Israel pummels Gaza as world pushes for truce
Israel pummelled Gaza for a 14th day on Monday, hiking the Palestinian death toll to more than 570, as Cairo took centre stage in world efforts to broker a ceasefire.
Hamas has so far rejected truce calls, insisting Monday on a lifting of Israel's siege of Gaza and the release of prisoners to cease its rocket fire.
Monday's attacks across Gaza killed at least 55 people including 16 children, bringing the overall death toll since Israel launched its operation on July 8 to 572 Palestinians, officials said.
In the costliest single Israeli bombardment, an air strike hit a residential tower block in central Gaza City, killing 11 people, including five children.
Seven children were among nine people slain in a strike on a house in the southern city of Rafah, and four children died in a raid on a Gaza City home in which another nine died.
It came after Israeli tank shells struck a hospital in Deir al-Balah, killing four people, including doctors, officials said, indicating at least 70 people were wounded.
Hamas on Monday reiterated its insistence on a lifting of Israel's blockade of Gaza and the release of prisoners to halt its rocket fire.
"The conditions for a ceasefire are... a full lifting of the blockade and then the release of those recently detained in the West Bank," its leader in Gaza, Ismail Haniya, said on television.
"We cannot go backwards, to a slow death," he said, referring to the Israeli blockade in force since 2006.
There has been no let-up since the operation began, 84 rockets hitting Israel on Monday, one striking the greater Tel Aviv area, and another 16 shot down, the army said.
Obama voices concern about casualties in Mideast
President Barack Obama called Monday for the international community to focus on ending the fighting in the Gaza Strip, as Secretary of State John Kerry arrived in the Middle East with low expectations but still making a renewed push for a cease-fire between Hamas and Israel.
Voicing fresh concern about civilian casualties, Obama reaffirmed his belief that Israel has the right to defend itself against rockets being launched by Hamas into Israel. Yet he contended that Israel's military action in Gaza had already done "significant damage" to the Hamas terrorist infrastructure and said he doesn't want to see more civilians getting killed.
Having already deployed an estimated 1,000 ground troops, Israel's military has pushed farther into Gaza than it had in 2012 and the conflict is farther along now than it was then. At the same time, the State officials noted, Hamas believes it was not given what it was promised in 2012 to lay down its arms, making it more skeptical of a cease-fire now.
Two Americans fighting in the Israeli military, Max Steinberg of California and Nissim Carmeli of Texas, were killed in fighting in the Gaza Strip.
US stocks end lower as Ukraine, Gaza weigh on markets
US stocks finished lower on Monday as geopolitical worries weighed on sentiment during the first trading session of a busy week of corporate earnings reports.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 48.45 points (0.28 per cent) to 17,051.73.
The broad-based S&P 500 declined 4.59 points (0.23 per cent) to 1,973.63, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index fell 7.44 points (0.17 per cent) to 4,424.70.
All three indices rallied significantly from morning declines that took the S&P 500 as low as 1,965.77.
Western powers have ratcheted up the pressure on Russia over the apparent shooting down of a Malaysian passenger jet over rebel-held east Ukraine, with the US insisting that Moscow force pro-Russian insurgents to cooperate with an international probe into the disaster.
Meanwhile, the death toll continued to rise in Gaza, where Israel has undertaken a ground assault against Hamas.
Bond prices rose. The yield on the 10-year US Treasury dipped to 2.47 per cent from 2.48 per cent on Friday, while the 30-year fell to 3.26 per cent from 3.29 per cent. Bond prices and yields move inversely.
Singapore mosques to raise funds for Gaza victims
All 68 mosques in Singapore, in collaboration with the Rahmatan Lil Alamin Foundation, are organising a fund-raising drive for humanitarian relief for the victims of the conflict in Gaza, the foundation said in a statement today (July 16).
Humanitarian relief efforts will focus on the provision of basic essentials like food, water and electricity, as well as medicine and clothing.
Those who wish to contribute to the fund can do so at donation boxes placed at all 68 mosques starting this Friday (18 July) until next Thursday (24 July).
Cheques are to be made payable to the “RLAF” with the words “Fund raising in aid of victims of humanitarian conflict in Gaza” written on the back and sent to the Muis Building at the Singapore Islamic Hub at No 273, Braddell Road; or donate online via the Muis’ website (https://www.muis.gov.sg/epayment/Donations.aspx).
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