WASHINGTON, Mar 20 (APP): US President Donald Trump gave a green light to Israel resumed deadly strikes on Gaza, which shattered the fragile ceasefire in place since January, marking a violent turn as he pushes for a Middle East settlement.
The Trump administration and the White House were consulted by the Israelis on their attacks in Gaza, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt told Fox News.
Israel claimed its surprise attack, the most significant since the ceasefire was agreed in January, was aimed at dozens of Hamas targets.
The Gaza Health Ministry said the Israeli strikes across the Palestinian enclave killed at least 404 people.
Israel will, from now on, act against Hamas with increasing military strength, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahuoffice threatened in a statement.
Netanyahu said that Hamas epeatedly refused to release our hostages and rejected all offers it received from the U.S. Presidential Envoy, Steve Witkoff, and from the mediators.
The Wall Street Journal, citing an Israeli official, reported that President Trump gave Israel the go-ahead to restart its attacks.
The attacks fractured a drawdown in hostilities in a 17-month-long war that began with the ceasefire agreement and threatened a return to sustained fighting.
During the war, more than 48,000 Palestinians have been killed, mostly women and children, and roughly 70 percent of all structures in Gaza have been destroyed during heavy Israeli bombardments, according to Medecins Sans Frontieres, an international charity group.
In New York on Thursday, at a UN Security Council meeting on the situation in Middle East, Pakistan’s UN Ambassador Munir Akram called for ending the suffering in Gaza, in the Occupied Palestinian Territories and in the region, saying that the ceasefire agreement, facilitated by Egypt, Qatar, and the United States, offered a glimmer of hope.
“Yet”, the Pakistani envoy said, “tragically, this opportunity was sabotaged by the political interests of some Israeli politicians, who prioritize their survival through the continuation of the war.”
In this regard, Ambassador Akram condemned the resumption of Israel attacks on Gaza and the indiscriminate killing of Palestinian civilians through bombardments, through the airstrikes as well as artillery, as he advocated the two-state solution forMiddle East peace.
APP/ift