Palestinian leadership must be committed to resistance

Comrade Khalida Jarrar

Jarrar: Palestinian leadership must be committed to resistance and the people’s right to defend themselves
Jul 20 2014


Comrade Khalida Jarrar, a leader in the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, said that any Palestinian leadership must be committed to the option of resistance, the people and their right to defend themselves.

In comments to Palestine Today, Jarrar denounced the statements of PA President Mahmoud Abbas regarding the aggression on the Gaza Strip, saying that “The leadership today appears to exist in a different reality from the situation of the Palestinian people in the streets.” She demanded a full and immediate end to security coordination with the enemy, saying that these security commitments by the Palestinian Authority keep the Palestinian people at the mercy of the occupation. She demanded the government of national consensus to uphold their responsibilities to meet the needs of Gaza and confront the ongoing aggression, saying that the occupation is trying to divide the Gaza Strip from the West Bank and the rest of Palestine, and this must not be allowed.

Jarrar urged the people and the resistance in the West Bank to express their anger and demanded that the PA security services stop the repression of Palestinian youth seeking to clash with the occupation, and instead protect the people, and called for the formation of popular leadership on the ground to lead the Palestinian people.

காசா ஆதரவு காஸ்மீர் ஆர்ப்பாட்டத்தில் துப்பாக்கிச் சூடு!

Kashmiris hit streets against Gaza bloodbath

Youth critical as forces open fire on protesters at Qaimoh; Clashes in Bandipora, Sopore, Srinagar, Baramulla
KHALID GUL/ABID BASHIR
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Srinagar, July 18:  A youth was critically injured in Qaimoh area of Kulgam district in South Kashmir during clashes Friday as Kashmir once again registered its anger against the Israeli aggression in Gaza that left over 250 people dead and 1700, including women and children, injured. Nearly a dozen youth and a few cops were injured in the clashes across Kashmir.

Pertinently, Hurriyat Conference (G) chairman Syed Ali Geelani had urged people to stage peaceful demonstrations against Israeli aggression in Gaza post-Friday congregational prayers.

SOUTH KASHMIR
Reports said soon after the Friday prayers people in Qaimoh and adjoining areas of Khudwani and Redwani staged massive anti-Israel demonstrations. The protesters carrying placards were shouting anti-Israel, anti-US and anti-India slogans. The protesters marched towards Srinagar-Jammu highway and resorted to stone-pelting on the forces, resulting in clashes.  “The paramilitary forces fired at the protesters resulting in bullet injury to one youth,” eyewitnesses said. The youth was identified as Amir Ahmad Parray S/O Abdul Majid Parray, age 19 years, a resident of Gufbal village of Qaimoh. He was shifted to district hospital Anantnag for treatment where from he was rushed to SKIMS, Soura (Srinagar) in a critical condition. “Amir has received bullet injury on right side of his chest,” said a doctor at the district hospital Anantnag.  Several other people also sustained injuries.

“One Sajad Ahmad Wani S/O Abdul RehmanWani of Qaimoh received tear smoke canister injury and was also being treated at the district hospital,” reports said.

One of the pedestrians, identified as Sameer Ahmad S/O Muhammad YousufShalla of Uran Hall village of Anantnag district, suffered serious injuries after paramilitary forces allegedly beat him to pulp. “I was not part of the protest but the CRPF personnel mercilessly thrashed me with gun butts and bamboo sticks,” said Sameer, who suffered severe eye injury and was also being treated at the district hospital.

Several cops and paramilitary forces personnel were reportedly injured in the clashes and many vehicles damaged by the protesters. Clashes were on in Qaimoh and adjoining areas when reports last came in.
Superintendent of Police (SP) KulgamMumtaz Ahmad said police is trying to ascertain the details.
Massive anti–Israel protests also rocked South Kashmir districts of Islamabad, Kulgam, Pulwama and Shopian.

Reports said in Islamabad town, as Friday prayers concluded, people assembled in large numbers outside Jamia Masjid Ahli-Hadith, Bait-ul-Muqaram, RehatDed Masjid, Jamia Masjid Hanfia and several other Masjids and marched towards LalChowk. “The protesters were carrying placards and banners reading Save Palestine and Down with Israel,” eyewitnesses said.

