Hamas, Israel locked in battle
July 9, 2014
US President Barack Obama, in a guest article due to be published Thursday by the German weekly Die Zeit, said "everyone involved" in the Middle East's latest cycle of violence "must protect the innocent" and avoid "revenge and retaliation."
The only way to achieve a durable peace was to accept a two-state solution comprising a democratic Jewish state living side-by-side with a viable, independent Palestinian state, Obama said.
Jordan on Wednesday demanded an "immediate" halt to Israeli air raids on Gaza, saying Israel's actions obstructed peace efforts. Hamas' ally Iran called on Western countries to "prevent a human catastrophe" in Gaza.
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas called from the West Bank on the United Nations to "provide international protection for our people."
Abbas claimed that Hamas leaders wanted to "restore calm."
18 civilians killed, say Palestinians
The Israeli military said its "Protective Edge" campaign had targeted 160 sites in Hamas-run Gaza since the night hours of early Wednesday.
Hamas' armed wing, the Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades, said it was responsible for at least four rockets fired toward Tel Aviv early Wednesday.
Palestinian health officials said at least 18 civilians were among the 27 Palestinians killed in Gaza in the latest conflict. Some 150 others had been wounded.
No fatalities have been reported in Israel, where rockets fired from Gaza triggered air raid sirens and partial interceptions by Israel's Iron Dome anti-missile system.
One rocket reached the town of Hadra, 116 kilometers north of Tel Aviv, where sirens also sounded ahead of two blasts near Israel's biggest population center.
The Israeli army described the sites attacked in Gaza as six Hamas compounds, weapons storage facilities and 10 tunnels, including some used to ferry supplies in from Egypt.
A Gaza health official said the death toll included a man on a motorcycle and an Islamic Jihad operative, his mother and four siblings.
Netanyahu sidelined by 'hawks,' says Primor
Former Israeli ambassador to Germany Avi Primor, who chairs the Israel Council on Foreign Relations, told the German newspaper Frankfurter Rundschau on Wednesday that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as well as Israel's army and intelligence chiefs did not want a ground offensive in Gaza "because he knows that it will solve nothing."
But, "hawks," such as Foreign Minister Avigdor Liebermann and Economy Minister Naftali Bennett, had taken over Netanyahu's governing Likud party and exercised "great weight," Primor said.
"These are fanatics who are not intent on a political solution," Primor said. "Moderates have been pushed out of the party."
It was improbable that the United States would intervene in the conflict before the mid-term US congressional elections in November, Primor added.