GAZA - John Kerry in Israel - Peace Talks

Yahoo News ... so far killed 649 Palestinians and 31 Israelis, with neither Israel nor Hamas showing willingness to end hostilities, despite days of diplomatic efforts to coax them into a truce. - Possible war crimes - [...] In Geneva, UN rights chief Navi Pillay said Israel's military actions in the Gaza Strip could amount to war crimes, while also condemning indiscriminate rocket attacks by Hamas. "There seems to be a strong possibility that international law has been violated, in a manner that could amount to war crimes," Pillay told an emergency session on Israel's Gaza offensive at the UN Human Rights Council, citing attacks that have killed Palestinian civilians, including children. She added that Israeli children and other civilians also had a right to live without constant fear of rocket attacks. Despite appeals from UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon for both sides to "stop fighting", Israel has insisted it would keep up its punishing campaign until it smashes cross-border tunnels used by Gaza militants to attack the Jewish state. After touching down in Tel Aviv at 0800 GMT, Kerry set off for Jerusalem where he was to meet visiting Ban before travelling straight to the West Bank city of Ramallah for talks with Palestinian leader Mahmud Abbas, a State Department official said. He was later to return to Tel Aviv for talks at the defence ministry with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the official said. He was expected to return to Cairo in the evening. [...] police confirming they had arrested 800 Arab Israelis and another 295 people in east Jerusalem in the past three weeks. Source - Yahoo News - undated  - here.

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COMMENT


Somehow I don't think there will be any action taken whatever the UN says.

Kerry trying to make peace with Palestinians is strange when he's a firm Israel supporter.

Mahmud Abbas is the official recognised go-to; but I think Hamas government is separate to him.

Peace talks must be awkward.

GAZA - Palestinian death toll 438

Bloody Sunday as 100 Gazans, 13 Israeli soldiers killed Agence France-Presse 5:23 am | Monday, July 21st, 2014 GAZA CITY–At least 100 Palestinians and 13 Israeli soldiers were killed on Sunday with Hamas claiming it had captured another, as Israel ramped up a major military offensive in Gaza. The Palestinian president, meanwhile, called for an immediate meeting of the UN Security Council as regional leaders met in Doha for urgent talks on a ceasefire. As the Palestinian death toll soared to 438 in the bloodiest single day in Gaza in five years, a spokesman for the enclave’s emergency services said more than a third of the victims were women and children. The Israeli army said 13 soldiers had been killed inside Gaza on the third day of a major ground operation. “Over the course of the day, 13 soldiers from the IDF’s Golani Brigade were killed in combat in the Gaza Strip,” a statement said. Their deaths raised to 18 the number of soldiers killed since the ground operation began late Thursday. It was the largest number of soldiers killed in combat since the 2006 Lebanon war. ... Entire buildings were collapsed on themselves or strewn into the streets, while others were ablaze, sending pillars of dark smoke skywards. There were also bodies, blackened and charred almost beyond recognition, some with whole limbs missing. Ban in peace push As the violence raged, Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas arrived in Qatar to discuss a ceasefire with Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal, and UN chief Ban Ki-moon arrived later to push truce efforts. “I am calling for an urgent session tonight of the UN Security Council,” Abbas said in a speech broadcast on Palestinian TV. “What the occupation forces did today in Shejaiya is a crime against humanity,” he said. “Those who committed it will not go unpunished.” Ban also condemned the “atrocious action” in Shejaiya and urged Israel to “exercise maximum restraint.” ...extract only...full @... SOURCE - Inquirer Philippines - here.

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COMMENT

Cannot begin to imagine what it would be like to be a sitting duck amid the conflict.

GAZA - Death Toll

GAZA

DEATH TOLL:   above 300

U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon - seeking to broker truce.

Obama has supported Israel's right to defend itself against Gaza rocket fire

ISRAEL - land, sea, air and ground offensive

HAMAS - [Palestinian Islamist de facto government in Gaza (following landslide parliamentary election win)]

HAMAS - Remains defiant "as Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas travelled to Egypt and Turkey for truce talks". [Mahmud Abbas - PLO Chairman & President of State of Palestine [wikipedia]]

Total death toll to 307 Palestinians and 2 Israelis.
2,250 Palestinians and several Israelis have been injured.

