutes. In all, it brought down three houses — two in the al-Kawlak compound and one nearby — and killed a total of 43 people, making it the single deadliest air raid of the 11-day war.
Israel said the target was a Hamas tunnel underneath the street, part of what it called a roughly 350-kilometer-long (220-mile) underground network. The tunnels served offensive and defensive purposes, military officials said, accusing Hamas of using civilians as human shields.
Lt. Col. Jonathan Conricus, a military spokesman, said during a war-time briefing that the military target in Rimal collapsed, causing nearby houses and their supporting structures to collapse as well. “That caused a large amount of civilian casualties, which were not the aim,” he said.
Read:Blinken claims progress in effort to boost Gaza truce
He said the army was reviewing the incident and “adjusting the analysis and the ordnance used in the future” to prevent similar events from occurring again. “It’s not a totally mathematic exercise in choosing the ordnance,” he said.
He said Israel carried out dozens of airstrikes in areas just as densely populated, with far fewer casualties.
Blinken heads to Egypt to shore up Gaza cease-fire efforts
Secretary of State Antony Blinken heads to Egypt and Jordan on Wednesday as he presses ahead with a diplomatic mission aimed at shoring up a cease-fire that ended an 11-day war between Israel and the Hamas militant group.
Blinken was wrapping up talks in Israel early Wednesday before departing to Cairo. He has vowed to “rally international support” to rebuild the destruction in hard-hit Gaza, while also promising to make sure that none of the aid destined for the territory reaches Hamas.
Ahead of his departure, Blinken extended U.S. President Joe Biden’s invitation to Israeli President Reuven Rivlin to visit the United States in the coming weeks. Rivlin accepted, according to a statement from his office.
Blinken described Egypt and Jordan as central players in trying to bring calm to the region. Both countries are key U.S. allies that have peace agreements with Israel and frequently serve as mediators between Israel and the Palestinians.
Read:Blinken in Israel on Mideast tour to shore up Gaza truce
“Egypt played a critical role in helping to broker the cease-fire and Jordan has long been a voice for peace and stability in the region,” he told reporters late Tuesday.
In Egypt, which borders both Israel and Gaza, he was scheduled to meet with President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi and other top officials. Biden spoke with el-Sissi during the war to help broker the cease-fire.
Blinken has set modest goals for the trip, his first official visit to the Middle East as secretary of state. During talks with Israeli and Palestinian leaders on Tuesday, he made clear that the U.S. has no immediate plans to pursue peace talks between the sides, perhaps because previous efforts by past administrations have all failed. Instead, he expressed hope for creating a “better environment” that might lead to peace talks.
That could begin with the Gaza reconstruction effort. The 11-day war killed more than 250 people, mostly Palestinians, and caused heavy destruction in the impoverished coastal territory. Preliminary estimates have put the damage in the hundreds of millions of dollars.
One of the U.S. goals is to ensure that any assistance be kept out of the hands of Hamas, which opposes Israel’s right to exist and which Israel and the U.S. consider a terrorist group.
Instead, it is trying to bolster the rival government of President Mahmoud Abbas, whose forces were ousted from Gaza by Hamas in 2007. Abbas’ Palestinian Authority now administers autonomous areas in the Israeli-occupied West Bank. Abbas. He has been largely sidelined by recent events, is deeply unpopular at home and has little influence in Gaza.
Abbas hopes to establish an independent state in all of the West Bank, Gaza and east Jerusalem — areas captured by Israel in the 1967 Mideast war.
In a gesture to the Palestinians, Blinken on Tuesday announced plans to reopen the U.S. consulate in Jerusalem — an office that historically handled diplomatic outreach to the Palestinians.
President Donald Trump downgraded the consulate and placed its operations under his ambassador to Israel when he moved the American Embassy to Jerusalem from Tel Aviv in 2018. The Jerusalem move infuriated the Palestinians, who claim Israeli-annexed east Jerusalem as their capital, and prompted them to sever most ties with the U.S.
Blinken also announced nearly $40 million in additional aid to the Palestinians. In all, the Biden administration has pledged some $360 million to the Palestinians, restoring badly needed aid that the Trump administration had cut off.
Read:Israel Palestinian Conflict: UN chief welcomes cease-fire, urges negotiations
At a meeting with Abbas in the West Bank city of Ramallah, Blinken made clear on Tuesday that Biden will pursue a more even-handed approach than Trump, who sided overwhelmingly with Israel in its dealings with the Palestinians.
Blinken said the U.S. was committed to “rebuilding the relationship with the Palestinian Authority and the Palestinian people, a relationship built on mutual respect and also a shared conviction that Palestinians and Israelis alike deserve equal measures of security, freedom opportunity and dignity.”
The truce that ended the Gaza war on Friday has so far held, but it did not address any of the deeper issues plaguing the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, something Blinken acknowledged after meeting Tuesday with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
“We know that to prevent a return to violence, we have to use the space created to address a larger set of underlying issues and challenges,” he said.
Those challenges include a hawkish Israeli leadership that seems unwilling to make major concessions, Palestinian divisions, years of mistrust and deeply rooted tensions surrounding Jerusalem and its holy sites.
The war was triggered by weeks of clashes in Jerusalem between Israeli police and Palestinian protesters in and around the Al-Aqsa Mosque, built on a hilltop compound revered by Jews and Muslims that has seen several outbreaks of Israeli-Palestinian violence over the years. The protests were directed at Israel’s policing of the area during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan and the threatened eviction of dozens of Palestinian families by Jewish settlers.
The truce remains tenuous since tensions are still high in Jerusalem and the fate of the Palestinian families is not yet resolved.
In his remarks after his meeting with Blinken, Netanyahu hardly mentioned the Palestinians, warning of a “very powerful” response if Hamas breaks the cease-fire.
Netanyahu spoke of “building economic growth” in the occupied West Bank but said there will be no peace until the Palestinians recognize Israel as a “Jewish state.” The Palestinians have long objected to that demand, saying it undermines the rights of Israel’s own Palestinian minority.