Reports said local Tehreek-e-Hurriyat leaders led the protest demonstration even as police detained district president Hurriyat (G) to prevent him from leading the procession. “Police and CRPF men who were deployed in strength to thwart the protests used force to disperse the protesters triggering clashes,” reports said.

Locals said that youth pelted stones on the forces who retaliated by baton charge and tear gas shelling. “Clashes soon spread to other old town areas including Reeshi Bazar, Malakhnag, CheeniChowk, Sheerpora, JanglatMandi, Kadipora and Sarnal,” reports said. Youth fought pitched battles with forces, and clashes were on till reports last came in and spread to even areas of Khannabal-Pahalgam (KP) road.
Earlier Thursday night protests rocked Sarnal area after the paramilitary forces allegedly thrashed locals who were going for night (Isha) prayers. Locals alleged that the forces personnel also smashed the windowpanes of the houses.

Massive protests were also staged in Pulwama town. “People marched towards the streets of town amid anti-Israel, anti-US and anti-India slogans,” eyewitnesses said. They said the protesters were wearing black arm bands and carrying placards. Police resorted to tear gas shelling to disperse protesters near Main ChowkPulwama. Sporadic incidents of stone pelting were also reported from the town.

Reports of protests were also received from Tral, Awantipora, Pampore and Rajpora areas of the district.
In Shopian town also, massive protest rallies were taken out from Jamia Masjid and Tak Masjid. Protest demonstrations were led by Tehreek-e-Hurriyat leader and district president, Hurriyat (G), Muhammad YousufFalahi.

CENTRAL KASHMIR
Soon after the Friday prayers, Chairman Hurriyat Conference (M) Mirwaiz Umar Farooq led a protest demonstration outside historic Jamia Masjid Srinagar against Gaza carnage. Mirwaiz was wearing a black band as a mark of protest against Israel.

Mirwaiz while condemning the silence of United Nations over the innocent killings in Gaza, raised anti-UN slogans. As Mirwaiz left the spot, scores of youth assembled at Nowhatta and engaged in clashes with the forces. Police resorted to heavy tear gas shelling to quell the protesters. Heavy stone pelting and clashes were going on in Nohwatta and other areas of the old city when this report was filed.

Protest rallies were taken out from many Masjids in Srinagar against Israel’s aggression in Gaza.  A protest march started from Jamia Masjid Hyderpora that culminated at GhantaGhar, LalChowk peacefully. The protesters were carrying placards displaying anti-Israel slogans.  Another protest rally started from the shrine of Hazrat Sheikh Abdul QadirJeelani (RA) at Sarai Bala. Reports of protests also poured in from many other parts of Srinagar and elsewhere.

Before Friday prayers, senior Hurriyat (M) leader and JKLF (H) chairman Javaid Ahmed Mir staged a peaceful demonstration in Press Enclave here against the Israeli aggression in Gaza.

NORTH KASHMIR
Soon after Friday prayers, hundreds of people took to the streets near Jamia Masjid Sopore to stage anti-Israel protests. The protestors also burnt Israeli flags. According to reports, the protests spread to other areas like College Road and interiors of Sopore town, triggering clashes between youth and forces. At least six people sustained minor injuries in the clashes.

In Baramulla district, IttihadulMuslimeen organized a peaceful demonstration at Hanjiwera, Pattan after Friday prayers. A large number of people from all walks of life while condemning the killing of innocent civilians, children and women by Israelis in Gaza joined the protests. Demonstrators and protesters holding placards and banners were chanting slogans like, “Down with America, Down with Israel, Save Gaza, Shia-Sunni Bhai Bhai.”

Reports of similar protests were registered from many areas of Kupwara district of north Kashmir as well.
Thousands of people gathered in the main market Kupwara after Friday prayers to protest Israeli aggression in Gaza. The main procession was taken out from MarkaziJamia Masjid that passed through different markets.

Meanwhile, a protest rally was also taken out from Jamia Masjid Kunzar and Jamai Masjid Tangmarg. Areas that include Chandilora and Duroo on the Srinagar-Gulmarg road observed a partial shutdown.
In Kupwara town, Handwara, Lalpora (Lolab) and Trehgam hundreds of people immediately after the Friday prayers took to streets against the carnage of Palestinians. Police resorted to mild tear-gas shelling to quell the angry protesters.

