Israel Pledges ‘Unrelenting Attacks’: Obama Urges Caution
Israel’s military said it was preparing for “unrelenting attacks” to dismantle Hamas while former U.S. President Barack Obama warned that “any Israeli military strategy that ignores the human costs could ultimately backfire.”
The Palestinian health ministry said the Gaza death toll had topped 5,000 in two weeks of Israeli air strikes in response to Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack on southern Israel in which the Islamist militant group killed more than 1,400 people.
Israel pounded hundreds of targets in Gaza from the air on Monday.
Israeli Chief of Staff Lieutenant General Herzi Halevi issued a statement suggesting that Israel had no intention of curbing its strikes on the densely populated Gaza Strip and hinting that it was well prepared for a ground assault.
Obama, in a rare comment by a former U.S. president on a foreign policy crisis, issued a written statement warning Israel not to cause so many civilian casualties in retaliating against Hamas that it would alienate generations of Palestinians.
“Any Israeli military strategy that ignores the human costs could ultimately backfire. Already, thousands of Palestinians have been killed in the bombing of Gaza, many of them children. Hundreds of thousands have been forced from their homes,” Obama said in a statement posted on social media.
“The Israeli Government’s decision to cut off food, water and electricity to a captive civilian population threatens not only to worsen a growing humanitarian crisis.
It could further harden Palestinian attitudes for generations, erode global support for Israel, play into the hands of Israel’s enemies, and undermine long term efforts to achieve peace and stability in the region,” he wrote in the statement.
Israel’s bombardment of Gaza has allowed China and Russia to brighten their credentials as the champions of the developing world, in contrast with the United States, which has squarely supported Israel.
On Monday, Gaza’s Health Ministry said 436 people had been killed in bombardments over the previous 24 hours, most in the South of the coastal enclave next to which Israeli troops and tanks have massed for a ground invasion.
REUTERS
