LAST UPDATE | 15 Aug
THE DEATH TOLL in Gaza has reached 40,000 in the more than 10-month conflict between Israel and Palestinian militants, according to the enclave’s health ministry.
The ministry said at least 40,005 people have been killed in Israel’s aerial bombardment and and ground assault in Gaza since the 7 October 2003 attack on Israeli settlements by Hamas.
It said another 92,401 people have been wounded in the conflict that broke out on October 7 when Hamas militants attacked Israel.
The UN human rights chief today deplored the “grim milestone” and accused Israel’s military of breaking the “rules of war”.
“Most of the dead are women and children,” said UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk.
“This unimaginable situation is overwhelmingly due to recurring failures by the Israeli Defense Forces to comply with the rules of war,” he added.
“The scale of the Israeli military’s destruction of homes, hospitals, schools and places of worship is deeply shocking.”
Meanwhile, Christian Aid Ireland remarked that while “Ireland has said the right things, we cannot say we have done enough”.
Christian Aid Ireland’s Head of Policy and Advocacy Conor O’Neill said:“Israel will not change course until it faces real, tangible consequences for its actions.
“At EU level the Government must urgently step up efforts for the suspension of the EU-Israel association agreement and for targeted sanctions.
“Domestically, we must pass the Occupied Territories Bill as a matter of priority to ensure that Ireland isn’t complicit via our trade and investment in Israel’s ongoing violations of international law.”
The grim figures come as high-stake talks take place today between mediators seeking a truce to Israel’s war with Hamas in Gaza.
US, Qatari and Egyptian mediators have invited Israel and Hamas for negotiations aimed at ending the fighting.
Israel confirmed it would attend, though it remained unclear if Hamas planned to participate.
It’s hoped a truce would avert a wider war and stop Iran striking Israel in return for recent killings.
In a phone call held between US President Joe Biden and Qatar’s Prime Minister yesterday, both men agreed that “no party in the region should take actions that would undermine efforts to reach a deal,” according to a US State Department readout of the call.
The latest mediation push comes as regional tensions have soared following the July 31 killing of Hamas political leader and truce negotiator Ismail Haniyeh during a visit to Tehran.
According to the Qatari foreign ministry, Biden and prime minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani discussed “the need for de-escalation” and how to “end the war”.
The talks will be held in the Qatari capital Doha, a source close to Hamas and a second source close to the negotiations told the AFP news agency.
According to a US source familiar with the Doha meeting, CIA director William Burns is scheduled to take part.
A spokesman for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told AFP that the heads of the Mossad spy agency and Shin Bet secret service would attend the Doha talks.
A US State Department spokesman earlier told reporters that Qatar was “working to ensure that there is Hamas representation as well”.
Mediation efforts have repeatedly stalled since a week-long ceasefire in November – the only pause so far in the war – when dozens of hostages were released by militants in exchange for Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli jails.
A Hamas official said it was “continuing its consultations with the mediators”, after demanding the implementation of a proposal that US President Joe Biden laid out on May 31 instead of holding more talks.
Biden said at the time that the phased plan would start with an initial six-week “complete ceasefire”, the release of some hostages held in Gaza and a “surge” in humanitarian aid entering the besieged territory as the warring sides negotiate “a permanent end to hostilities”.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken told several Middle Eastern counterparts in recent days that “this ceasefire deal is of vital importance, that we need to do everything we can to get it done, and that escalation is in no one’s interest”, a spokesman said yesterday.
Iran and its allies blamed Israel, which has not claimed responsibility for the attack that Tehran and armed groups it backs in the region have vowed to avenge, raising fears of a wider conflict more than 10 months into the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza.
Western leaders have urged Tehran to avoid attacking Israel over Haniyeh’s killing, which came hours after an Israeli strike in Beirut killed a senior commander of Hamas ally Hezbollah, the powerful Iran-backed militant group in Lebanon.
Asked whether a ceasefire agreement in Gaza could stave off a feared Iranian attack on Israel, Biden said: “That’s my expectation”.
Iranian foreign ministry spokesman Nasser Kanani said Tehran rejects Western calls “to take no deterrent action against a regime which has violated its sovereignty”, referring to Israel.
Last week the Iranian mission to the United Nations expressed “hope” that the retaliation would not be “to the detriment of the potential ceasefire” in Gaza.
With reporting by AFP
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