Airlines avoid Israel amid Gaza onslaught
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AIRLINES blocked flights to Israel yesterday after a Gaza rocket struck near airport runways, as the United Nations chief urged an end to a conflict that has killed 678 Palestinians and 32 Israelis.
As the violence entered its 16th day, neither Israel or Islamist movement Hamas appeared willing to end hostilities, despite days of diplomatic efforts to coax them into a truce.
Palestinian emergency services said that at least six people were killed early yesterday during prolonged shelling of the southern town of Khan Yunis and 20 more were wounded, most of them seriously.
Two more were killed by Israeli fire in the north of the Strip they said.
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, on a visit to Tel Aviv, appealed on Tuesday for the bitter rivals to “stop fighting” and “start talking.”
However, Israel insisted it would keep up its aerial and ground assault until it smashes cross-border tunnels used by Gaza militants to attack the Jewish state.
A rocket crashed close to Tel Aviv’s Ben Gurion international airport prompting the US Federal Aviation Authority to ban flights to and from Israel for at least 24 hours.
And the European Aviation Safety Agency advised all carriers to avoid Tel Aviv “until further notice.”
It was the first time such measures had been taken since the 1990-1991 Gulf war.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu appealed to United States Secretary of State John Kerry to lift the ban.
“Netanyahu spoke this evening with ... Kerry and asked him to act to restore flights by American airline companies to Israel,” sources said.
Kerry said the order would be reviewed within in a day and told Netanyahu the ban was solely due to safety concerns.
But US billionaire Michael Bloomberg said that he was flying to Tel Aviv by Israeli carrier El Al to show solidarity.
“The flight restrictions are a mistake that hands Hamas an undeserved victory and should be lifted immediately,” the former New York mayor wrote on his official Twitter account.
Following top-level talks in Cairo, Ban went to Tel Aviv and appealed to both sides to lay down arms.
“Stop fighting, start talking and take on the root causes of the conflict so that we are not at the same situation in the next six months or a year.”
Meanwhile in Cairo, Kerry discussed cease-fire proposals with Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi
The top US diplomat again placed the onus on Hamas to accept a cease-fire, backing an Egyptian truce initiative as a “framework” to end the fighting.
And a senior Palestinian official said talks were ongoing between President Mahmud Abbas and Hamas for a cease-fire.
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