Read:Biden hails Israel-Hamas cease-fire, sees ‘opportunity’
Blinken repeatedly affirmed what he said was Israel’s right to defend itself and said the U.S. would assist Israel in replenishing its Iron Dome rocket-interception system.
But he also called on leaders of all sides to chart a “better course” in hopes of laying the groundwork for peace talks aimed at establishing an independent Palestinian state alongside Israel. The Biden administration, like most of the international community, believes the “two-state solution” is the only way to resolve the conflict.
Blinken expressed hope that a successful international approach in Gaza would be an important first step and could “undermine” Hamas’ grip on power.
“Hamas thrives, unfortunately, on despair, on misery, on desperation, on a lack of opportunity,” he said. If there is successful cooperation in Gaza between Israel, the Palestinian Authority and the international community, he said, “then Hamas’ foothold in Gaza will slip. And we know that. And I think tht Hamas knows that.”
Blinken in Israel on Mideast tour to shore up Gaza truce
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken has arrived in Israel at the start of a Middle East tour aimed at shoring up the Gaza cease-fire.
He will face the same obstacles that have stifled a wider peace process for more than a decade, including a hawkish Israeli leadership, Palestinian divisions and deeply rooted tensions surrounding Jerusalem and its holy sites.
The 11-day Gaza war killed more than 250 people, mostly Palestinians, and caused widespread destruction in the impoverished coastal territory. Blinken is expected to focus on coordinating reconstruction without engaging with Gaza’s militant Hamas rulers, who are considered terrorists by Israel and Western countries.
The truce that came into effect Friday has so far held, but it did not address any of the underlying issues.
Read:Gaza-based journalists in Hamas chat blocked from WhatsApp
Blinken, who landed at Ben Gurion International Airport early Tuesday, is the highest-ranking U.S. official to visit the region since President Joe Biden assumed office. He was welcomed on the tarmac by Israeli Foreign Minister Gabi Ashkenazi and other officials.
The administration had hoped to extricate the U.S. from the region’s intractable conflicts and focus on competition with China and climate change. But like so many of its predecessors, it was pulled back into the Middle East by another outbreak of violence.
He will begin his visit in Israel, where Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is fighting for his political life after a fourth inconclusive election in two years. Netanyahu faces mounting criticism from Israelis who say he ended the offensive prematurely, without forcibly halting Palestinian rocket attacks or dealing a heavier blow to Gaza’s militant Hamas rulers.
The war was triggered by weeks of clashes in Jerusalem between Israeli police and Palestinian protesters in and around the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound, a flashpoint holy site. The protests were directed at Israel’s policing of the area during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan and the threatened eviction of dozens of Palestinian families by Jewish settlers.
The evictions were put on hold just before the Gaza fighting erupted, but the legal process is set to resume in the coming weeks. Police briefly clashed with protesters at Al-Aqsa on Friday, hours after the cease-fire came into effect. The site is revered by Jews and Muslims, and has seen several outbreaks of Israeli-Palestinian violence over the years.
Netanyahu is unlikely to make any public concessions on Al-Aqsa or the evictions because it would be seen as giving in to Hamas’ demands.
Adding to the tensions, an Israeli soldier and a civilian were stabbed and wounded in east Jerusalem on Monday before police shot and killed the assailant in what they described as a terrorist attack.
Read:After another war, displaced in Gaza face familiar plight
Blinken will not be meeting with the other party to the war, the Islamic militant group Hamas, which does not recognize Israel’s right to exist.
Instead, he will head to the occupied West Bank to meet with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, who has no power in Gaza and was largely sidelined by recent events.
Abbas, who called off the first Palestinian elections in 15 years last month when it appeared his fractured Fatah movement would suffer an embarrassing defeat, is seen by many Palestinians as having lost all legitimacy. A crowd of worshippers at Al-Aqsa chanted against his Palestinian Authority and in support of Hamas on Friday.
But Abbas is still seen internationally as the representative of the Palestinian people and a key partner in the long-defunct peace process.
Blinken will also visit neighboring Egypt and Jordan, which made peace with Israel decades ago and have acted as mediators in the conflict. Egypt succeeded in brokering the Gaza truce after the Biden administration pressed Israel to wind down its offensive.
Biden announced the visit, saying Blinken would work with regional partners on a “coordinated international effort to ensure immediate assistance reaches Gaza.”
The administration had been roundly criticized for its perceived hands-off initial response to the deadly violence, including from Democratic allies in Congress who demanded it take a tougher line on Israel. Biden repeatedly affirmed what he said was Israel’s right to defend itself from rocket attacks from Gaza.
Read:After another war, displaced in Gaza face familiar plight
The administration has defended its response by saying it engaged in intense, but quiet, high-level diplomacy to support a cease-fire.
In an interview with CNN over the weekend, Blinken said the administration is now focused on trying to “build something more positive,” saying Palestinians and Israelis deserve “equal measures of opportunity, of security, of dignity.”
He said the time is not right for an immediate resumption in negotiations, but that steps could be taken to repair the damage from Israeli airstrikes, which destroyed hundreds of homes and damaged infrastructure in Gaza.
The narrow coastal territory, home to more than 2 million Palestinians, has been under a crippling Israeli-Egyptian blockade since Hamas seized power from Abbas’ forces in 2007. Israel says the blockade is needed to keep Hamas from importing arms, while the Palestinians and human rights groups view it as a form of collective punishment.
After another war, displaced in Gaza face familiar plight
It took Ramez al-Masri three years to rebuild his home after it was destroyed in a 2014 Israeli offensive. When war returned to the area last week, it took just a few seconds for the house to be flattened again in an Israeli airstrike.
The despondent al-Masri once again finds himself among the thousands of Gazans left homeless by another war between Israel and the territory’s Islamic militant Hamas rulers. He and the 16 others who lived in the two-story structure are scattered at relatives’ homes, uncertain how long they will remain displaced as they wait with hope for international aid to help them rebuild the home.
“My children are scattered — two there, three here, one there. Things are really very difficult,” he said. “We live in death every day as long as there is an occupation,” he said, referring to Israel’s rule over Palestinians, including its blockade of Gaza.
