ISRAEL: As the Israeli military offensive on Hamas is scaled back Israelis reflect on Gaza

Record ID: 398627

  • Title: ISRAEL: As the Israeli military offensive on Hamas is scaled back Israelis reflect on Gaza
  • Date: 4th August 2014
  • Summary: NO SLATE INFORMATION NEAR ISRAEL/GAZA BORDER, ISRAEL (AUGUST 4, 2014) (REUTERS) VIEW OF ISRAELI SOLDIER ABOARD ARMOURED PERSONNEL CARRIER WHILE IT IS DRIVING ISRAELI ARMOURED PERSONNEL CARRIER DRIVING IN DESERT TWO ISRAELI ARMOURED PERSONNEL CARRIERS DRIVING IN DESERT ISRAELI SOLDIER INSIDE ARMOURED PERSONNEL CARRIER ARMOURED PERSONNEL CARRIER DRIVING IN DESERT VARIOUS VI
  • Embargoed: 19th August 2014 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Gaza, Israel
  • City:
  • Country: Gaza Israel
  • Topics: Conflict,General,Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVA47812SWFVNANHSXQTQ7U3CU3B
  • Story Text: As Israel moves to wind down its Gaza offensive in the absence of a mediated disengagement deal with Hamas, Israelis in Tel Aviv Monday (August 4) voiced mixed opinions over the conflict.
    Israeli officials say the army is close to completing the main objective of the ground assault on Gaza - destruction of cross-border infiltration tunnels from the Palestinian territory - but remains prepared to respond to Palestinian attacks.
    The Israeli chief military spokesman said forces were deployed Monday along both sides of the Gaza border.
    In Tel Aviv, a target of rocket attack launched by militants out of Gaza, residents had differing views of the conflict.
    "This operation is really taxing my soul. It's making me lose my humanity. I consider myself a liberal, but it's hard to stay very liberal when people are raining rockets on you every day, when you try to organise or have a ceasefire with them and we stop, but they keep going, it's really hard to have sympathy and empathy towards this terrorist group. But, on the other side, I know that people are suffering, and I feel that Hamas is the one who is occupying Gaza. Hamas is the one who has taken these people under control, and I feel really bad that these people are born into such a society," Michelle Cosanza-Weiss said, near a cafe.
    "I'm talking about the U.N., I'm talking about the U.S., I'm talking about the European companies - need to put more pressure on Hamas to, you know, move away, go down - to put in the real people who are supporting right now the people of the Palestinians. That's the PLO," Avihu Tamir said.
    Rotem Kuza sounded resigned to violence in the future.
    "To my opinion, this situation will remain as it is now. I mean, it will pass a year or two and we will see another round of violence with our neighbours. And we just need to take it as it is. I mean, to take it as a fact where we live, and it will be like this forever."
    Israel launched its offensive on July 8 following a surge in Hamas rocket salvoes. It escalated from air and naval barrages to overland incursions centred on Gaza's tunnel-riddled eastern frontier but also pushing into densely populated towns.
    Gaza officials say 1,804 Palestinians, most of them civilians, have been killed and more than a quarter of the impoverished enclave's 1.8 million residents displaced. As many as 3,000 Palestinian homes have been destroyed or damaged.
    Israel has lost 64 soldiers in combat and three civilians to Palestinian cross-border rocket and mortar fire.
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