Civilians Are Israel-UN’s Responsibility, Tunnels Built To Protect Fighters: Hamas Official
Protecting civilians is the responsibility of the United Nations and Israel, the underground tunnels in Gaza are to protect the fighters, Hamas official Mousa Abu Marzouk told in an interview conducted by Russia Today TV. The official added that the Islamist group has not other option but to fight from tunnels.
“Protecting Gaza civilians is the responsibility of the United Nations (UN) and Israel…We have built the tunnels to protect ourselves from getting targeted and killed. These are meant to protect us from the airplanes,” he said, as translated into English by the Middle-East TV.
Meanwhile, Hamas militants in Gaza retaliated against the incursion by Israeli troops into the Gaza Stripe’s main city as the war eascalated into what the Israeli administration called the ‘second phase’.
According to latest data released by the Gaza health ministry, over 8,300 people died since the war began, of which 3,457 were minors.
The United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees has warned that ‘an immediate humanitarian cease-fire has become a matter of life and death for millions’. It further stressed that ‘the present and future of Palestinians and Israelis depend on it’.
Israel’s intelligence service Mossad’s chief David Barnea visited Qatar to meet with negotiators and discuss efforts to get hostages released.
After expressing outrage over comment by UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres over the Israel-Hamas war alleging that the October 7 attack ‘did not happen in a vacuum’, Israel bactracked on its promise to ‘refuse’ issuing of entry visas to UN officials. Martin Griffiths, the head of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, tweeted Monday that he was in Israel — less than a week after Israel’s UN ambassador said it had “refused” to grant Griffiths a visa.
Amid the public uproar over the October 7 Hamas assault, Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he has no plans to resign. “The only thing that I intend to have resigned is Hamas. We’re going to resign them to the dustbin of history,” he said. “That’s my goal. That’s my responsibility.”
Aid shipments to Gaza are set to pick up somewhat as Israel steps up its offensive, a senior Israeli official said. “We are expecting 100 trucks a day of aid starting tomorrow or Wednesday,” Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer said in a telephone interview.
Netanyahu dismissed calls for his resignation over his handling of the Hamas attacks and ruled out a cease-fire in the three-week-old conflict. “The only thing I intend to have resign is Hamas,” Netanyahu said in a briefing for international media. The premier, who’s faced criticism over his unwillingness to accept responsibility for security lapses before and during the Oct. 7 attack by Hamas, also said that “calls for a cease-fire are calls for Israel to surrender to Hamas.”
Israel has warned its citizens to leave the northern Caucasus after a mob stormed an airport in Russia’s Dagestan region when a flight from Israel landed there. Hundreds of men, some carrying banners with antisemitic slogans, rushed onto the tarmac of the airport in Makhachkala, the capital of the predominantly Muslim region, on Sunday night, looking for Israeli passengers on the flight from Tel Aviv, according to Russian news reports.
The Pentagon continues to provide weapons shipments almost on a daily basis to Israel, Pentagon deputy press secretary Sabrina Singh told reporters Monday. Despite the rising number of civilian casualties, “we are not putting any limits on how Israel uses weapons,” Singh said. “That is really up to the Israeli Defense Force to use and how they are going to conduct their operations.”