Violent clashes erupted in Bandipora district of north Kashmir post-Friday prayers as hundreds of people staged demos against Gaza carnage. According to reports, as the protesters reached Main Chowk, scores of youth resorted to stone pelting forcing the police and paramilitary CRPF to retaliate with tear gas shells. In the ensuing clashes, at least six persons including four youth and two cops were injured. The injured youth were identified as Fayaz Ahmed of Kaloosa, Shakir Ahmed, Waseem Hassan and Jamsheed residents of Bandipora town. People also staged protests in Main Town, Papchan, Hajin, Naidkhai, Sumbal, Arin, Watapora, Ashtangoo and Nowgam. As the clashes spread, authorities brought in more forces to quell the protests who responded with heavy tear gas shelling. Youth were fighting with police and paramilitary in ding-dong battles till this report was filed.

PROTESTS IN KU CAMPUS
Dozens of Kashmir University students despite summer break also staged protests against Israel after Friday prayers despite warnings issued by the authorities. A group of protesting students told Greater Kashmir that they registered a strong protest against the Israeli aggression in Gaza. “It is our duty as Muslims to protest against the innocent killings of people, especially children in Gaza,” they said. The varsity students also alleged that KU’s chief proctor had warned them of dire consequences in case they stage any protests in the campus. “Soon after the protest, many students were detained by the police,” a group of students said.  Pertinently, the University authorities have already announced summer break from July 18 to July 31.

POLICE VERSION 
Police said stray incidents of stone-pelting were reported in the afternoon from Qaimoh, Wanpoh in Kulgam, NaidKhai, Sopore, Papchan, Bandipora and Nowhatta Srinagar.

“One person Amir Ahmad was injured at Wanpoh, he has been shifted to Srinagar Hospital where his condition is being reported to be stable, besides a lady Hasina was injured in Sopore and was shifted to a hospital,” a police spokesman said.  

(With ShahidRafiq and Sheikh Nazir)

காசாப்படுகொலையைக் கண்டித்து இஸ்லாமியத் தமிழர்கள் ஆர்ப்பாட்டம்

காசாப்படுகொலையைக் கண்டித்து இஸ்லாமியத் தமிழர்கள் ஆர்ப்பாட்டம்! அமெரிக்க இஸ்ரேலியக் கொடிகள் தீவைப்பு!!

இலங்கை வாழ் முஸ்லிம்கள் இன்று செவ்வாய்க்கிழமை புனித ரமழான் பண்டிகையைக் கொண்டாடும் அதே வேளை இந்த ஆர்ப்பாட்டங்கள் நடந்தன.

மட்டக்களப்பு மாவட்டத்தில் காத்தான்குடி, அம்பாறை மாவட்டத்தில் பாலமுனை மற்றும் சின்னப்பாலமுனை ஆகிய இடங்களில் நடைபெற்ற இந்த கண்டன ஆர்பாட்டங்களில் பெரும் எண்ணிக்கையிலான முஸ்லிம்கள் கலந்து கொண்டார்கள்.

பள்ளிவாசல்களிலும் பொது இடங்களிலும் இன்று காலை புனித ரமதான் தொழுகைக்காக ஒன்று கூடிய முஸ்லிம்கள் தொழுகையின் பின்னர் வீதிகளில் இறங்கி ஆர்ப்பாட்டங்களில் ஈடுபட்டனர்.

ஆர்பாட்டங்களில் கலந்து கொண்டவர்கள் குறிப்பாக பலஸ்தீன் காஸா மீதான தாக்குதல்களில் கொல்லப்பட்ட குழந்தைகளின் படங்கள் உட்பட, மேலும் படுகொலைப் படங்களையும் தமது கைகளில் ஏந்தியவாறு காணப்பட்டார்கள்.

அமெரிக்கா மற்றும் இஸ்ரேலுக்கு எதிராகவும் பாலஸ்தீனத்துக்கு ஆதரவாகவும் வாசக அட்டைகளை ஏந்தியவாறு, யுத்தத்தை நிறுத்தவேண்டுமென முழக்கமிட்டனர்.

முடிவில் அமெரிக்கா மற்றும் இஸ்ரேல் ஆகிய நாடுகளின் தேசியக் கொடிகள் ஆர்பாட்டக்காரர்களினால் தீ மூட்டி எரிக்கப்பட்டன.