The United Nations estimates that about 1,000 homes were destroyed in the 11-day war that ended last Friday. Lynn Hastings, the U.N. humanitarian coordinator for the region, said hundreds of additional housing units were damaged so badly they are likely uninhabitable.
Read:Israeli police escort Jews to flashpoint Jerusalem site
The destruction is less extensive than in the 50-day war of 2014, in which entire neighborhoods were reduced to rubble and 141,000 homes were either wiped out or damaged.
But following that war, international donors quickly pledged $2.7 billion in reconstruction assistance for the battered enclave. It remains unclear this time around whether the international community, fatigued from the global COVID-19 crisis and years of unsuccessful Mideast diplomacy, will be ready to open its wallet again.
It was 3 a.m. on Wednesday when the phone call from Israel came to a neighbor ordering everyone in the area to evacuate. “Leave your homes, we are going to bomb,” al-Masri says they were told.
The neighborhood is home to members of al-Masri’s extended family. At the time of the warning, he said no one knew which house might be targeted. But he could not believe that the airstrike hit the two-floor home where he lived with his eight children, his brother’s family and their mother.
“If we knew someone was wanted, we would not have stayed here from the outset,” he said. Al-Masri, who owns a small grocery store, said neither he nor his brother have anything to do with militant groups.
The airstrike turned his home into a crater. On Sunday, the massive hole was filled with murky water spewing from broken water and sewage lines.
Seven adjacent homes belonging to relatives were badly damaged. Their walls were blown up, exposing the colorful interior decorations of the living and bedrooms. The blast was so powerful that concrete support beams were weakened and the houses are likely beyond repair.
On Sunday, a mobile pump was deployed to suck the stinky water out as bulldozers worked to reopen streets. City workers were removing damaged power lines. But much of the rubble remained uncleared.
After the 2014 war, al-Masri bounced around between rental homes and “caravans” — small metal huts that dotted hard-hit areas of Gaza like shantytowns. He dreads the thought of returning to the temporary shelters.
“Life was disastrous in the caravans. We were living between two sheets of tin,” he said.
He said he hopes the international community “will stand by us, try to help us so we can rebuild quickly.”
The Israeli military did not immediately respond to a request seeking comment on why the home had been targeted.
Throughout the fighting, it accused Hamas of using residential areas as cover for rocket launches and other militant activity. The army says its system of warnings and evacuation orders is meant to prevent civilians from being harmed.
During the recent fighting, Israel unleashed hundreds of airstrikes across Gaza at what it said were militant targets. Hamas and other armed groups fired more than 4,000 rockets toward Israeli cities, most of which were intercepted or landed in open areas.
The fighting began May 10, when Hamas militants in Gaza fired long-range rockets toward Jerusalem. The barrage came after days of clashes between Palestinian protesters and Israeli police at Al-Aqsa. Heavy-handed police tactics at the compound and the threatened eviction of dozens of Palestinian families by Jewish settlers had inflamed tensions.
The true costs of the war will not be known for some time. Palestinian health officials said 248 Palestinians, including 66 children and 39 women, were killed in the fighting.
Twelve people in Israel, including two children, also died in the fighting.
On Sunday morning, hundreds of municipal workers and volunteers started a one-week campaign to clear rubble from Gaza City’s streets.
Outside a flattened high-rise building, workers loaded rubble into donkey carts and small pickup trucks. Next to a destroyed government building, children collected cables and whatever recyclable leftovers they could sell for a few shekels.
In Beit Hanoun, one of the homes that was struck last week belonged to Nader al-Masri, Ramez’s cousin and a long-distance runner who participated in dozens of international competitions. Since he lost his house in the 2014 war, Nader, 41, has lived in the second of floor of a three-floor home belonging to relatives.
The third and the first floors sustained heavy hits. A room filled with medals and trophies that Nader collected through his 20-year career was damaged. Fortunately, he said, many of his mementos survived.
Read:Hamas defiant with military parade, appearance of top leader
Nader al-Masri is familiar with loss. Beit Hanoun, situated just along the frontier with Israel, has frequently been the scene of heavy fighting, and his home has been damaged two previous times.
“I had over 150 trophies. In each of the previous wars, I lost one or two or three,” he said. Some 20 glass awards have been shattered over the years. “Each war the number drops,” he said, showing a medal from the 2008 Beijing Summer Olympics.
As a world-class runner from 1998 to 2018, Nader was one of Gaza’s most famous residents, especially after Israel and Egypt imposed a blockade on Gaza following Hamas’ takeover of the territory in 2007.
The blockade often prevented him from traveling abroad to compete. In many cases, he arrived just in time for his races.
On Sunday, debris filled his apartment. The ceiling of his daughters’ bedroom was cracked. The bright layers of paint had fallen off, exposing gloomy, dark plaster. School backpacks lay on the ground among shards and debris.
Nader, now a coach with the Palestinian Athletics Federation, moved his five children to their uncle’s house.
“I’m an athlete and have nothing to do with politics,” he said. “Things are difficult because we cannot build a home every day.”
Israeli police escort Jews to flashpoint Jerusalem site
Israeli police escorted more than 250 Jewish visitors Sunday to a flashpoint holy site in Jerusalem where clashes between police and Palestinian protesters helped trigger a war in Gaza, according to the Islamic authority overseeing the site.
The 11-day conflict between Israel and Gaza’s militant Hamas rulers came to a fragile halt Friday, but left behind immense ruin in Gaza, including hundreds of homes in that have been completely destroyed and many more that were badly damaged, according to the U.N.
With tensions still high, police cleared young Palestinians out of the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound and barred entry to Muslims under the age of 45, according to the Islamic Waqf, which oversees the site. Muslims who entered were required to leave their IDs with police at the entrance. It said six Palestinians were detained, with four later released.
Israeli police denied there was any age restriction and said they arrested five people who “violated the public order.” Police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said the site was open for “regular visits” and that police had secured the area.
Read:Hamas defiant with military parade, appearance of top leader
The visits later ended without any further incident.
