Signs of Cease-fire in Palestine-Israel

AFP/MAHMUD HAMS

Cracks show on a mural covering the wall of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) headquarters in Gaza City\'s Rimal neighbourhood, on May 18, 2021, following Israeli air raids on the Palestinian enclave. - The UN Security Council was to hold an emergency meeting amid a diplomatic push to end the devastating conflict between Israel and Gaza\'s armed groups that has killed more than 220 people, most of them Palestinians.

After 10 days of armed conflict, signs of a cease-fire between Hamas and Israeli groups are becoming more apparent. Diplomatic efforts have intensified to stop the war.

CAIRO, KOMPAS — The de-escalation effort in the Gaza Strip to reach cease-fire has begun to lead in a positive direction. Israeli television station Chanel 12, on Wednesday (19/5/2021), revealed that the Israeli mini cabinet for security affairs will hold an emergency meeting on Wednesday night or Thursday to discuss the possibility of a cease-fire in the Gaza Strip.

The Gaza armed conflict entered its 10th day on Wednesday. As of Wednesday night (Indonesia time), the Gaza Ministry of Health revealed that at least 219 Palestinians had been killed, including 63 children and 36 women, and 1,530 were injured. Hamas and Jihad Islam groups said at least 20 of their fighters had been killed. The Israeli death toll reached 12 people, including a child and a soldier, and at least 300 people were injured.

Hamas-run Al Aqsa Radio reported that a reporter was killed in an air strike in Gaza City. In Israel, two Thai migrant workers who worked in cultivated fields near the Gaza border were killed by rockets from Gaza.

While the Israeli incursion into the Gaza Strip and the firing of Hamas rockets into Israel were still ongoing on Wednesday, diplomatic efforts toward a cease-fire had intensified.

This Thursday, the United Nations is scheduled to hold a General Assembly session at the UN Headquarters in New York, US, with among agendas to discuss the crisis in Palestine. Foreign Minister Retno LP Marsudi will attend the session, in addition to her meeting with UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres, President of the UN General Assembly Volkan Bozkir and a number of foreign ministers.

AFP/HAZEM BADER

A Palestinian woman waits with her child at the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees UNRWA health centre in al-Fawwar refugee camp southwest of Hebron in the occupied West Bank on April 8, 2021. - The US State Department said it yesterday it would contribute $150 million to UNRWA. The Trump administration had severed funding in 2018.UNRWA was set up in 1949, a year after Israel\'s creation, and currently provides housing, schools and other care to more than five million Palestinian refugees and their descendants.

Earlier, on Tuesday, France – after coordination with Egypt and Jordan – submitted a draft UN Security Council resolution urging a cease-fire. According to the Egyptian daily, Al Ahram, the Egyptian security delegation will return to Tel Aviv and the Gaza Strip, this Thursday or Friday for another mediation session in an effort to reach a cease-fire in the Gaza Strip.

Citing Palestinian sources, Israeli television, N12 TV, reported that Egypt through "secret channels" offered to end the Gaza-Israel armed fight on Thursday morning. Ezzat El-Reshiq, a member of the Hamas political bureau in Qatar, issued a statement, saying reports that a cease-fire agreement were made were untrue.

On Wednesday, US President Joe Biden for the fourth time in a week telephoned Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. "The president told the prime minister that he hopes for a significant de-escalation today as a way of leading to a cease-fire," said Karine Jean-Pierre, a spokeswoman for the White House.

The White House is considered to be inclined to support Israel\'s right to defend itself from Hamas attacks without mentioning the right of Palestinians to live without repression.

The US position in the latest Palestinian-Israeli conflict has come under the spotlight after Washington has vetoed three times the UN Security Council’s move to issue a resolution related to the conflict. The White House is considered to be inclined to support Israel\'s right to defend itself from Hamas attacks without mentioning the right of Palestinians to live without repression.

Armed fighting began on 10 May when Hamas\' group fired rockets at Jerusalem following clashes and violence experienced by Palestinians from Israeli police during Ramadan at Al Aqsa Mosque and Israeli plans to evict Palestinians from their homes in the Sheikh Jarrah settlement, East Jerusalem.

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas at the Arab parliamentary session forum in Cairo, Egypt, via Zoom on Wednesday accused Israel of committing systematic state terrorism in the Gaza Strip. He vowed to bring the perpetrators of war crimes in the Gaza Strip to the International Criminal Court.

The impact of war

As a result of 10 days of armed fighting, not only hundreds of people were killed and thousands of people were injured but it also caused the destruction of infrastructure in the Gaza Strip. The region has been hit by a blockade for 14 years. The Israeli air strikes caused buildings to level to the ground, roads were destroyed, and medical, electricity, and water supplies cut off. Earlier this week, the UN recorded that 38,000 people were displaced and 2,500 people were left homeless.

Kompas

United Nations Agency for Palestinian Refugees (UNRWA) workers clean a street at the Rafah refugee camp in the southern Gaza Strip on April 8, 2021. - The United States said it was restoring assistance to the Palestinians severed under former President Donald Trump with an announcement of $235 million. The State Department said the US would contribute $150 million to the UN agency and offer $75 million in economic and development assistance for the West Bank and Gaza as well as $10 million for peacebuilding efforts.

As in other conflicts, the war in Gaza has made children the worst affected. Children in the Gaza Strip are enduring long-term trauma. This is the fourth time in 12 years, namely in 2009, 2012 and 2014, that Israel and Hamas have been involved in armed conflicts.

In every conflict, Israel always attacks by air, bombarding dense settlements in the Gaza Strip. Vulnerable conditions also occurred in the areas targeted for the attack. Since the Hamas-Israel conflict occurred on 10 May, at least 63 children have died out of a total of 219 Palestinians who have died. On the Israeli side, 12 people were killed by Hamas rockets, one of them was a five-year old child.

A mother who lives with her seven children in Gaza, Randa Abu Sultan (45), admits she is terrified every night. They gather together with other family members in a shelter. "We were all terrified by the sound of explosions, missiles and fighter jets," she said. "My four year old son told me he was afraid, if he fell asleep, he would wake up and find us dead."

Before launching the attacks, Israel claimed to have issued a warning so that residents could leave the building that was to be attacked.

The Israeli military has attacked hundreds of spots in Gaza, even in the densely populated residential areas. While Hamas attacked Israeli territory with hundreds of rockets, the majority were intercepted by Iron Dome, Israel\'s anti-missile defense system. The Israeli military has promised several times that it will do everything possible to prevent civilian casualties. Before launching the attacks, Israel claimed to have issued a warning so that residents could leave the building that was to be attacked. However, a number of families in Gaza said they did not receive any warnings.

The Norwegian Refugee Council said that of all the children who got killed in the Israeli attacks, 11 of them were attending psychosocial assistance programs to help children deal with trauma. "This is the fourth time children have had to experience trauma as a result of bombings around their homes," said Hozayfa Yazji, field manager of the Norwegian Refugee Council.

AFP/MOHAMMED ABED

A nurse checks the temperature of Palestinians as they arrive to receive a dose of Russia\'s Sputnik V COVID-19 vaccine at the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA)\'s Sheikh Redwan clinic in Gaza City on March 16, 2021. (Photo by MOHAMMED ABED / AFP)

Parents in Gaza have been trying to help their traumatized children. If a bomb or rocket can be seen in the sky, parents usually calm their child by saying it is just fireworks. This violent turmoil, said Yazji, clearly affects the psychology of the children.

"If this war continues, children will need more assistance," he said. (AP/AFP/REUTERS/BEN/LUK)

(This article was translated by Kurniawan Siswoko).