Shuja’iya Massacre proves the nature of the occupier and the failure of its aggression

Barakat: Shuja’iya Massacre proves the nature of the occupier and the failure of its aggression
Jul 20 2014

khaled-barakatComrade Khaled Barakat said in an interview with the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine media department that “the horrific massacre in Shuja’iya neighborhood in Gaza only proves the brutal, racist, colonialist nature of the occupier that Palestinians are fighting against. The massacre today is one in a long line of ongoing and continuing massacres aiming at the expulsion of Palestinians from our land for over 66 years. The occupation state is based on the massacres and expulsion of Palestinians from their land. It is an illegitimate, racist, settler colonial entity and this shines through in its massacres in Gaza.”

“The massacre also indicates the failure of the aggression and the cowardice of the Israeli Occupation Forces,” Barakat said. “Killing children and bombing civilians is not military heroism. This massacre, conducted with U.S.-made and funded weapons before the eyes of the world, with the silence and complicity of imperial powers and Arab regimes, is another proof that the occupation forces have failed in the battlefield and in their attempt to force a surrender upon the resistance.”

“The war criminals in Tel Aviv wanted to prove to their racist society that they are ‘making progress’ and the way to do that is by shelling a historic neighbourhood in Gaza, Shujai’yya, crowded with civilians, full of people, displacing over 85,000 people, bombing and shelling children and families with tanks and warplanes, because they are unwilling and unable to confront the resistance in the battlefield, face to face. In other words, Israel is using Palestinian civilians as human shields for its cowardly army,” said Barakat.

“In the last 48 hours we have seen that the real heroes in the battlefield, the Palestinian fighters of the resistance who have fought heroically and went behind enemy lines to confront occupation soldiers, achieving true victories against the occupiers,” said Barakat.

Commenting on the brutality of the Shuja’iya Massacre, Barakat said, “These massacres only deepen the Israeli defeat. Let us remember that in 1967 ‘Israel’ occupied the West Bank, Gaza, Sinai and the Golan Heights in 6 days and now, for the past two weeks, the Israeli ‘mighty army’ could not advance into the strip 10 meters fighting the resistance on the ground. And as an alternative, it has conducted massive bombing of civilians, targeting children, family homes, schools, hospitals, centers for people with disabilities, elders, fishers’ boats, family farms, and massive and random shelling of entire civilian neighborhoods.”

We have no doubt that Israel’s technical military capabilities are higher than the Palestinian technical capabilities, just as in the case of every colonizer who possesses massive military power and deploys a killing machine against an oppressed people struggling to live. However, in the confrontation on the battlefield, there is the truth – there are more Israeli soldiers killed and wounded than Palestinian resistance fighters. And so the cowardly colonial army of occupation targets families and civilian neighborhoods for massacres.”

Comrade Barakat said that the unity that the Palestinian resistance is exhibiting has never before been witnessed to this extent, and that “what makes the resistance stronger and more unified is the Palestinian people’s embrace of the resistance on a mass popular level. Our people in Gaza are the shell that protect the resistance and make it stronger and this popular support is the main principle and assurance of the victory to come.”

Barakat said that “there is no doubt that this battle is going to be deeply costly in human terms because of the brutality of the occupier, but the resistance will emerge from this battle stronger and more experienced, just like they did in 2008-9 and in 2012. After each battle, the resistance emerges stronger in its abilities, weapons, tactics, experience and qualitative achievements.”

Shuja’iya massacre will stain the hands of all who are silent and complicit

Photo,The Zionist enemy carried out a horrific massacre today against the civilians of Shuja’iya neighborhood in eastern Gaza City, targeting homes with mortars, tanks, missiles and aircraft, killing dozens of martyrs and wounding hundreds, where many remain under the rubble of their destroyed homes amid a barrage of shells and rockets.

Shuja’iya massacre will stain the hands of all who are silent and complicit
Jul 20 2014

The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine pledged that the blood of the martyrs of the Shuja’iya massacre, of the war crimes and genocide committed by land, air and sea in every inch of Gaza against civilians in their homes, children, women, and the elderly, will not be wasted, and that the enemy will never be able to break the will and steadfastness of our people and their valiant resistance which will fight and resist this cowardly and criminal enemy until the last breath.

The Front noted that the Zionist criminal occupation has brought death, destruction and devastation to our neighborhoods, camps and cities, saying that the occupation forces were incapable of stopping the resistance or its qualitative strikes against occupation forces, and have expressed their cowardice by targeting innocent civilians in their homes.

