The United Nations has issued an urgent appeal for Israel and Gaza to “step back from the brink” of war, after the worse violence seen since the summer of 2014 erupted along the border.
Nickolay Mladenov, UN special coordinator for the Middle East, said both sides needed to take a step back from confrontation just hours after an escalation in violence that saw 200 projectiles fired towards Israel from Gaza and dozens of airstrikes launched in response.
Highlighting the worsening humanitarian situation in Gaza and the deteriorating political and security situation in the region, he called for Palestinians to keep protests peaceful and for Israel to show restraint in its response.
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The fighting is the result of a long build-up of tension across the border, dating back to a series of protests by Palestinians organised from the spring onwards by Hamas, the militant Islamist group that rules the Gaza strip.
More than 130 people have been killed since the violence broke out. 60 Palestinians, including eight children, lost their lives in a single day in May after protests against the US embassy move to Jerusalem turned violent.
Israel has repeatedly denied using excessive force against protesters, yet the country’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, has made it clear he now regards arson attacks in the same way as rockets and mortars, meaning there could be no ceasefire with militants in Gaza if they kept launching incendiary kites and balloons over the fence.
In typically uncompromising rhetoric, Netanyahu said: “Whoever hurts us, we will hit them with great strength. This is what we did yesterday. I hope that they got the message; if not, they will get it later.”
However, an Egyptian-brokered ceasefire agreed on Saturday appeared, for now at least, to be holding.
Far-right members of the Israeli cabinet criticised the acceptance of Egypt’s ceasefire proposals “but the government is thought to want to concentrate its attentions on events at its other border, with Syria” says The Times, so “an assault in Gaza, and the inevitable civilian death toll in its crammed towns, would be sure to attract international opprobrium just as Israel is seeking backing for its tactics in Syria”.