U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees UNRWA ... to shelter those fleeing.

• 47,000 Gazans seeking sanctuary with the agency.
• 20,000 displaced people received World Food Programme emergency food rations and food vouchers to more than
• 85,000 people estimated to require emergency assistance, as result of Israel ground offensive.

70% Gaza power outage (electricity lines from Israel were damaged)...
 

• Ground operation:  

Israel aim to "destroy Hamas network of tunnels which are used for cross-border attacks on southern Israel".

• Netanyahu (Israel) ...  admitted there was "no guarantee of 100 percent success."

"French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said Abbas had urged Paris to ask Hamas allies Qatar and Turkey to pressure the group into accepting a ceasefire."

"Hamas has rejected Egyptian proposals for a truce:

1. demanding an easing of a harsh Gaza blockade imposed by Israel in 2006; and
2. the release of Palestinian prisoners."

BLOGGER SUMMARY and QUOTE SOURCE - 

Gaza Toll Passes 300 as U.N.'s Ban Heads to Region
by Naharnet Newsdesk  - 
Lebanon - here.

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OTHER

HAMAS - is a 'Palestinian Sunni Islamic organisation'  

Declared terrorist organisation by Israel, Jordan, US, EU & US western allies, Japan

COUNTRIES OPPOSED to terrorist designation:  

• Iran
• Russia
• Turkey
• China; and 
• 'many Arab nations' 

2006-onwards - Hamas has governed the Gaza Strip

HAMAS -

 'won a majority of seats in the Palestinian Parliament in the 2006 Palestinian parliamentary elections and defeated the Fatah political organization in a series of violent clashes.'

FATAH - largest faction of PLO multi-party confederation.

INTERESTING ASIDE:

'Fatah wanted US Secretary of State John Kerry prosecuted before the International Criminal Court for allegedly having threatened the life of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas.' [wikipedia]

US Secretary of State John Kerry recently threatened PA President Mahmoud Abbas that he would meet the same fate as his predecessor, Yasser Arafat, if he turned down Washington’s proposals for peace with Israel, a Palestinian source was quoted Sunday as saying.  [The Jerusalem Post - Feb 2014 - here.]

According to Jerusalem Post's source, Kerry's proposals for the region were met with 'shock and rejection' and the proposals allegedly involved:

creating large settlement blocs where 80% of the settlers would be gathered under Israeli sovereignty. [The Jerusalem Post - Feb 2014 - here.]

John Kerry's brother, politician Cameron Kerry (US Democrats...US Secretary of Commerce), described the US Secretary of State's position as follows:

Today, his determined work on Middle East peace is informed by an abiding sense of the need to secure Israel as a home for the Jewish people. For years since that first visit, he has engaged passionately with a wide variety of leaders in Israel, the Palestinian Territories, and across the region to understand the way to peace. He also maintained a 100-percent pro-Israel voting record during his nearly three decades in the US senate.

It is this deep involvement that has led to the conviction that Israel's long-term security requires a two-state solution – ... Israel cannot sustain occupation of the West Bank and remain both democratic and Jewish. ...

Prime Minister Netanyahu, Foreign Minister Lieberman, and Ambassador Dermer were courageous in their defense of my brother’s motives. We can all debate the effectiveness of security measures, the delineation of borders, arrangements for East Jerusalem, and other real issues among the parties, but there is no truth and no good that can come by calling into question John Kerry's good faith toward his own heritage. Israel and the Jewish people deserve better than that.  [YNet News - here.]

HAMAS, if I understand correctly, look to Tayyip Erdoğan's Turkish government, as a model government.

Religious and secular balance sought ... but unknown if this aim is universal or if it will prevail.

Alleged that Saudi Arabia has been an early financial supporter of HAMAS.

HAMAS

• 540-million-dollar government budget for 2010 

• 90% coming from "undisclosed" foreign aid

said to include funding from -

• Iran; and 
• Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood

 'Due to the Gaza blockade, Hamas still faces a financial crisis." [wikipedia] 



Criticisms of HAMAS - wikipedia - here.



[source - wikipedia - where not otherwise stated]
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COMMENT

Spent a while checking out the info regarding this region and I'm still not really all that clear.