AFP, Europa Press, Sputnik and Reuters

The newspaper La Jornada
Thursday, July 18, 2024, p. 23

Gaza Strip. Israel yesterday intensified its bombings in the Gaza Strip, after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced that it was time to further increase the pressure military strike against Hamas after more than nine months of war.

Indirect negotiations for a ceasefire and the release of hostages held by Hamas remain stalled since the Palestinian Islamist movement withdrew on Sunday, according to a leader who denounced the massacres Israelis against unarmed civilians.

However, it was said willing to resume them when Israel show seriousness in concluding a ceasefire agreement.

The Israeli army claimed to have carried out 25 bombings in 24 hours against Military structures, infrastructure and terrorist cells.

Two Palestinians were killed yesterday in Israeli airstrikes in the southern city of Rafah, a medical source said. Nine others were killed in a drone attack in the northern city of Gaza, according to the territory’s Civil Defense.

Netanyahu insisted the day before yesterday that Hamas is under pressurehence It is exactly the time to increase the pressure even more. We have them by the throat. We are heading for absolute victory.he stressed before Parliament.

Meanwhile, Antonio Guterres, Secretary General of the United Nations (UN), condemned Tel Aviv’s decisions to authorize more illegal settlements in the reoccupied West Bank, saying that it represents a stab in the heart to achieve a two-state solution.

In turn, Human Right Watch (HRW) published a report in which it claims that Palestinian armed groups committed hundreds of war crimes in its October 7 attack on Israel; it claimed that more than 815 civilians were killed in the raid, which it identified crimes against humanity as the planned murder of civilians and the taking of hostages.

He singled out other armed factions that committed war crimes on October 7, including Islamic Jihad.

For its part, Hamas rejected the lies and the blatant bias from the HRW report.

In New York, a meeting of the United Nations Security Council was briefly interrupted yesterday by two protesters dressed in black who stood up with banners and shouted in favour of the release of Israeli hostages, following a statement by Tel Aviv’s ambassador to the UN, Gilad Erdan.

In this context, the United States has ended the problematic military mission that was intended to deliver emergency humanitarian aid to Gaza via the temporary pier. Aid deliveries will now be made from Cyprus to Ashdod and then transferred to northern Gaza.