Israeli police had briefly clashed with Palestinian protesters after Friday prayers in an early test for the truce, which had taken effect hours earlier. The cease-fire in Gaza has held, but violence in Jerusalem could set off another cycle of escalation.
The Waqf said Sunday was the first time Jews had been allowed to visit the site since May 4, a week before the war broke out.
The Al-Aqsa Mosque is the third holiest site in Islam. It sits on a sprawling hilltop in Jerusalem’s Old City that is revered by Jews as their holiest site because it was the location of the biblical temples. The site has often been the scene of Israeli-Palestinian violence over the years and was the epicenter of the 2000 Palestinian intifada, or uprising.
Israeli police repeatedly clashed with Palestinian protesters at the site in the days leading up to May 10, when Hamas fired long-range rockets at Jerusalem, saying they were protecting the city in the wake of the skirmishes. The threatened eviction of dozens of Palestinian families from a nearby neighborhood was cited as another major trigger of the war.
In recent years, increasing numbers of religious and nationalist Jews have visited the site. Palestinians fear Israel plans to eventually take over the compound or partition it. The Israeli government has repeatedly said it has no intention of changing the status quo, in which the Waqf oversees the site under Jordanian custodianship.
On Sunday, Jordan said it would pay for repairs to Jerusalem’s Al-Aqsa Mosque, as well as medical aid for Palestinians, including a coronavirus testing and vaccination center in the Gaza Strip. The statement from the Royal Court did not specify the amount of funding.
Read:Gaza truce faces early test as clashes break out again at Al Aqsa
The recent war saw Israel unleash hundreds of airstrikes across Gaza at what it said were militant targets. Hamas and other armed groups fired more than 4,000 rockets toward Israel, most of which were intercepted or landed in open areas. At least 248 Palestinians were killed, as were 12 people in Israel.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken leaves this week for the Mideast. He told ABC News’ “This Week with George Stephanopoulos” on Sunday that the cease-fire offers a chance to “make a pivot to building something more positive.”
Blinken said the priorities include addressing the immediate humanitarian situation in Gaza, reconstructing what was lost in the violence and “engaging both sides in trying to start to make real improvements in the lives of people so that Israelis and Palestinians can live with equal measures of security, of peace and of dignity.”
The Israeli strikes leveled a number of large buildings in the impoverished coastal territory, which is home to more than 2 million Palestinians, which has been under a crippling Israeli-Egyptian blockade since Hamas, an Islamic militant group, seized power from forces loyal to the internationally backed Palestinian Authority in 2007.
Lynn Hastings, the U.N. humanitarian coordinator for the Palestinian territories, said some 300 buildings in Gaza — including an estimated 1,000 homes — had been completely destroyed. She said hundreds more had been heavily damaged. She cautioned that those were “very, very preliminary numbers” as the damage is still being assessed.
Hastings said a total of six hospitals and 11 primary health care centers were damaged, and that one hospital was not functioning because of a lack of electricity. She said around 800,000 people lack access to tap water and 400,000 people do not have proper sewage treatment because of damage to local infrastructure.
Read:On the sidelines, Hezbollah looms large over Gaza battle
Israel says it made every effort to avoid harming civilians and only targeted militant infrastructure, including a vast tunnel network and rocket launchers. It blames the war and its devastation on Hamas.
Mark Regev, an adviser to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, told “Fox News Sunday” that Israel had dealt Hamas a “heavy blow” and hoped it would serve as a deterrent. But he also expressed hope that the truce could last, noting “over half a decade of relative peace and quiet” after the last round of fighting in 2014.
On Sunday morning, hundreds of municipal workers and volunteers started a one-week campaign to clear rubble from Gaza’s streets. The work began outside a high-rise building that was flattened by Israeli warplanes during the early days of airstrikes on Gaza, with workers loading rubble into donkey carts and small pickup trucks.
The International Committee of the Red Cross said Friday that the war may have left hundreds of unexploded munitions, which could cause further casualties and hinder efforts to rebuild.
Hamas defiant with military parade, appearance of top leader
Hundreds of masked Hamas fighters brandishing assault rifles paraded in Gaza City and the group’s top leader made his first public appearance on Saturday, in a defiant show of strength after the militants’ 11-day war with Israel.
Saturday marked the first full day of a cease-fire, and Egyptian mediators held talks to firm up the truce which ended the fourth Israel-Hamas war in just over a decade.
In the fighting, Israel unleashed hundreds of airstrikes against militant targets in Gaza, while Hamas and other militants fired more than 4,000 rockets toward Israel. More than 250 people were killed, the vast majority of them Palestinians.
In Gaza City, residents began assessing damage.
Read:Gaza truce faces early test as clashes break out again at Al Aqsa
One of Gaza City’s busiest commercial areas, Omar al-Mukhtar Street, was covered in debris, smashed cars and twisted metal after a 13-floor building in its center was flattened in an Israeli airstrike. Merchandise was covered in soot and strewn inside smashed stores and on the pavement. Municipal workers swept broken glass and twisted metal from streets and sidewalks.
“We really didn’t expect this amount of damage,” said Ashour Subeih, who sells baby clothes. “We thought the strike was a bit further from us. But as you can see not an area of the shop is intact.” Having been in business for one year, Subeih estimated his losses were double what he has made so far.
Drone video and photos showed some city blocks reduced to rubble, in between homes and businesses left standing.
Both Israel and Hamas have claimed victory.
On Saturday, hundreds of Hamas fighters wearing military camouflage paraded past the mourning tent for Bassem Issa, a senior commander killed in the fighting. The top Hamas leader in Gaza, Yehiyeh Sinwar, paid his respects in his first public appearance since the war began.
Israel bombed the house of Sinwar, along with that of other senior Hamas figures, as part of its attack on what it said was the group’s military infrastructure. Israel’s defense minister, Benny Gantz, has said Israel delivered a punishing blow to Hamas, and that top Hamas figures remained targets.
