Israeli opinion polls showed Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu
popularity plummeting, such as a survey on Channel 10 television in
which viewers gave him a grade of 55 percent, down from a 69 percent
score at the beginning of the month.
"After
50 days of warfare in which a terror organization killed dozens of
soldiers and civilians, destroyed the daily routine (and) placed the
country in a state of economic distress ... we could have expected much
more than an announcement of a ceasefire," analyst Shimon Shiffer wrote
in Yedioth Ahronoth, Israel's biggest-selling newspaper.
"We
could have expected the prime minister to go to the president’s
residence and inform him of his decision to resign his post."
Answering critics, Netanyahu told a news conference: "I don't set unrealistic goals. We're not dealing here with populism."
An open-ended ceasefire in the Gaza war held on Wednesday as Netanyahu faced strong criticism in Israel over a costly conflict with Palestinian militants in which no clear victor has emerged.
On the streets of the
battered, Hamas-run Palestinian enclave, people headed to shops and
banks, trying to resume the normal pace of life after seven weeks of
fighting. Thousands of others, who had fled the battles and sheltered
with relatives or in schools, returned home, where some found only
rubble.
In Israel, sirens warning of incoming rocket fire from the Gaza Strip fell silent.
Netanyahu told a news conference
Israel had dealt Hamas its toughest blow ever and had rebuffed its
demands for a truce.
He said it was "too early to say" whether the calm would be prolonged, then threatened the Islamist group:
He said it was "too early to say" whether the calm would be prolonged, then threatened the Islamist group:
"If
it resumes fire, we will not tolerate a sprinkle of shooting at any
part of Israel, what we did in response now, we will respond even more
vigorously."
But Israeli
media commentators, echoing attacks by members of Netanyahu's governing
coalition, voiced deep disappointment over his leadership during the
most prolonged bout of Israeli-Palestinian violence in a decade.
In Gaza, several thousand Palestinians cheered and waved green Hamas banners as the movement’s deputy leader, Ismail Haniyeh, making his first public appearance
since the war, proclaimed victory over Israel
in the latest fighting.
In Gaza, several thousand Palestinians cheered and waved green Hamas banners as the movement’s deputy leader, Ismail Haniyeh, making his first public appearance
since the war, proclaimed victory over Israel
in the latest fighting.
Source: Reuters
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