The Front saluted the brave resisters in all the Palestinian military organizations who are willing to sacrifice in order to block the progress of the occupation forces, for our people to survive and confront the war machine, and praised its ongoing painful strikes to the enemy.

Furthermore, the Front emphasized that the international community is responsible for the crimes against our people in Gaza with its ongoing military, financial, and political support to the occupation entity, providing it with political cover to commit crimes against our people.

The Front demanded that Palestinian Authority officials and spokespeople stop engaging in the language of defeatism and to instead respect the Palestinian popular mood, which shouts that no voice is louder than the voice of the resistance. Our legitimate resistance is a point of pride for all of our people; we are convinced that we will win, and we will mend our wounds, we will rise from the rubble and the ruins to rebuild our homes again.

The Front saluted with pride the steadfast people in Gaza from Rafah to Beit Hanoun who have suffered so much pain and yet refuse to concede to the threats of the occupation. People with such steadfastness will inevitably triumph and no war machine will be able to defeat them or to force them to abandon their embrace of the resistance.

The Front saluted the inspiring sacrifices and commitment of medical personnel, ambulance workers and civil defense, who faced extreme danger and came under fire in order to evacuate the dead and wounded, as well as the journalists who lost their lives in order to deliver the tragic images in the streets of Gaza to the world.

The Front called upon the Palestinian people throughout Palestine, in the West Bank, Jerusalem and ’48 and everywhere in diaspora and exile, saying that the land of the West Bank must burn under the feet of the occupiers, in their settlements and everywhere the occupation is. It is time that the earth is turned to flame beneath the feet of the criminal enemy. There can be no more waiting as the horrific massacres continue in Bureij, Rafah, Khan Younis, Beit Hanoun, Shuja’iya, Gaza.

It also demanded the Arab people and the democratic and progressive forces of the world to remain in the streets and squares, to occupy, surround and storm the Zionist and U.S. embassies and consulates in response to the crimes of the occupation forces, and to condemn the international and Arab official silence and complicity, demanding an immediate end to the siege on Gaza and the unconditional opening of Rafah crossing and in particular to facilitate the entry of medical personnel and aid.

The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine confirm that the crimes of the occupation will not go unpunished and resistance to the Zionist genocide against our people is our path. The banner of resistance and confrontation will be raised high by the Palestinian people.

The PFLP demanded that the PLO leadership immediately act to join the International Criminal Court and act to prosecute the fascist occupation war criminals for their massacres against the Palestinian people. The Front expressed its highest honor and salute and deepest mourning for the blood of the martyrs whose blood was shed on the land of Gaza, pledging to march on the path of freedom, self-determination, return and liberation, for which they were killed.

Abu Ali Mustafa Brigades continue confronting the occupier on the battlefield

Abu Ali Mustafa Brigades continue confronting the occupier on the battlefield
Jul 20 2014 PFLP

The Abu Ali Mustafa Brigades, the armed wing of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, is fighting alongside its fellow resistance factions in response to the Zionist aggression on Gaza from land, air and sea, and has engaged in many clashes dealing serious blows to the occupation army.

AAMB announced that it ambushed occupation soldiers east of Khan Younis and engaged with them directly, saying there were serious injuries in the ranks of the soldiers. It also announced that in a joint operation with the Brigades of the Martyr Abdelqader Husseini it confronted the enemy near the airport in Rafah, engaging them with a variety of weapons.

On Sunday, AAMB reported:

AAMB fighters clashed directly with occupation forces behind Kafarneh Street near the Agricultural College north of Beit Hanoun at 2:50 AM.

AAMB and Abdelqader Husseini Brigades infiltrated and engaged occupation forces at the Rafah airport area and confronted them with a variety of weapons including 4 “107″ type missiles.

Targeting enemy artillery east of Shuja’iya at 12:45 AM.

On Saturday, July 19:

* AAMB bombarded Eshkol settlement with three missiles at 11:00 PM.

* Ambushing ememy soldiers and clashing with them with confirmed casualties in their ranks

* Clashes with enemy forces in joint action with other resistance forces

* Targeting the enemy at Kerem Abu Salem at 10:15 pm with missiles

* Fighting with Israeli special forces in northern Beit Hanoun, causing confirmed enemy casualties

* Firing three rockets toward Bir Saba at 9:15 pm.