Still, there was a widespread expectation that the cease-fire would stick for now, even if another round of fighting at some point seems inevitable. Underlying issues remain unresolved, including an Israeli-Egyptian border blockade, now in its 14th year, that is choking Gaza’s more than 2 million residents and a refusal by the Islamic militant Hamas to disarm.
The U.N. Security Council released a statement Saturday, welcoming the cease-fire and stressing “the immediate need for humanitarian assistance to the Palestinian civilian population, particularly in Gaza.”
Thousands rallied in the Israeli city of Tel Aviv, calling for coexistence between Jews and Arabs.
The fighting began on May 10, when Hamas militants in Gaza fired long-range rockets toward Jerusalem. The barrage came after days of clashes between Palestinian protesters and Israeli police at the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound. Heavy-handed police tactics at the compound and the threatened eviction of dozens of Palestinian families by Jewish settlers had inflamed tensions.
The war has further sidelined Hamas’ main political rival, the internationally backed Palestinian Authority, which oversees autonomous enclaves in the Israeli-occupied West Bank. Hamas’ popularity seemed to be growing as it positioned itself as a defender of Palestinian claims to Jerusalem.
Read:On the sidelines, Hezbollah looms large over Gaza battle
On Friday, hours after the cease-fire took effect, thousands of Palestinians in the Al-Aqsa compound chanted against Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and his self-rule government. “Dogs of the Palestinian Authority, out, out,” they shouted, and “The people want the president to leave.”
It was an unprecedented display of anger against Abbas. The conflict also brought to the surface deep frustration among Palestinians, whether in the occupied West Bank, Gaza or within Israel, over the status quo, with the Israeli-Palestinian peace process all but abandoned for years.
Despite his weakened status, Abbas will be the point of contact for any renewed U.S. diplomacy, since Israel and the West, including the United States, consider Hamas a terrorist organization.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken is to meet with Abbas and Israeli leaders when he visits in the coming week. Abbas is expected to raise demands that any Gaza reconstruction plans go through the Palestinian Authority to avoid strengthening Hamas.
Abbas met Saturday with Egyptian mediators, discussing the rebuilding of Gaza and internal Palestinian relations, according to the official Palestinian news agency Wafa.
An Egyptian diplomat said that two teams of mediators were in Israel and the Palestinian territories to continue talks on firming up a cease-fire deal and securing long-term calm.
The diplomat said discussions include implementing agreed-on measures in Gaza and Jerusalem, including ways to prevent practices that led to the latest fighting. He did not elaborate. He was apparently referring to violence at the Al-Aqsa Mosque and the planned eviction of Palestinian families from the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood in east Jerusalem.
The diplomat spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss behind-the-scenes deliberations.
Separately, a 130-truck convoy with humanitarian aid and medical supplies reached the Gaza border from Egypt on Saturday, according to a senior Egyptian official at the border crossing. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to reporters.
Across Gaza, an assessment of the damage to the territory’s already decrepit infrastructure began.
The ministry of public works and housing said that 769 housing and commercial units were rendered uninhabitable, at least 1,042 units in 258 buildings were destroyed and just over 14,500 units suffered minor damage.
The United Nations said about 800,000 people in Gaza do not have regular access to clean piped water, as nearly 50% of the water network was damaged in the fighting.
Read:Palestinians claim victory as Gaza truce faces early test
Israel has said it was targeting Hamas’ military infrastructure, including a vast tunnel system running under roads and homes, as well as command centers, rocket launchers and the homes of commanders. The Israeli military has said it was trying to minimize harm to civilians and accused Hamas of using civilians as human shields.
The Gaza Health Ministry says at least 248 Palestinians were killed, including 66 children and 39 women, with 1,910 people wounded. It does not differentiate between fighters and civilians. Twelve people were killed in Israel, all but one of them civilians, including a 5-year-old boy and 16-year-old girl.
Israel has accused Hamas and the smaller militant group of Islamic Jihad of hiding the actual number of fighters killed in the war. Prime Minister Netanyahu said Friday that more than 200 militants were killed, including 25 senior commanders.
Islamic Jihad on Saturday gave a first account of deaths within its ranks, saying that 19 of its commanders and fighters were killed, including the head of the rocket unit in northern Gaza.
On the sidelines, Hezbollah looms large over Gaza battle
Ever since their last war in 2006, Israel and Lebanon’s powerful Hezbollah militia have constantly warned that a new round between them is inevitable. Yet once again, a potential trigger has gone unpulled.
Hezbollah’s shadow loomed large during Israel and Hamas’ two-week battle, with the possibility it could unleash its arsenal of missiles - far more powerful than Hamas’ - in support of the Palestinians.
Instead, Hezbollah stayed on the sidelines. And if a ceasefire that took effect early Friday holds, another Israel-Hamas war will have ended without Hezbollah intervention.
For now, both sides had compelling reasons not to clash, including - for Hezbollah - the bitter memory of Israel’s punishing 2006 bombing campaign that turned its strongholds in Lebanon to rubble. Lebanon is also in the grips of an economic and financial collapse unparalleled in its modern history and can ill afford another massive confrontation with Israel.
Read:Israel Palestinian Conflict: UN chief welcomes cease-fire, urges negotiations
For Israel, the Iranian-backed group in Lebanon remains its toughest and most immediate security challenge.
“Israel needs to manage the conflict in Gaza with a very open eye toward what is happening in the north, because the north is a much more important arena than Gaza,” said Amos Yadlin, a former Israeli military intelligence chief who currently heads the Institute for National Security Studies. He spoke before the truce took effect at 2 a.m. Friday.
Hezbollah’s reaction during the 11 days of Israeli bombardment that engulfed Gaza in death and destruction was relatively mute. Its leader, Hassan Nasrallah, did not make any public comments, even after a Hezbollah fighter was shot dead by Israeli soldiers at the border during a protest last week.
Late Thursday, Netanyahu’s Security Cabinet approved a unilateral cease-fire to halt the Gaza operation, a decision that came after heavy U.S. pressure to stop the offensive. Hamas quickly followed suit and said it would honor the deal.
