Pretoria – South Africa has called for the immediate cessation of violence, restraint, and peace between Israel and Palestine.
At least 700 people have reportedly been killed in Israel and more than 400 have died in Gaza.
Thousands of others on both sides have been wounded in the violence that has involved abductions, shootouts, and bombings.
Reports on the latest flare-up of hostilities on Monday said fighting between the Palestinian resistance movement – Hamas, and the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) continues in up to eight locations inside Israel after the war was formally declared.
Israel authorities have declared war and embarked on air bombardments of the Gaza Strip, where as many as 2 million Palestinians are crammed together in the exclave – about 5 500 people per square km.
Electricity, fuel, and other supplies to Gaza have been cut off and borders are sealed.
South Africa’s Department of International Relations and Cooperation (DIRCO) has expressed “grave concern” over the recent devastating escalation in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
The violence escalated Saturday when Hamas fighters launched a surprise attack on Israel using motorised paragliders.
The wave of surprise attacks was conducted simultaneously with the firing of hundreds of rockets into Israel from Gaza.
Israel immediately retaliated bombing high-rise buildings in the Gaza Strip.
On Monday the IDF said its airforce had carried out 500 sorties into Gaza flattening many buildings including a mosque.
“The new conflagration has arisen from the continued illegal occupation of Palestine land, continued settlement expansion, desecration of the Al Aqsa mosque and Christian holy sites, and ongoing oppression of the Palestinian people,” said the DIRCO in a statement released at the weekend.
“The region is in desperate need of a credible peace process that delivers on the calls of a plethora of previous UN resolutions for a two-state solution and a just and comprehensive peace between Israel and Palestine.
“South Africa, working together with the international community, seeks to ensure a lasting and durable peace that produces a viable, contiguous Palestinian State, existing side-by-side in peace with Israel, within the 1967 internationally recognised borders, with East Jerusalem as its capital.”
DIRCO said UN resolutions and international law matter.
“The international community can not avoid its duty to act, and together, we must shoulder the responsibility to remove obstacles to peace and any violations of international law.
“Violence, killings, imprisonment, forced removals, illegal settlements, and the continued siege of Gaza are not conducive to resolving the conflict.
“Urgent attention must be given to resolving the final status issues such as borders, the status of Jerusalem, the release of political prisoners, and the right of return.
“No real and lasting peace in Israel, Palestine, and the region is possible in the absence of a just and comprehensive resolution of the conflict.”
DIRCO said Israelis, Palestinians, and the region do not stand to gain anything from escalated tensions, increased violence, growing instability, and a continued and protracted violent conflict.
“South Africa therefore calls on all sides to seize the opportunity for peace as opposed to violence, and for the international community to actively rise on the side of its own International resolutions and establish a credible peace process,” DIRCO said.
“South Africa stands ready to share its experience in mediation and conflict resolution as it has done on the continent and around the world.”
