ラファ戦闘激化 バイデン氏、ハマスが「停戦最大の障害」

【パレスチナ自治区ＡＦＰ＝時事】パレスチナ自治区ガザ地区では１３日、最南部ラファに対してイスラエル軍が激しい攻撃を加えた。ガザでの武力衝突について米国のジョー・バイデン大統領は同日、イスラム組織ハマスこそ停戦の「最大の障害」だと非難した。（写真は、ガザ地区南部ハンユニスの避難民キャンプで、配給される食料を待つ子ども）
　ラファ西部の住民らは、イスラエルから１３日に激しい攻撃を受けたと証言した。住民の一人は「イスラエル軍の戦闘機、アパッチ（ヘリコプター）、クアッドコプターの他、大砲や戦艦からラファ西部地区への集中攻撃があった」とＡＦＰに語った。
　ハマスによると、エジプトとの境界に近いラファ市街でも、ハマス戦闘員とイスラエル軍が戦闘状態になっている。
　イスラエル北部では、レバノンのイスラム教シーア派組織ヒズボラとイスラエル軍との攻撃の応酬で緊張が高まっている。１３日にはイスラエル軍の攻撃でレバノンの民間人１人の死亡が報告されている。
　■不透明な停戦の行方
　一方、イタリアで開催中の先進７か国（Ｇ７）首脳会議（サミット）に出席した米国のジョー・バイデン大統領は同日、ハマスがガザ紛争の停戦に対する「最大の障害」だと非難した。
　バイデン氏は、「国連安全保障理事会、Ｇ７、イスラエルが支持する内容の停戦案を提示した。現時点での最大の障害は、同様の案を提示していたハマスが署名を拒否していることだ。停戦実現の行方はまだ分からない」と述べた。
　ハマス側は１１日遅く、停戦を仲介するカタールとエジプトに新停戦案について回答した。今週、中東歴訪中のアントニー・ブリンケン米国務長官は、新停戦案に対するハマスの修正案の中には「実行可能なものとそうでないものがある」と語っている。
　ハマス幹部のウサマ・ハムダン氏は、イスラエル軍にガザ地区からの「完全撤退と恒久停戦」を求めているとした。
　ブリンケン氏は、イスラエルが新停戦案を支持していると述べた。しかし、政権を率いるイスラエルのベンヤミン・ネタニヤフ首相は、極右閣僚が反対しているため、公に支持を表明していない。
　ガザ地区の住民からは、ハマスに合意を求める声も上がっている。ある男性は「何を待っているんだ？　戦争は何としても終わらせなければならない」と話した。
　イスラエル側でも、政府に人質解放交渉をまとめるよう求める抗議デモが行われており、エルサレムでの学生主導デモでは「今すぐ停戦を」と書かれた横断幕が掲げられた。【翻訳編集ＡＦＰＢＢＮｅｗｓ】
〔ＡＦＰ＝時事〕（2024/06/14-19:06）

Israeli helicopters struck Rafah on Thursday, residents said, with militants reporting street battles in the southern Gazan city as US President Joe Biden called Hamas the biggest hang-up to another truce.
Tensions were also soaring on Israel's northern border, with more attacks by Hamas ally Hezbollah targeting military positions and a civilian reported killed in an Israeli strike in Lebanon.
Israeli ground forces have operated in Rafah since early May, despite widespread alarm over the fate of Palestinian civilians there and an International Court of Justice ruling later that month.
Western areas of Rafah came under heavy fire on Thursday, residents said.
There was very intense fire from warplanes, Apaches (helicopters) and quadcopters, in addition to Israeli artillery and military battleships, all of which were striking the area west of Rafah, one told AFP.
Hamas said its fighters were battling Israeli troops on the streets of the city near the besieged Gaza Strip's border with Egypt.
In Italy at a G7 summit, Biden called Hamas the biggest hang-up so far to a deal on a Gaza truce and hostage release.