Throughout the current round of fighting, Hezbollah’s show of solidarity — including unclaimed rocket barrages from south Lebanon into Israel on three separate occasions in the past week — appeared carefully calibrated for limited impact. Most landed in open areas or in the Mediterranean Sea. The rockets are believed to have been fired by Palestinian factions based in south Lebanon, likely with Hezbollah’s blessing.
“The political message is ‘we are here,’ and safety for Israel from its northern border is not to be taken for granted and neither is the deterrent that was established in 2006” when the two sides fought each other to a draw, said Joyce Karam, an adjunct professor of political science at George Washington University.
At the tense Lebanon-Israel border, Hezbollah supporters wearing yellow hats organized daily protests over the past week. On at least one occasion, dozens of people breached the fence and crossed to the other side, drawing Israeli shots that struck and killed a 21-year-old. He was later identified as a Hezbollah fighter, and given a full-fledged funeral with hundreds in attendance.
Analysts said chances of Hezbollah joining in the fighting with Israel were low, particularly given the political and economic implosion happening in Beirut and the array of challenges the group faces internally with social tensions on the rise. Even among Hezbollah’s supporters, there is no appetite for a confrontation as Lebanese suffer under an economic crash that has driven half of the population into poverty.
Read:Israel, Hamas agree to cease-fire to end bloody 11-day war
Also, Hezbollah’s patron Iran is engaged in nuclear talks with the West, with growing hopes an agreement might be reached. Tehran has also been holding talks with longtime regional rival, Saudi Arabia, signaling a possible de-escalation following years of animosity that often spilled into neighboring countries.
“Hezbollah so far doesn’t seem inclined to spoil Iran’s talks with world powers on the nuclear front because it wants to see sanctions relief for its primarily political, military and financial backer,” said Karam, who covers Mideast politics for the regional newspaper The National.
Speaking at a rally in south Beirut on Monday, senior Hezbollah official Hashem Safieddine bragged about the group’s firepower, which he said has multiplied many times since the 2006 war, but suggested the time has not come for Hezbollah to get involved.
“We in Hezbollah look to the day where we will fight together, with you, side by side and shoulder to shoulder, on all fronts to extract this cancerous cell,” he said, addressing Palestinians and referring to Israel’s presence in the Arab world. “This day is coming, it’s inevitable.”
Hezbollah has grown considerably more powerful in the last decade and amassed a formidable army with valuable battlefield experience backing the forces of Syrian President Bashar Assad in the neighboring country’s civil war, Israeli defense officials say.
During the inconclusive, monthlong 2006 war, the group launched some 4,000 rockets into Israel - as many as Hamas and other Palestinian groups fired at Israel during the current round of fighting - most of them unguided projectiles with limited range. Today, Israeli officials say Hezbollah possesses some 130,000 rockets and missiles capable of striking virtually anywhere in Israel.
Yadlin, the former Israeli military intelligence chief, said all intelligence assessments, however, indicate that Hezbollah does not want a full-on conflict with Israel.
“Nasrallah is in the position that he doesn’t want to repeat the mistake of 2006. He knows he won’t be the defender of Lebanon, he will be the destroyer of Lebanon,” said Yadlin. “He had a lot of opportunities and he hasn’t taken them.” He was referring to Israeli strikes targeting Hezbollah assets in Syria for which the group vowed to retaliate, but still has not.
Qassim Qassir, an analyst and expert on Hezbollah affairs in Lebanon, concurred that there seemed to be no intention to open the southern front because it would “lead to an all-out war with consequences no one can predict.”
Read:Palestinian minister: Cease-fire in Gaza is `not enough’
For now, both Israel and Hezbollah consider the deterrence established following the 2006 war to be holding, with Hezbollah threatening to strike deeper than ever inside Israel, including at its nuclear facilities, and Israel vowing to target civilian infrastructure, inflicting massive damage.
Karam said both Hezbollah and Israel have been saying since 2006 that round two is inevitable, but its cost has only gone up for both sides. For the moment, both seem satisfied with keeping their tensions on Syrian territory rather than having another war in Lebanon.
But each day brings closer the possibility of an unwanted conflict coming to bear.
“For now, this paradigm seems to hold,” she said.
Palestinians claim victory as Gaza truce faces early test
Palestinians rallied by the thousands early Friday after a cease-fire took effect in the latest Gaza war, with many viewing it as costly but clear victory for the Islamic militant group Hamas over a far more powerful Israel.
The 11-day war left more than 200 dead — the vast majority Palestinians — and brought widespread devastation to the already impoverished Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip. But the rocket barrages that brought life to a standstill in much of Israel were seen by many Palestinians as a bold response to perceived Israeli abuses in Jerusalem, the emotional heart of the conflict.
The truce faces an early test on Friday, when tens of thousands of Palestinians attend weekly prayers at the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound in Jerusalem, a flashpoint holy site revered by Jews and Muslims. Celebratory protests could spark confrontations with Israeli police, setting in motion another cycle of escalation like the one that led to the war.
Thousands took to the streets of Gaza as the cease-fire took hold at 2 a.m. Young men waved Palestinian and Hamas flags, passed out sweets, honked horns and set off fireworks. Spontaneous celebrations also broke out in east Jerusalem and across the occupied West Bank.
Read:Israel Palestinian Conflict: UN chief welcomes cease-fire, urges negotiations
An open-air market in Gaza City that was closed throughout the war reopened and shoppers could be seen stocking up on fresh tomatoes, cabbage and watermelons. Workers in orange traffic vests swept up rubble from the surrounding roads.
“Life will return, because this is not the first war, and it will not be the last war,” said shop owner Ashraf Abu Mohammad. “The heart is in pain, there have been disasters, families wiped from the civil registry, and this saddens us. But this is our fate in this land, to remain patient.”
The mood was more somber in Israel, where Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu faced angry accusations from his right-wing base that he had halted the war too soon.
Like the three previous wars between the bitter enemies, the latest round of fighting ended inconclusively. Israel claimed to have inflicted heavy damage on Hamas with hundreds of bruising airstrikes but once again was unable to halt the rockets.