* The thirteenth day of the attack Saturday, 19/07/2014 AD

* In a joint operation with the Nasser Salahuddin Brigades, targeting occupation military northwest of Beit    Lahiya with anti-tank missiles, hitting their equipment directly at 7:25 pm

* Clashing with the occupation forces in one of the houses destroyed by their attacks in northern Beit Hanoun at 6:30 pm.

* Bombarding Eshkol settlement with missiles at 3:00 PM

* Confronting Zionist special forces that attempted to infiltrate Gaza

* Bombarding Asqelan with a Grad rocket at 3:00 AM

Israeli shells hit Gaza’s only power plant

A Palestinian man takes a picture of a fire raging in Gaza's main power plant following an overnight Israeli airstrike, south of Gaza City©EPA

July 29, 2014 12:00 pm
Israeli shells hit Gaza’s only power plant
By Joel Greenberg in Jerusalem FT

Israeli shells hit the fuel depot of the Gaza Strip’s only power plant on Tuesday, cutting electricity to Gaza City and wide areas of the coastal enclave as Israel intensified its bombardments of the territory after losing 10 soldiers in militant attacks.

Towering flames and plumes of smoke rose from the power station, as Israel’s offensive against the Islamist group Hamas entered its fourth week, with no signs of a breakthrough in US and regional efforts to broker a ceasefire.

Air strikes overnight targeted symbols of Hamas control in Gaza, hitting the studios of the group’s Al-Aqsa television and radio stations in a media complex in the centre of Gaza City that also contains offices of several Arab satellite television news channels. Al Aqsa television broadcasts continued from another location, according to local reports.

The vacated home of Ismail Haniyeh, the top Hamas leader in Gaza, was bombed, as well as the financial department of group’s administration in the territory, along with four mosques that the army said were used to store weapons.

“My house is not more valuable than the house of any other Gazan and destroying stones will not break our determination and resistance,” Mr Haniyeh said in a statement. “We will resist until freedom.”

The Palestinian death toll climbed beyond 1,100, according to health officials, as fresh strikes were reported on homes, some of which the army asserted had been used as “command and control centers” by Hamas militants.

A total of 53 Israeli soldiers have been killed in the fighting, along with three civilians who died in rocket and mortar strikes in Israel

Multiple members of extended families were reported to have been killed in strikes on houses in the al-Bureij refugee camp, where the home of the mayor was struck, in Khan Yunis and in Rafah, where seven members of the Abu Zeid family, including four women and a child, were reported to have died in a strike on their home.

The Israeli strikes followed the killing of 10 Israeli soldiers on Monday. Four died when mortars hit an army staging area in southern Israel near the Gaza border. Another five were killed when militants who had tunnelled into Israel attacked their position with an anti-tank rocket.

One of the infiltrators was killed in a subsequent exchange of fire as the rest fled back to the Gaza Strip, the army said. A bulldozer driver from the army’s corps of engineers was killed in Gaza when an anti-tank rocket hit his vehicle, the army said.

A total of 53 Israeli soldiers have been killed in the fighting, along with three civilians who died in rocket and mortar strikes in Israel.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu pledged on Monday to press on with the offensive, telling Israelis to “prepare for a prolonged campaign”.

Israel’s Netanyahu defiant despite pressure

July 28, 2014 5:11 pm
Israel’s Netanyahu defiant despite pressure
By Joel Greenberg in Jerusalem FT

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu faced increased international pressure on Monday to wind down Israel’s military offensive against the Islamist group Hamas in the Gaza Strip, but he has strong support at home to continue the campaign.

“We have to be prepared for a protracted battle,” Mr Netanyahu told Israelis on Monday, pledging to continue the offensive until a network of Hamas attack tunnels was destroyed.

After US president Barack Obama and the UN Security Council called for an immediate and unconditional ceasefire, Mr Netanyahu lashed out at the council’s non-binding “presidential statement” calling for a halt to hostilities to allow for delivery of urgent humanitarian assistance, calling it one-sided.

In a conversation with Ban Ki-moon, the UN secretary-general, Mr Netanyahu charged that the statement dealt with “the needs of a murderous terrorist organisation that attacks Israeli civilians, and does not address Israel’s security needs”, according to an account by the prime minister’s office.

