BICOM

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres urged all sides to exercise maximum restraint and UN Middle East envoy Nickolay Mladenov said the firing of rockets must stop.

Mladenov tweeted overnight: “The escalation in the past 24hrs is EXTREMELY dangerous and reckless. Rockets must STOP, restraint must be shown by all! No effort must be spared to reverse the spiral of violence.” He said that the UN was working with Egyptian counterparts to achieve a cessation of hostilities.

Maja Kocijancic, the EU spokesperson for Foreign Affairs released a statement saying: “The indiscriminate firing of rockets or other actions targeting civilians is unacceptable and must stop.” Kocijancic urged “both parties to step back from the brink and avoid any further actions that would contribute to the escalation, put civilians’ lives at risk and jeopardise recent efforts towards reducing tensions”. EU Ambassador to Israel Emanuele Giaufret said he was ‘following with great concern the situation and the indiscriminate firing of rockets towards the south of Israel. Attacks on civilians are unacceptable and both parties need to step back from the brink,’ he added.

British Ambassador to Israel, David Quarrey, said this morning that the UK “condemns without reservation the rocket attacks”. Egyptian sources have reportedly told both sides they need to commit to the de-escalation process, and Russia has called upon Hamas and Israel to “immediately return to a sustainable ceasefire and take measures in order to avoid confrontation with unpredictable consequences”. In Ramallah, PLO Secretary-General Saeb Erekat said that “we hold Israel, the occupying power, fully responsible for the deterioration of the situation in Gaza”.

While the UN, EU and other international actors urged both Israel and Hamas to show restraint, Israel received strong backing from the US. Jason Greenblatt, President Donald Trump’s Middle East envoy called for “total condemnation of the rocket attacks against Israeli towns,” further tweeting that “Israel is forced once again into military action to defend its citizens. We stand with Israel as it defends itself against these attacks”.