Hamas also claimed victory, despite the horrifying toll the war took on countless Palestinian families who lost loved ones, homes and businesses. It now faces the daunting challenge of rebuilding in a territory already suffering from high unemployment and a coronavirus outbreak.
The cease-fire was brokered by neighboring Egypt after the U.S. pressed Israel to wind down the offensive. Netanyahu announced that Israel had accepted the proposal late Thursday, while emphasizing that “the reality on the ground will determine the future of the campaign.”
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken plans to visit the region in the coming days “to discuss recovery efforts and working together to build better futures for Israelis and Palestinians.” the State Department said.
Read:Palestinian minister: Cease-fire in Gaza is `not enough’
The fighting began on May 10, when Hamas militants in Gaza fired long-range rockets toward Jerusalem. The barrage came after days of clashes between Palestinian protesters and Israeli police at Al-Aqsa. Heavy-handed police tactics at the compound, and the threatened eviction of dozens of Palestinian families by Jewish settlers had inflamed tensions.
The competing claims to Jerusalem lie at the heart of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and have repeatedly triggered bouts of violence in the past.
Hamas and other militant groups fired over 4,000 rockets at Israel throughout the fighting, launching the projectiles from civilian areas at Israeli cities. Dozens of projectiles flew as far north as Tel Aviv, the country’s bustling commercial capital.
Thousands gathered Friday morning in the southern Gaza Strip town of Khan Younis outside the family house of Mohammed Deif, the shadowy Hamas commander who had ordered the rocket attacks. Supporters shouted “victory” and waved green Hamas flags.
Israel, meanwhile, carried out hundreds of airstrikes targeting what it said was Hamas’ military infrastructure, including a vast tunnel network.
At least 230 Palestinians were killed, including 65 children and 39 women, with 1,710 people wounded, according to the Gaza Health Ministry, which does not break the numbers down into fighters and civilians. Twelve people in Israel, including a 5-year-old boy and 16-year-old girl, were killed.
The United States, Israel’s closest and most important ally, initially backed what it said was Israel’s right to self-defense against indiscriminate rocket fire. But as the fighting dragged on and the death toll mounted, the Americans increasingly pressured Israel to stop the offensive.
Read:Israel, Hamas agree to cease-fire to end bloody 11-day war
In a rare public rift, Netanyahu on Wednesday briefly rebuffed a public call from President Joe Biden to wind things down, appearing determined to inflict maximum damage on Hamas in a war that could help save his political career.
But late Thursday, Netanyahu’s office announced the cease-fire agreement. Hamas quickly followed suit. Militants continued to launch sporadic rocket at Israel early Friday, before the 2 a.m. cease-fire took effect.
In Washington, Biden hailed the cease-fire. “I believe we have a genuine opportunity to make progress, and I’m committed to working for it,” he said.
Biden said the U.S. was committed to helping Israel replenish its supply of interceptor missiles for its Iron Dome rocket-defense system and to working with the internationally recognized Palestinian Authority — not Hamas — to provide humanitarian aid to Gaza.
Netanyahu quickly came under heavy criticism from members of his hawkish, nationalist base. Gideon Saar, a former ally who now leads a small party opposed to the prime minister, called the cease-fire “embarrassing.” Itamar Ben Gvir, head of the far-right Jewish Power party, tweeted that the cease-fire was “a grave surrender to terrorism and the dictates of Hamas.”
In a potentially damaging development for the Israeli leader, the Palestinian militants claimed Netanyahu had agreed to halt further Israeli actions at the Al Aqsa Mosque and to call off the planned evictions of Palestinians in the nearby Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood.
An Egyptian official said only that tensions in Jerusalem “will be addressed.” He spoke on condition of anonymity because he was discussing behind-the-scenes negotiations and provided no details.
Read:Israel approves unilateral cease-fire in Gaza offensive
Hamas and the smaller Islamic Jihad militant group declared victory, but both appear to have suffered significant losses. The two groups said at least 20 of their fighters were killed, while Israel said the number was at least 130 and probably higher.
Some 58,000 Palestinians sought shelter in crowded United Nations schools at a time of a coronavirus outbreak. They began returning to their homes as the truce took hold.
Since the fighting began, Gaza’s infrastructure, already weakened by a 14-year blockade, has rapidly deteriorated, and airstrikes have damaged schools and health centers.
Medical supplies, water and fuel for electricity are running low in the territory, on which Israel and Egypt imposed the blockade after Hamas seized power from the Palestinian Authority in 2007. Since then, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has governed autonomous areas of the Israeli-occupied West Bank and has limited influence in Gaza.
Israel Palestinian Conflict: UN chief welcomes cease-fire, urges negotiations
The United Nations chief is urging Israel and Gaza’s Hamas rulers to observe their cease-fire, and he says the international community must develop a reconstruction package “that supports the Palestinian people and strengthens their institutions.”
Secretary-General Antonio Guterres told reporters after Thursday’s announcement of an end to 11 days of deadly clashes that “Israeli and Palestinian leaders have a responsibility beyond the restoration of calm to start a serious dialogue to address the root causes of the conflict.”
Guterres says the U.N. is ready to work with Israel, the Palestinians, and international and regional partners to return to “meaningful negotiations” on a two-state settlement based on territorial lines before the 1967 war.
He says Hamas-controlled “Gaza is an integral part of the future Palestinian state and no effort should be spared to bring about real national reconciliation that ends the division” with the rival Fatah-led Palestinian Authority that governs the West Bank.
Read:Palestinian minister: Cease-fire in Gaza is `not enough’
GAZA CITY — Hamas is calling the Gaza cease-fire “a victory” for the militant group in its struggle against Israel.
Senior Hamas official Khalil al-Hayya made that characterization while addressing a rally in Gaza City.
Al-Hayya claims Israel failed to destroy Hamas’ military infrastructure, and says the group’s fighters are still “striding proudly” in the underground tunnels.
He did not reveal the terms of the deal.
JERUSALEM — The top United Nations envoy to Israel and the Palestinian territories is welcoming the cease-fire in the latest war between Israel and the Hamas- militant group that rules Gaza.
