US Secretary of State John Kerry said Monday that any lasting ceasefire in Gaza must involve the disarmament of Hamas and other terrorist groups.
Speaking in Washington, Kerry said : ‘’Any process to resolve the crisis in Gaza in a lasting and meaningful way must lead to the disarmament of Hamas and all terrorist groups. And we will work closely with Israel and regional partners and the international community in support of this goal.”
Kerry’s comment followed US President Obama’s call for “the disarmament of terrorist groups and the demilitarization of Gaza” during a phone call with Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday.
Netanyahu himself, during a televised address Mondfay evening, urged the international community to “aggressively demand” demilitarisation initially through the dismantlement of the Gaza tunnel network.
Kerry had come under fire from much of the Israeli media due to his failed attempt to broker a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas over the weekend. Kerry reportedly tabled a draft proposal for a truce which had been negotiated primarily with Qatar and Turkey, Hamas’s favoured interlocutors, effectively side-lining the ceasefire efforts of Egypt which had already been backed by Israel, the Palestinian Authority (PA) and much of the international community.
Kerry’s draft reportedly contained only cursory mention of Israel’s security needs and did not tackle the cessation of rocket fire or the dismantling of tunnels used to attack Israel.
Two weeks ago, the European Union issued a statement that also stressed that ‘’all terrorist groups in Gaza must disarm.” Hamas and Islamic Jihad are on the EU list of terror groups. The EU also strongly condemned calls on the civilian population of Gaza ‘’to provide themselves as human shields.”
The statement also called on Hamas to put an immediate end to its rocket attacks and to renounce violence.
Since the start of Operation Protective Edge against Hamas in Gaza, more than 2,612 rockets and mortars were fired at Israel. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) has struck over 3,870 Hamas targets with ground, naval and aerial capabilities including dozens of tunnels.
The Israeli army said it was not operating in the vicinity of Shifa Hospital in northern Gaza on Monday, where an explosion reportedly killed and wounded dozens of Palestinians.
“A short while ago Al-Shifa Hospital and Al-Shati Refugee Camp were struck by failed rocket attacks launched by Gaza terrorists,” the army said in a statement sent to reporters.
The failed attempt to fire the projectile apparently hit a car near the center, according to Israel’s Channel 2 News, causing the casualties.
The station said that a “Hamas Fajr-5 rocket aimed at central Israel, which was fired from a playground outside the Shifa hospital and exploded on the site causing casualties, had at least a 100 kg (220 lbs) warhead,” according to The Times of Israel.
Reporter Nir Devori of Channel 2 and analyst Ehud Yaari confirmed the carnage was most likely the result of a failed Fajr rocket launch — aimed at central Israel.
In an earlier event, the Israeli army Sunday evening denied that it was responsible for the deaths of some 15 Palestinians in a United Nations Refugee Works Agency (UNRWA) school in the northern Gaza Strip on July 24.
An “inquiry concluded that during the intense fighting between IDF forces and Hamas militants, the militants operated adjacent to the UNRWA school. The militants fired anti-tank missiles at IDF soldiers, who then responded by firing several mortars in their direction,” the army statement said.
“The inquiry… concluded that a single errant mortar landed in the courtyard of the UNRWA school, when it was completely empty.”
“The IDF stresses it does not operate or target international organizations in the Gaza Strip, and the ongoing coordination conducted via the Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT) is continuous without change, even during times of combat.”
“In light of the inquiry’s findings, the IDF rejects the claims that were made by various officials immediately following the incident, that people were killed in the school premises as a result of IDF operational activity,” the statement concluded.
During the three weeks of Israel’s Operation Protective Edge, Hamas has been caught using hospitals, mosques and schools to hide militants and weapons, all of which are contrary to international rules of war created to protect civilians.
Additionally, some reporters trying to cover events in the coastal enclave say Hamas is limiting coverage and threatening them for reporting anything unflattering to the Islamist terrorist group.
Radjaa Abu Dagga, Gaza correspondent for France’s daily Libération, told the newspaper‘s readers how Hamas refused his requests to leave Gaza and how he was interrogated by Hamas members from their headquarters inside Gaza’s Al-Shifa hospital.
Posting a photo to Twitter of a Hamas spokesman being interviewed on camera, Nick Casey, The Wall Street Journal‘s Middle East Correspondent, wondered how patients there might feel about Hamas using the hospital as a “de facto headquarters for Hamas leaders, who can be seen in the hallways and offices.”
Casey wrote: “You have to wonder [with] the shelling how patients at Shifa hospital feel as Hamas uses it as a safe place to see media.”
The Palestinian Authority Ambassador to the United Nations Riyad Mansour said in an interview on CNN Tuesday that Palestinians in Gaza have ‘’nowhere to hide’’ when Israel strikes targets in the Strip. But observers may ask him : ‘’Why they don’t use the tunnels Hamas built for years as shelters ?’’. The response is : ‘’Because these tunnels are used by Hamas to carry out terror attacks against Israel southern communities like the one that occurred Monday afternoon when gunmen infiltrated through a tunnel from Gaza into border kibbutz Nahal Oz. The IDF confirmed that five soldiers were killed during the thwarted attack.
Five other soldiers were killed Monday, in a mortar attack on the border with Gaza.The total of Israeli soldiers killed so far in the Gaza operation is 53.
The IDF stresses that its mission is to target Hamas’ tunnels and to impair its capability to attack Israel.



by Yossi Lempkowicz and EIPA