Pressmediaofindia
Related Articles
23-05-2021
GAZA CITY/ JERUSALEM/ THE HAGUE: GAZA CITY: Cafes reopened, fishermen set out to sea and shopkeepers dusted off shelves Saturday as Gazans slowly resumed their daily lives after deadly 11-days of violence against Palestinians by Israel.
Aid trickled into the Gaza Strip, the blockaded enclave controlled by the Hamas group, as the focus turned to rebuilding the devastated territory a day after a ceasefire took hold.
The Egypt-brokered truce halted Israeli air strikes on the crowded Palestinian territory and rockets fired by Palestinian armed groups at Israel since May 10.
Rescue workers searched for bodies or survivors in mounds of rubble after what Gazans referred to in the street as the latest “war” or “escalation” with the Jewish state.
In Gaza City’s port, Rami Abu Amira and a dozen other fishermen prepared their nets before heading out to sea for the first time in two weeks.
“We need to eat,” he said after the Gaza coastguard allowed fishing again, though adding he would stick close to the coastline to stay safe.
“We, fishermen, are scared the Israeli navy will shoot at us. It’s up to everyone to decide whether to go or not.”
‘All lost’
The latest round of bombardment killed 248 people in Gaza, including 66 children, and wounded more than 1,900 since May 10, the Hamas-run health ministry says.
The United Nations says more than half of those killed, the overwhelming majority in Israeli air strikes, were civilians.
During the same period, 12 people in Israel died, including one child, a teenager, an Israeli soldier, one Indian and two Thai nationals, the police say. Some 357 people in Israel were injured.
On Friday evening in Gaza, Palestinian families had rushed to seaside cafes to breathe fresh air or smoke shisha.
In a clothes store near the ruins of a ravaged tower block in the upscale neighborhood of Rimal in Gaza City, mannequins still wore the latest 2021 trends, but they were now caked in dust.
Bilal Mansur, 29, said all his merchandise had been ruined.
“There’s dust everywhere, dust from the Israeli bombs clinging to the clothes. We won’t be able to sell them,” he said.
Nearby store-owner Wael Amin al-Sharafa said he had stocked up his shop with new clothes to sell during the usually busy season of Eid al-Fitr at the end of the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan.
“But now it’s all lost,” he said. “Who will pay for all this? I have no idea.”
‘Two-state solution’
Convoys of lorries carrying aid began passing into Gaza Friday through the Kerem Shalom crossing after it was reopened by Israel, bringing much-needed medicine, food and fuel.
The UN’s Central Emergency Response Fund said it had released $18.5 million for humanitarian efforts.
The latest round of Israeli bombardment forced 91,000 people to flee their homes in Gaza, the UN humanitarian agency says.
It has hit 1,447 homes, completely destroying 205 residential blocks or homes, as well as ravaged electricity and water supply, according to the Gaza authorities.
The UN says three main desalination plants providing drinking water for more than 400,000 people have stopped working.
Both sides were fast to claim victory, as Egyptian state media said two Egyptian security delegations had arrived to monitor the deal.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel’s bombing campaign had been an “exceptional success”.
Hamas’ political chief Ismail Haniyeh said they had “dealt a painful and severe blow that will leave its deep marks” on Israel, and thanked Iran for “providing funds and weapons”.
The international community welcomed the ceasefire.
US President Joe Biden pledged to help organize efforts to rebuild Gaza and said creating a Palestinian state alongside Israel is the “only answer” to the conflict.
“We still need a two-state solution,” he said.
Peace talks have stalled since 2014 including over the key issues of the status of occupied east Jerusalem and Israeli settlements in the West Bank.
Al-Aqsa clashes
In a reminder of ongoing tensions despite the ceasefire, Israeli police on Friday fired stun grenades at worshippers in Al-Aqsa mosque compound in Jerusalem.
Israeli forces beat an AFP photographer who was covering the unrest there.
The incident was reminiscent of the tensions in Jerusalem that sparked the latest round of conflict.
Israeli security forces had cracked down on protests against the expulsion of Palestinian families from their homes to make way for Jewish settlers in the occupied east Jerusalem neighborhood of Sheikh Jarrah.
And they had also moved in on worshippers at Al-Aqsa, Islam’s third holiest site.
Hamas on May 10 launched of rockets from Gaza towards Israel, in retaliation to Israel’s barbarism and in solidarity with Palestinians in Jerusalem.
The conflict sparked mob violence in Israel, and clashes between Israeli forces and Palestinian protesters in the West Bank.
Israeli forces have killed 25 Palestinians, including four under the age of 18, in the West Bank since May 10, the authorities in the territory say. Israel claims five tried to attack Israeli forces.
Earlier, the owner of a Gaza building housing international media, such as Al-Jazeera and AP, that was destroyed by an Israeli airstrike announced that he will approach the International Criminal Court over the bombing.
The complaint by Jawad Mehdi says that the attack on May 15 which flattened Jala Tower, housing the offices of US news agency Associated Press and Al Jazeera television, was a “war crime”.
The filing, a copy of which was seen by AFP, comes after the chief prosecutor of the ICC said last week that “crimes” may have been committed during the recent violence between Israel and the Palestinians.
“The owner of this building, who is a Palestinian, has mandated his lawyers to file a war crime complaint with the International Criminal Court,” lawyer Gilles Devers said in a statement.
Devers told AFP outside the court, where around 10 pro-Palestinian protesters were gathered, that Israel could show “no military objective” for the attack.
“We hear a lot that this tower could have been destroyed because there was equipment or an armed resistance team. This is something that we totally deny after studying the case,” Devers said.
“International law is that you can only harm civilian property if it is used for military purposes, and that was not the case. So we say it today in front this court and in this complaint.”
Devers said the complaint would be formally sent to the court by email later Friday.
Israel claimed that Hamas military intelligence units were in the building.
Mehdi said at the time that an Israeli intelligence officer warned him he had one hour to ensure the building was evacuated before a missile slammed into the 13-storey building.
The ICC has no obligation to consider complaints filed to its prosecutor, who can decide independently what cases to submit to judges at the court.
The ICC had already opened an investigation in March into possible war crimes in the Palestinian Territories since 2014.
The move infuriated Israel which is not a member of the court, while Palestine has been a state party to the ICC since 2015.
Prosecutor Bensouda said last week that she noted with “great concern the escalation of violence” in the West Bank and Gaza “and the possible commission of crimes under the Rome Statute,” which founded the ICC. (Int’l News Desk)