Tor Wennesland said early Friday on Twitter that he extends his “deepest condolences to the victims of the violence & their loved ones.”
He also thanks Egypt and Qatar for their work with the U.N. in brokering the deal that ended 11 days of fighting.
He adds that now “the work of building #Palestine can start.”
GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip - Palestinian residents of the Gaza Strip are taking to the streets to celebrate the cease-fire reached after an 11-day war between Hamas and Israel.
At 2:00 a.m., just as the cease-fire took effect, frenzy of life returned to the streets of Gaza. People went out from their homes in the night for the first time since the war began, shouting “Allahu Akbar,” whistling from balconies, and many firing in the air.
More rallies are expected across the Gaza Strip later Friday.
WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden is hailing the ceasefire between Israel and Hamas ending an 11-day war.
Biden spoke from the White House shortly before the ceasefire was set to go into effect in Gaza, where Israel has struck hundreds of targets in retaliation for Hamas firing thousands of rockets into its territory.
Says Biden: “I believe we have a genuine opportunity to make progress and I’m committed to working for it.”
Biden said the U.S. was committed to helping Israel replenish its supply of interceptor missiles for its Iron Dome protection system and to working with the Palestinian Authority – not Hamas — to provide humanitarian aid to Gaza.
Palestinian minister: Cease-fire in Gaza is `not enough’
The Palestinians’ top diplomat said a cease-fire in Gaza will enable 2 million Palestinians to sleep Thursday night but it’s “not enough at all” and the world must now tackle the difficult issues of Jerusalem’s future and achieving an independent Palestinian state.
Riad Al-Malki told reporters on the sidelines of an emergency meeting of the U.N. General Assembly on the conflict between Israel and Gaza’s militant Hamas rulers that while a cease-fire is good it doesn’t address “the core issue” that started the violence.
He said that is Jerusalem, citing the “desecration” by Israeli soldiers and settlers of the Al-Aqsa mosque, Islam’s third holiest site, and the Israeli policy of evicting Palestinians from their homes in the city’s different neighborhoods including Sheikh Jarra.
Israel captured east Jerusalem, along with the West Bank and Gaza — territories the Palestinians want for their future state — in the 1967 Mideast war. Israel annexed east Jerusalem in a move not recognized internationally, and views the entire city as its capital. The Palestinians view east Jerusalem — which includes major holy sites for Jews, Christians and Muslims — as their capital, and its fate lies at the heart of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and has triggered serious violence in the past.
Al-Malki accused Israel of intending to erase the multi-cultural, multi-religious character of the city of Jerusalem saying: “We are opposed to that, we reject that, and we’ll keep working to prevent that from happening.”
Thursday’s assembly meeting began with speeches from a dozen ministers, almost all from Arab and Muslim countries, and is eventually expected to hear over 100 speakers.
He said the overwhelming messages from the meeting was not only “condemning Israeli atrocities and crimes” in Gaza but reminding the world of the need to care for and defend Jerusalem and to work for the establishment of an independent Palestinian state.
“Today’s events here in the General Assembly and what has been happening has refocused the attention again on the issue of Palestine,” Al-Malki said.
He said Israel’s normalization of relations with some Arab countries including the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain, doesn’t waive the questions of the future of Jerusalem and a Palestinian state.
“To the contrary, we see today that the issue of Palestine and the Palestinian question, the issue of Jerusalem and the occupation of Jerusalem, is the most important issue for all Muslims and Arabs and the world alike,” Al-Malki said.
“We want to see the Palestinian people free and also living in their own independent Palestinian state with east Jerusalem as its capital,” he said.
The last direct talks between Israel and the Palestinians took place in 2014. The Palestinians broke off relations with former U.S. president Donald Trump’s administration in December 2017 after he after he recognized Jerusalem as Israel’s capital.
Trump further angered the Palestinians by presenting a two-state peace plan that would have required significant Palestinian concessions on territory and sovereignty, moved the U.S. Embassy there from Tel Aviv, cut off aid to the Palestinian Authority and rescinded a longstanding legal opinion that Israeli settlement activity is illegitimate under international law.
President Joe Biden won initial but cautious plaudits from Mideast analysts when he rejected the Trump administration’s unabashedly pro-Israel stance and tentatively embraced the Palestinians by restoring aid and diplomatic contacts. But he also retained key elements Trump’s policies, including on settlements.
In the past two weeks, the United States blocked four attempts by the U.N. Security Council to demand an end to the Israeli-Hamas conflict, saying a statement could interfere with diplomatic efforts. U.S. Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield told Thursday’s assembly meeting, “I don’t believe there is any country working more urgently or fervently toward peace.”
U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres told reporters after Israel and Hamas agreed to a cease-fire that Israel and the Palestinians have a responsibility to observe it and “to start a serious dialogue to address the root causes of the conflict.”
Whether a serious effort takes place to try to revive efforts to end the decades-old Palestinian-Israeli conflict remains to be seen.
Guterres underscored the U.N.’s commitment to work with Israelis and Palestinians to return to peace negotiations, including through the Quartet of Mideast mediator — the U.N., U.S., European Union and Russia.
U.S. Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield said the Biden administration is “committed to working with other members of the international community over the long term to create the conditions for a lasting and sustainable peace.”
Israel’s ambassador to the U.N. and the U.S., Gilad Erdan, accused the General Assembly of “hypocrisy” on Thursday for supporting and not condemning Hamas, which doesn’t accept Israel’s right to exist.
He referred to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas’ announcement in late April that the first Palestinian elections in 15 years would be delayed. Abbas cited a dispute with Israel to call off a vote in which his fractured Fatah party was expected to suffer another embarrassing defeat to the Hamas militant group. Hamas called the move a “coup.”
“If this institution strengthens Hamas, it will make the possibility of Hamas replacing the Palestinian Authority much more likely and eliminate the chance of future dialogue between Israelis and Palestinians,” Erdan said. “There is nothing to discuss with a terror organization committed to your annihilation, nothing.”