Over the past week, the conflict between Israel and the Islam militant group Hamas has started to intensify, resulting in the death of around 170 people and 17,000 Palestinians forced to leave their homes. It is reported that these refugees have fled to U.N. shelters in the northern Gaza area.
The Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) have been launching airstrikes against the Gaza area, and Hamas has been returning fire. United Nations insiders estimate that around 70 percent of the over 170 people killed in the conflict so far are civilians, despite IDF’s assurance that they are targeting only “terror sites” (BBC) and that they had no intention of hurting civilians.
The violence in Gaza intensified earlier in July when three Israeli teenagers were discovered dead. Benjamin Netanya claimed that the teens were killed by members of the Hamas and declared that the Muslim group will pay the price. Not long after, a 16-year-old Palestine-American was abducted and murdered, which the Israeli government also blamed Hamas for.
Only a few days ago IDF witnessed a number of missiles fired toward Israeli territory from Lebanon. Netanya expressed that the rockets were possibly launched by Hamas members, and the IDF announced the possibility of a ground assault on Gaza.
There have been attempts to prevent the spreading of the conflict before the violence intensified. Both the U.S. State Department and President Barrack Obama himself informed Prime Minister Netanya that the United States is willing to assist Israel in negotiating a cease fire, and even U.N. Secretary General Ki-moon Ban began urging neighboring nations to help stop the violence.
However, CNN reported that Israel has officially refused to accept any of the calls for a ceasefire, and even the Hamas leaders declared vengeance on the Israeli Defense Forces.
