Israel-Gaza conflict: Obama and Pope call for peace as child death toll rises
President Barack Obama and Pope Francis issue separate calls for peace as conflict between Israel and Hamas claims 218th child victim, according to Unicef figures
By David Blair, Gaza City, and Robert Tait, Jerusalem
10:30PM BST 27 Jul 2014
President Barack Obama has urged Israel to halt the Gaza offensive immediately, as new figures showed that 218 Palestinian children have been killed in the conflict so far.
Mr Obama telephoned Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, to press the need for a ceasefire.
The president "made clear the strategic imperative of instituting an immediate, unconditional humanitarian ceasefire that ends hostilities now", said a White House statement.
John Kerry, the US secretary of state, proposed a truce between Israel and Hamas, the radical Islamist movement, on Friday - only for his plan to be turned down by both belligerents.
Despite the failure of that effort – and the vitriolic criticism of Mr Kerry from Israeli officials in their national press – Mr Obama's intervention directly with Mr Netanyahu shows that America will sustain the diplomatic pressure for a ceasefire.
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Pope Francis also used his moral authority to appeal for an end to conflict for the sake of the world's children. "Stop, please stop! I beg you with all my heart," he told a massed gathering of pilgrims at the Vatican.
"I think of the children, who are robbed of the hope of a dignified life, of a future. Dead children, wounded children, mutilated children, orphans, children who, for toys, have the debris of war. Children who do not know how to smile," said the Pope.
His passionate words coincided with the release of new figures by the United Nations Children's Fund (Unicef) showing that 218 children – some only three months old – have been killed in Gaza. Children comprise 21 per cent of the Palestinian dead, while another 1,516 have been injured, added Unicef.
The total Palestinian death toll rose to 1,058 on Sunday after 147 bodies were recovered from ruined buildings the previous day. Israel announced that another soldier was killed, bringing its total military losses to 43. All of these troops have died since the onset of the ground invasion of Gaza 10 days ago. Three civilians have been killed in Israel by rockets fired from Gaza.
The territory's hopes of a respite were dashed on Sunday when Israel ended a truce and Hamas called one, only to break it almost immediately.
Within minutes of Israel announcing that it would stop observing a "humanitarian" ceasefire because of continued Hamas rocket attacks, the thunder of an artillery barrage broke over Gaza.
Israeli forces appeared to be focusing their fire on the eastern suburbs of Gaza City, perhaps with the aim of advancing further into even more densely populated areas.
Already, Israel has carved out a two-mile buffer zone along the territory's northern and eastern borders, covering 44 per cent of Gaza's surface area.
This has caused 173,000 Palestinians – almost 10 per cent of the entire population – to flee their homes and seek shelter in United Nations properties. If Israeli troops and tanks strike deeper into Gaza, then the number of refugees would only grow.
Israel had announced a "humanitarian" ceasefire from 8am until 8pm on Saturday, later extending this until midnight. The security cabinet then decided to renew the pause for another 24 hours until midnight on Sunday.
But Hamas said that it had not agreed to any extension – and it launched rockets at the Israeli cities of Ashkelon and Tel Aviv on Saturday night and again on Sunday morning. At first, Israeli forces held their fire and the political leadership opted to renew the truce nonetheless.
Yet at 10am on Sunday, a spokesman for the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) said that "following Hamas's incessant rocket fire throughout the humanitarian window, which was agreed upon for the welfare of the civilian population in Gaza, the IDF will now resume its aerial, naval and ground activity".
The artillery bombardment began almost instantly, closely followed by a series of air strikes on targets close to Gaza's Mediterranean shore, which sent up miniature mushroom-clouds of smoke.
Hamas then called a 24-hour ceasefire of its own, starting at 2pm. However, Israel said that after this deadline rockets were fired towards Ashkelon and the Negev region, where a house was destroyed.
"Hamas doesn't even accept its own ceasefire: it's continuing to fire at us as we speak," said Mr Netanyahu on CNN.
As the two enemies exchanged blows, hundreds of refugees were clustered in the grounds of Shifa Hospital in Gaza City. They sleep wherever they can find space and a patch of shade.
Mo'aed Abu Ormanah, 34, came here with his wife, Falastin, and their two baby daughters, aged 18 months and 5 months, after their home in the suburb of Shejaiya was caught up in the Israeli ground invasion.
They now sleep on two mattresses placed on a pavement near the hospital morgue. "My wife cannot breastfeed our daughter because we are out on the street," said Mr Abu Ormanah.
He took advantage of the ceasefire on Saturday to go back to his home. The area nearby was so badly damaged that it took him four hours to pick his way through the rubble to where the family lived. When Mr Abu Ormanah arrived, he found that his home was utterly destroyed.
If the conflict continues after the failure of the ceasefire efforts, Mr Abu Ormanah predicted that conditions for refugees like himself would steadily worsen. "If this war goes on for another week, I will go back to the ruins of my home and die there," he said. "It's better than staying here."
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