truce

A 16-year-long insurgency ended with a UN-brokered truce in 1991 and the promise of a referendum on independence, which has yet to take place because of disagreements over how it should be conducted and who should be eligible to take part.

It was a rare direct confrontation between two of the most heavily armed countries in the Middle East and augured ominously for easing hostilities and any future truce.

The UN agency for Palestinian refugees called for a temporary truce to enable safe passage for families still wishing to flee, while two local hospitals warned that they were running out of supplies.

Mr Lazzarini called for “an immediate truce, even if for few hours, to enable safe humanitarian passage for families who wish to leave the area and reach safer places”.

Instead, Netanyahu’s speech doubled down, rejecting a truce and escalating the regional war.