Gaza – The U.N. chief and the U.S. secretary of state headed to Cairo on Monday to try to end two weeks of Israel-Hamas fighting that has killed at least 508 Palestinians and 20 Israelis and displaced tens of thousands of Gaza residents.
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Gaza health ministry official Ashraf al-Kidra said the Palestinian death toll from the two-week offensive stood at 508 as of Monday morning. More than half of those victims – 268 – were killed since an Israeli ground operation in Gaza began late Thursday. Israel says 18 of its soldiers have also died along with two civilians.
The Islamist group Hamas and its allies fired multiple missiles across southern and central Israel, and heavy fighting was reported in the north and east of Gaza.
Despite worldwide calls for a cessation of the worst bout of Palestinian-Israeli violence for more than five years, Israeli ministers ruled out any swift truce.
“This is not the time to talk of a ceasefire,” said Gilad Erdan, communications minister and a member of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s inner security cabinet.
“We must complete the mission, and the mission cannot end until the threat of the tunnels is removed,” he told reporters.
For its part, Hamas, weakened by the loss of Egypt and Syria as allies, voiced determination to fight on to break Israel’s economic siege of Gaza.
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry was due to fly to Egypt later in the day as part of a gathering effort to halt the bloodshed, and U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon is touring the Middle East trying to secure a ceasefire.
Past flare-ups between Israel and its foes in Gaza and Lebanon have usually ended when the United States, the Jewish state’s guardian ally, calls a halt, sometimes hastened by a strike that inflicts high civilian casualties on the Arab side.
While Washington went along with Sunday’s Security Council statement, it has so far defended Israeli actions and refrained from pressuring Netanyahu publicly to stop.
Violence along the Gaza border intensified on Monday and sirens wailed across much of central and southern Israel to warn of rocket attacks. At least nine missiles were shot down by Israel’s Iron Dome interceptor, the army said.
that is the way to go MAY HASHEM BE WITH US!!!! and don’t forget wasnt there over a thousand released for one Gilad Shalit? so if they agreed to that ratio then we are still being good, actually very very good!!!
It looks like the Israelis are escalating after some of them got killed!