‘Israel now has a plan for ethnic cleansing’
Israeli political analyst Gideon Levy has accused the government of planning ethnic cleansing in Gaza.
“Someone conceived it, there were discussions of pros and cons, alternatives were suggested, options of total cleansing vs. stages, and all done in air-conditioned conference rooms with minutes taken and decisions made,” Levy wrote in an opinion piece in the Israeli newspaper Haaretz.
“For the first time since the war of revenge in Gaza began, it’s clear that Israel has a plan – and it’s a far-reaching one.
“This is no longer a rolling war. One can no longer accuse Benjamin Netanyahu of waging a war with no purpose. There is a purpose to this war, and it’s a criminal one. One can no longer tell army commanders that their troops are dying for no reason: They are dying in a war of ethnic cleansing.”
The article refers to the Israeli army’s plan to forcibly transfer Gaza’s entire population to a concentration zone in the south.
Pope Leo calls for end of ‘barbarity’ during Gaza war
Pope Leo has reiterated a call for the end of the “barbarity of war” during a service on Sunday as he spoke of his hurt after an Israeli attack on Gaza’s only Catholic church on Thursday.
After his Angelus prayer, Leo read out the names of the three people killed in the attacks and appealed to the international community to “observe humanitarian law and respect the obligation to protect civilians”.
“As well as the prohibition of collective punishment, of indiscriminate use of force and forced displacement of the population,” he added.
Following widespread condemnation, Israel issued several statements, including from the army and Netanyahu, expressing “deep regret” for the attack, in a rare move.
Another Israeli soldier dies by suicide
The Israeli army says another soldier has died by suicide, the fourth to do so in the past two weeks.
An army statement said Dan Phillipson, a soldier in training originally from Norway, shot himself on Tuesday at a training base in southern Israel. He died of his injuries in hospital.
According to Israeli media, 19 soldiers have died by suicide since the start of the year and 42 since the start of Israel’s war on Gaza.
