Israel agrees to hold off ground attack as UN members push for aid to Gaza

Sandeep Dikshit

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New Delhi, October 25

Israel agreed to delay the invasion of Gaza for now to enable the US rush missile defences to protect troops at its large number of bases in the region, according to media reports even as Tel Aviv turned to theatrics following its near isolation at the UN Security Council during an emergency discussion on the situation.

Flee order against humanitarian law?

• Israel’s order for northern Gaza residents to leave may violate international humanitarian law, Amnesty International has said
• Israel has again been dropping leaflets in Gaza asking Palestinians to flee northern half of enclave

Other reasons being given for delaying the ground invasion is to examine the plan to provide humanitarian aid to civilians inside Gaza as well as diplomatic efforts to free hostages. At the UNSC, there was no speaker who did not call for supply of adequate aid to Gaza while domestically pressure is mounting on the Netanyahu government on the hostage issue.

Israeli bombing batters Khan Younis

• Khan Younis in South Gaza continued to be battered by Israeli bombing and onslaught
• After its main hospital was hit last week, Israel has continued bombing civilian buildings that have taken a huge toll

Meanwhile, the ministry of health in Gaza said the death toll was over 6,500, including over 2,000 children and 1,100 women as well as journalists, medical workers and first responders. Other reports said the US asked Israel to postpone the ground assault in order to give more space to Qatar to broker the release of over 200 hostages with Hamas in Gaza.

‘Declare Hamas a terror outfit’

• The time has come for India to proscribe Hamas as a terrorist organisation like many other nations have done, Israeli ambassador Naor Gilon said
• He also thanked India for its ‘100 per cent’ support to Israel

Meanwhile, an isolated Israel seized on the observation by UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres that attacks by Hamas “did not happen in a vacuum”. Even as its ambassador in the UN Gilad Erdan sought the UN chief’s resignation, the UN expressed shock at the “misinterpretation” of his comments and said he was not justifying acts of terror by Hamas. “Nothing can justify the deliberate killing, injuring and kidnapping of civilians – or the launching of rockets against civilian targets,” Guterres said, repeating the remarks he had made in the UNSC.

Guterres had told the UNSC that the Palestinian people had been subjected to 56 years of suffocating occupation with their land steadily devoured by settlements and plagued by violence; their economy stifled; their people displaced and their homes demolished. “Their hopes for a political solution to their plight have been vanishing,” he had said. Israel’s foreign minister Eli Cohen said in protest he had cancelled his meeting with Guterres.

Meanwhile, Israel has rejected Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan’s assertion that Hamas was not a terrorist organisation. “Israel wholeheartedly rejects the Turkish president’s harsh words,” said the Israeli foreign ministry.