Israel Under Pressure For Ceasefire Condemns Hitler Remarks
By Stefan J. Bos, Chief International Correspondent Worthy News
JERUSALEM/GAZA (Worthy News) – Israel came under international pressure Thursday to agree to a ceasefire despite facing attacks from mutual fronts, with Turkey’s president comparing the Jewish nation’s prime minister to Germany’s war leader “Adolph Hitler.”
Even French President Emmanuel Macron, seen as an ally of Israel, demanded a “lasting ceasefire” in the Gaza Strip during a call with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, his office said Thursday.
It came as the United Nations spoke of “an escalating humanitarian crisis” gripping the Palestinian territory amid massive death and destruction.
Macron called Netanyahu as Israeli warplanes reportedly struck central and southern Gaza, including in Khan Younis, where “20 Palestinians were killed” in a strike near al-Amal hospital, according to Gaza’s Hamas-run health ministry.
“France will work in the coming days in cooperation with Jordan to carry out humanitarian operations in Gaza,” the French presidency stressed in a statement.
Macron told the Israeli premier of his “deepest concern” about civilian deaths and the humanitarian emergency in Gaza. The Hamas-run
He also insisted on the importance of measures to end “violence” by Israeli settlers against civilians in the West Bank, the other Palestinian enclave, and prevent new planned settlements there.
FREEDOM OF NAVIGATION
Netanyahu’s office said during the call, the prime minister thanked Macron for “France’s involvement in defending the freedom of navigation and its willingness to help restore security along Israel’s border with Lebanon.”
Besides strikes from Gaza, Israel faced stepped-up attacks from Lebanon-based Hezbollah in recent days and other Iran-backed militia, including Houthis in Yemen. Israel also faces groups in the West Bank and Syria.
Macron has steadily increased his criticism of Israel over its war in Gaza against Hamas, seen as a terrorist organization by most of Israel’s allies, after it killed some 1,200 people on October 7 in the Jewish nation.
Last week, Macron said Israel’s goal of fighting terrorism did not mean it had to “flatten Gaza” and urged the government “to stop this response because it is not appropriate because all lives are worth the same and we defend them.”
Gaza’s Hamas-run health ministry said Wednesday at least 21,110 Palestinians were killed by Israeli military action in the enclave since October 7, and 55,243 people had been wounded. It claimed, “195 people were killed and 325 injured in the last 24 hours.”
These figures have been impossible to verify independently. Critics say much footage appearing on television screens is provided by Hamas operatives.
Additionally, it has been unclear how many Hamas fighters are among the dead.
HAMAS BEING BLAMED
Israel has acknowledged civilians were killed but blamed Hamas for hiding its forces and weapons near or at civilian sites to use civilians as human shields. It has provided footage of what it says are massive tunnel networks and Hamas operation centers beneath or near civilian sites such as a hospital.
The crackdown on Hamas and its strikes against Israeli forces contributed to the displacement of some 1.9 million people, according to Palestinian sources.
One of them, Iman al-Masry, told reporters she recently gave birth to quadruplets in a hospital in southern Gaza after fleeing her family’s home in the territory’s north early in the war.
The journey “affected my pregnancy,” the 28-year-old said on Wednesday, and she gave birth by C-section on December 18 to two girls and two boys.
She was quickly asked to leave the hospital to make room for other patients but had to leave behind one son, who was too fragile to go with them.
“They are very slim,” she said of the infants from a cramped schoolroom turned shelter in Deir al-Balah. “Because of the lack of… baby formula, I try to breastfeed them, but there’s no nutritious food I can eat to breastfeed the three babies,” she added. Israel has insisted it does not target civilians and warned people like the mother to leave their homes ahead of strikes against Hamas.
The Palestinian suffering was reported while the number of Israeli forces killed recently in Gaza stood at 167 after the army announced the deaths of three more soldiers on Thursday morning.
With clashes intensifying, Israel condemned comments by Turkey’s president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, comparing Netanyahu to Adolf Hitler, the German dictator who oversaw the killing of at least 6 million Jews during World War Two.
HITLER ALLEGATIONS
Speaking at an awards ceremony in Ankara, Erdoğan said the Israeli prime minister was no different from Hitler and likened Israel’s attacks on Gaza to the treatment of Jewish people by the Nazis.
“They used to speak ill of Hitler. What difference do you have from Hitler? They are going to make us miss Hitler. Is what this Netanyahu is doing any less than what Hitler did? It is not,” Erdoğan said in Ankara.
“He is richer than Hitler; he gets the support from the West,” Erdoğan added. “All sorts of support comes from the United States. And what did they do with all this support? They killed more than 20,000 Gazans.”
Netanyahu responded by saying the Turkish president should be the last person to lecture Israel.
“Erdoğan, who is committing genocide against the Kurds and who holds the world record for imprisoning journalists who oppose his regime, is the last person who can preach morality to us, “ he wrote on social media.
Israel’s president, Isaac Herzog, said Erdoğan’s remarks were “deeply offensive” to Jewish people around the world.
FIGHTING ESCALATED
The diplomatic wrangling came as the Gaza fighting rapidly escalated into a broader armed conflict, with six Palestinians reportedly killed and several others wounded in the West Bank, the other Palestinian enclave, on Wednesday.
Palestinian authorities blamed Israeli air strikes for the causalities at the “Nur Shams refugee camp” near the town of Tulkarem, where Israeli soldiers were also deployed.
Elsewhere, Israel’s military chief, Herzi Halevi, said his forces are “at a very high level of readiness” amid escalating Hezbollah attacks from Lebanon.
Israeli war cabinet minister Benny Gantz said that the situation on the country’s northern border “demands change,” adding that the time for diplomacy “is running out.”
Hezbollah claimed on Wednesday morning to have fired 18 rockets into Israel from Lebanon. The IDF said it intercepted some of the missiles.
Additionally, a Hezbollah fighter was reportedly killed late Tuesday in an Israeli airstrike in south Lebanon along with his brother, a Lebanese-Australian national, and his wife.
It came after Hezbollah and other groups have made clear they will intensify their attacks as long as Israel’s declared war against Hamas in Gaza continues.
NETANYAHU PRESSURED
Yet Netanyahu has refused requests from Israeli security officials to start preparing for control and governance of the Gaza Strip after the war ends, Israeli media reported.
“Multiple requests were conveyed” on behalf of the directors of Mossad, the Shin Bet security agency, the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) chief of staff, and the defense ministry to arrange a meeting with the prime minister’s office, reports said.
There was no immediate comment from Netanyahu.
However, in the United States, White House officials say national security adviser Jake Sullivan and Israel’s strategic affairs minister, Ron Dermer, have discussed plans for the day after the Israel-Gaza war.
The preparations reportedly include governance and security in the enclave.
Israel has made clear it wants to ensure a civilian government without hatred towards the Jewish nation will run the area.
Critics suggest that may remain wishful thinking.
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