UN Envoy Says Gaza Rocket Fire Provoking War With Israel

Egypt said to broker Gaza ceasefire after 'intensive' talks with Israel, Hamas

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UN envoy says Gaza rocket fire provoking war with Israel

UN special coordinator for the Middle East peace process Nikolay Mladenov tells President Reuven Rivlin the rocket fired from Gaza that hit a home in southern Israel early this morning was a “dangerous escalation” in tensions in the Palestinian enclave.

He says fresh rocket fire “fit a pattern of provocations that seek to bring Israel and Gaza into another deadly conflict and confrontation.”

Mladenov says “de-escalation on the ground” in the next 48 hours is crucial to the survival of ongoing Egyptian and UN efforts to reach a long term ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas.

“I am afraid that there is no more time for words. Now is the time for actions. And we must see very clear actions on all sides that bring the situation to a de-escalation. Otherwise, the consequences will be terrible for everyone,” he says.

A diplomatic source tells The Times of Israel that Mladenov is working with all concerned parties to restore calm to the Gaza Strip.

Egypt said to broker Gaza ceasefire after ‘intensive’ talks with Israel, Hamas

Calm will be restored in and around the Gaza Strip following “intensive” Egyptian communications with “all sides,” the Hamas-linked Palestinian Information Center reports.

Earlier this morning, a rocket fired from Gaza struck a residential home in southern Israel and another landed in the sea off central Israel and the IDF struck some 20 Hamas targets in response, in a blow to efforts to avert a new war.

ICC prosecutor warns Israel: Razing Bedouin village a ‘war crime’

The International Criminal Court’s chief prosecutor issues a warning that if Israel goes ahead and destroys a Bedouin village on the West Bank that could constitute a war crime.

The Supreme Court recently rejected a final appeal against plans to demolish the village, Khan al-Ahmar.

In a statement, ICC Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda says “evacuation by force now appears imminent.”

Bensouda adds that the “extensive destruction of property without military necessity and population transfers in an occupied territory constitute war crimes” under the Rome Statute treaty that established the ICC.

Israel says Khan al-Ahmar was built illegally and has offered to resettle its residents a few kilometers away. Palestinians and other critics say the demolition aims to displace Palestinians in favor of Israeli settlement expansion.