Israel shows its broader aims outweigh peace: China Daily editorial

The large-scale predawn air strikes Israel launched across the Gaza Strip on Tuesday that killed over 400 Palestinians shattered the ceasefire that has been in place since January.

Tel Aviv justified the strikes by demanding that Hamas must release more hostages, and its requirement that Hamas should relinquish control of the Palestinian territory is simply absurd.

What Israel demanded are also the requirements of the United States, which its leader made public earlier this month in the form of an ultimatum, which Hamas rejected saying it will only free hostages in return for a lasting truce, and abandoning Gaza has never been a consideration.

After the first phase of the ceasefire expired on March 1, Israel announced on March 2 that it would stop providing humanitarian aid to Gaza and cut off Gaza's electricity supply on March 9, in a bid to try and provoke Hamas and blame it for ending the fragile truce.

Exhausting all means to pick fault with Hamas, Tel Aviv is doing nothing but trying to hinder the resumption of the second phase of truce talks. As agreed in the US-backed three-phase peace plan, it is Israel that should withdraw from Gaza in the second phase, not Hamas.

So by breaking the ceasefire, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is trying to avoid the trade-offs Israel has agreed to for the second phase and the thorny question of who will govern Gaza.

No wonder the White House criticized Hamas for the renewed fighting in Gaza. US National Security Council spokesman Brian Hughes blamed the worsening situation on Hamas, saying the militant group "could have released hostages to extend the ceasefire but instead chose refusal and war". But he stopped short of mentioning the fact that the ceasefire deal that the US helped broker did not require Hamas to release more hostages to extend the halt in fighting beyond its first phase.

Emboldened by the US, Netanyahu said the attack on Tuesday was "only the beginning" and that Israel would press ahead until it achieves all of its war aims, which include not only purportedly freeing all the hostages held by Hamas but also the elimination of the militant group.

Israel has in effect torn up the US-brokered three-phase peace agreement.

As before, each time Tel Aviv has taken the initiative to escalate the tensions, it is the Israeli leader's personal need to weather a domestic storm that has precipitated it. So it is this time, as Netanyahu faces mounting domestic pressure, with mass protests planned over his handling of the hostage crisis and his decision to fire the head of Israel's internal security agency.

His latest testimony in a long-running corruption trial was canceled after the Tuesday strikes, which may give Netanyahu a political boost, as a far-right party led by Itamar Ben-Gvir that had bolted the government over the ceasefire announced on Tuesday it was rejoining. So resuming the war has effectively helped Netanyahu shore up his coalition, which depends on far-right lawmakers who ultimately want to depopulate Gaza and build Jewish settlements there.

As Chinese ambassador to the United Nations Fu Cong stressed at a United Nations Security Council emergency meeting on Gaza on Tuesday, military means are not the way to end the conflict. Abuse of force is not the right way to rescue hostages. It may only put them in more danger. The wide protests in Israel should serve to remind Tel Aviv that the return of the hostages should be the focus of its attention.

China urges Israel to abandon its obsession with the use of force, immediately stop military operations in Gaza, and stop the collective punishment of Gaza civilians.

Now that a ceasefire agreement has been reached, as Fu said, it should be fully implemented with goodwill and sincerity. China calls on the parties concerned to fully and consistently implement the ceasefire agreement. The guarantors of the ceasefire agreement should play their due role in promoting the consistent implementation of the three-phase agreement, to ensure the ceasefire holds in Gaza.