THE Israeli government and military seemed quite determined, up to last evening, to ignore international condemnation of the ferocious bombardment of Gaza that’s now into its third week. The unleashing of rockets into Israel from a complex of tunnels by Hamas, the radical wing of the Palestinian Authority, continued to attract huge destruction in lives and property in the Gaza strip of land that’s part of Palestine.
Israel’s massive daily bombardment of civilian targets in Gaza have included private homes, schools, shops, health facilities and businesses with thousands of women and children among the dead and injured Palestinians with Israel also counting its dead and wounded in terms of a few hundreds.
As hopes kept fading for a ceasefire to facilitate international mediation and some form of negotiation between the Israeli government and Palestinian Authority-that now includes also representatives of Hamas-the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) yesterday renewed its plea for an end to the military conflict to give peaceful negotiations a chance.
In its first statement within days of the eruption of the bloody conflicts last month, when victims included Palestinian children asleep in their beds, CARICOM had pleaded for peaceful negotiations. It was the first regional organisation in the Western Hemisphere to have done so.
More significantly, nor was Israel ready to demonstrate a willingness for peaceful negotiations, as repeatedly urged by major international governments, foremost being Israel’s strongest ally, the USA. Additionally, there have been the strong mix of warnings and pleas by the UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon.
In yesterday’s statement, released by the Georgetown-based  Secretariat, CARICOM reiterated its “ceasfire” call to help bring an end to “the hostilities and the appalling bloodshed being  caused by the bombardments, shelling and ground invasion…”
Nevertheless, while the Egyptian government in Cairo was yesterday continuing to help facilitate mediation, there was little hope for a meaningful breakthrough in negotiations to end the conflicts in favour of direct negotiations for the urgently needed peace talks. The UN Secretary General has already warned Israel against the commitment of what could easily be deemed “war crimes” that included the killings of children.