Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu has defied all calls for a ceasefire in Gaza.
Pope Francis and Middle East leaders pleaded for a ceasefire as the IDF rained hell down upon the Gaza Strip as part of its ongoing ‘circling’ campaign against the enclave.
The IDF carried on its bombardment campaign, as Netnyahu told troops at the Ramon air force base in southern Israel that war would only stop when Hamas was completely destroyed.
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He said: “Our enemies misjudged us. There will be no ceasefire without the return of the hostages…This should be completely removed from the lexicon. We say this to our friends and to our enemies. We will simply continue until we defeat them. We have no alternative.“
Netanyahu even rejected Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s calls for a humanitarian pause on Friday saying Israel will continue to bombard the Gaza Strip with “all of its power.”
The Mail Online reports: The hard-line rhetoric comes as world leaders, including direct neighbours and UN agencies, pleaded with the 74-year-old leader to stop the incessant bombing of the enclave with and ‘immediate humanitarian ceasefire’, saying: ‘enough is enough’.
Pope Francis called for humanitarian aid and help for injured Gazans in order to ease the ‘very grave’ situation.
‘I keep thinking about the grave situation in Palestine and Israel where many people have lost their life. I pray you to stop in the name of god, cease the fire,’ he said, speaking to crowds in St Peter’s Square after his weekly Angelus prayer on Sunday.
‘I hope that all will be done to avoid the conflict from widening, that the injured will be rescued and aid will arrive to the population of Gaza, where the humanitarian situation is very grave,’ he added.
Meanwhile Ayman Safadi, the foreign minister of Jordan, which shares a border with Israel, lamented that ‘Israel is losing its humanity in this war’ after airstrikes struck two central Gaza refugee camps, allegedly killing at least 53 people and wounding dozens more.
‘This madness cannot continue and this war has to stop,’ Safadi told Sky News.
‘Nobody is benefiting, on the contrary everybody is losing.’
The heads of all major UN agencies also came together to issue a statement on the situation in the southern Levant, saying resolutely: ‘enough is enough’.
‘For almost a month, the world has been watching the unfolding situation in Israel and the occupied Palestinian territory in shock and horror at the spiralling numbers of lives lost and torn apart,’ they said.
‘However, the horrific killings of even more civilians in Gaza is an outrage, as is cutting off 2.2mn Palestinians from food, water, medicine and fuel.’
The Israel Defence Force says it has already ‘fully encircled Gaza City’ and is carrying out ‘widespread strikes on terror infrastructure’ below and above ground after revealing what they say is more evidence of Hamas’s ‘City of Terror’ tunnel network.