I've laid out an approach that has been endorsed by the UN Security Council, by the G7, by the Israelis, and the biggest hang-up so far is Hamas refusing to sign on even though they have submitted something similar, he told reporters.
Whether or not that comes to fruition remains to be seen, he said.
The war began after Hamas's unprecedented October 7 attack on southern Israel, which resulted in the deaths of 1,194 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli official figures.
The militants also seized 251 hostages. Of these, 116 remain in Gaza, although the army says 41 are dead.
Israel's retaliatory military offensive has left at least 37,232 people dead in Gaza, also mostly civilians, according to the Hamas-ruled territory's health ministry.
- Ceasefire push -
Efforts to reach a truce stalled when Israel began ground operations in Rafah, but Biden in late May launched a new effort to secure a deal.
On Monday, the UN Security Council adopted a US-drafted resolution supporting the plan, and on Thursday, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said G7 leaders call on Hamas in particular to give the necessary consent.
Some Gazans have also called on Hamas to do more to secure an agreement.
What are you waiting for? The war must end at any cost, said a man called Abu Shaker.
Biden's roadmap for the first truce since a week-long pause in November includes a six-week ceasefire, a hostage-prisoner exchange and Gaza reconstruction.
Hamas responded to mediators Qatar and Egypt late Tuesday. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who was in the region this week, has said some of its proposed amendments are workable and some are not.
Senior Hamas official Osama Hamdan said the group sought a permanent ceasefire and complete withdrawal of Israeli troops from Gaza, demands repeatedly rejected by Israel.
Blinken has said Israel is behind the plan, but Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, whose far-right government allies strongly oppose the deal, has not publicly endorsed it.
In Jerusalem, a student-led protest near Israel's parliament urged the government to secure a hostage release deal.
Ceasefire now, said one banner as demonstrators marched with portraits of some of the hostages.
- 'No Eid spirit' -
The war has caused widespread destruction in Gaza, with hospitals out of service and the UN warning of famine.
A UN investigation concluded Wednesday that Israel had committed crimes against humanity during the war, while Israeli and Palestinian armed groups had both committed war crimes.
The World Health Organization said more than 8,000 children aged under five had been treated for acute malnutrition in Gaza.
As Muslims worldwide prepare to celebrate Eid al-Adha beginning Sunday, displaced Gazan Umm Thaer Naseer said we do not have anything to prepare for the occasion.
The children ask their father to buy clothes for the holiday, she said in Beit Lahia in northern Gaza, adding that prices of anything from basic commodities to toys have soared.
Where will their father buy them from? He has been unemployed for eight months and moves from one tent to another... Their father can barely feed himself.
Another displaced Gazan, Fadi Naseer, told AFP that in normal times homes and streets are decorated for the festival, but today we don't even have a house anymore, and there is nothing to decorate.
There is no Eid spirit, he added.
- Regional 'danger' -
Fallout from the Gaza war is regularly felt on the Israeli-Lebanon frontier, where deadly cross-border exchanges have escalated.
Hezbollah on both Wednesday and Thursday said it had attacked military targets in Israel with barrages of rockets and drones in retaliation for an Israeli strike that killed one of its commanders.
The Israeli military said most launches had been intercepted while others ignited fires. A government spokesman said: Israel will respond with force to all aggressions by Hezbollah.
Later, Lebanon's National News Agency reported that Israeli warplanes launched a raid targeting a house in the country's south, killing one civilian and injuring seven others.
Iraqi Foreign Minister Fuad Hussein said the potential expansion of the war is a danger, not only for Lebanon but for the entire region.
France has been making diplomatic efforts to contain the situation on the border since January, with President Emmanuel Macron saying Thursday that his country, the United States and Israel would work together to ease tensions in the area.
We will do the same with the Lebanese authorities, he added, speaking at the G7 summit.
In the occupied West Bank, where violence has also soared during the war, Palestinian officials said an Israeli military raid killed three people in the northern town of Qabatiyah.
The army said its latest counterterrorism operation targeted two senior wanted suspects.
burs-ami/smw/cwl