A key reason for Mr Netanyahu’s defiant tone has been the popularity of the Gaza campaign at home, where Israelis have rallied behind the government and the army in the war against Hamas.

Absorbing daily rocket strikes directed at big cities and towns, Israelis have accepted Mr Netanyahu’s depiction of the campaign as an effort to degrade Hamas’s military capabilities in Gaza, including its missile stocks and attack tunnels, while bringing a long-term halt to the rocket attacks.

Polls have shown overwhelming opposition to a ceasefire. One survey published by Israel’s Channel 10 television on Sunday showed that 87 per cent of Israelis were in favour of continuing the Gaza operation and just 7 per cent wanted a full ceasefire. Another poll showed similar figures, with only 9.7 per cent agreeing with the statement: “Israel had enough achievements, soldiers have died, and it is time to stop”.

“What most Israelis perceive is the fact that the Palestinians are sending rockets into Israel, to very central places, and this is something they expect the government to prevent, so they will not support leaving Gaza without getting the job done,” said Tom Segev, a historian and author. “There is no opposition, except for a few thousand people who demonstrated against the war.”

Contributing to this public perception is the sympathetic Israeli media coverage of the military campaign, which has largely shielded Israelis from the graphic scenes of death and destruction viewers are seeing around the world.

Israeli news broadcasts focus on military operations against the tunnels and the damage and disruption caused by the rocket strikes in Israel, with relatively few images of the civilian casualties and devastation in Gaza.

With Israeli journalists barred from the coastal territory, except when embedded with army units, the bulk of Israeli reporting on the war is being done by military correspondents, with studio commentary provided by an array of ex-generals.

Mr Netanyahu has also taken pains to limit public scrutiny of his conduct of the war. In televised statements to the nation, flanked by the defence minister and army chief of staff, he usually takes no questions from reporters. With parliament in summer recess and support for the campaign reaching across the political spectrum, the prime minister has not been summoned to explain his policies before the Knesset.

While the 47 soldiers killed so far is a relatively high death toll in Israel for a campaign in its third week, the military’s dead and wounded are widely seen as a painful but necessary price for halting years of rocket attacks on civilians.

Mr Netanyahu has praised the Israeli public for its resilience, asserting that it has enabled the government to prosecute the war. “Your steadfast fortitude gives us the ability and the time to take strong action against our enemies, and we are all proud of you,” he said in one national broadcast.

Israel’s Iron Dome missile defence system, which has intercepted scores of rockets headed for significant population centres, along with an early warning system that has sent millions of Israelis to shelters before rocket impacts, have kept the civilian casualty toll low. Two Israeli civilians and a Thai labourer have been killed in rocket strikes.

Many of the nearly 2,000 rockets and mortars that have hit Israel have landed in open areas.
After an ebb in fighting early on Monday at the start of the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Fitr, rocket fire at Israel and Israeli strikes in the Gaza Strip resumed, with fresh deaths reported on both sides.

Four Israeli soldiers were killed in a mortar strike near the Gaza border, and 10 Palestinians, most of them children, were reported killed in an explosion in a park that local officials said was caused by an Israeli airstrike. Another strike hit an outpatient clinic at Gaza City’s main hospital, Al-Shifa, but there were no casualties. The Israeli army said both blasts were caused by impacts of misfired rockets launched by militants.

As the offensive has moved from land, air and sea bombardments to a ground invasion by infantry and tanks, the war aims have expanded. Initial government statements that “quiet will be met with quiet” have given way to demands by Mr Netanyahu that the Gaza Strip be demilitarised, ridding it of Hamas’s stocks of missiles and tunnel networks, some dug toward Israel for cross-border attacks.

Mr Obama acknowledged that demand in a phone conversation with Mr Netanyahu urging a ceasefire, though he appeared to defer any resolution of the issue to a final political settlement with the Palestinians.

“Ultimately, any lasting solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict must ensure the disarmament of terrorist groups and the demilitarisation of Gaza,” Mr Obama said, according to a White House statement.

Many Israelis, meanwhile, seem to be in no mood for a truce until the declared aims of the Gaza campaign are achieved. A woman from a rocket-stricken city in the south of the country captured the public mood in comments broadcast on Israel Radio. “We’ve been suffering here for 14 years,” she said. “We’re ready to suffer more now, but until they finish it off. I’m not willing to even hear the word ceasefire, not even for a minute.”

Source: FT