美国国家公共电台 NPR--A cease-fire between Israel and Palestinian militants in Gaza appears to be holding

A cease-fire between Israel and Palestinian militants² in Gaza appears to be holding

Transcript³

NPR's Leila Fadel speaks with Steve Hendrix, the Jerusalem bureau chief for The Washington Post, about the ceasefire between Israel and Palestinian militants in Gaza.

LEILA FADEL, HOST:

A cease-fire between Israel and Palestinian militants in Gaza appears to be holding. The agreement followed three days of Israeli airstrikes that killed 44 Palestinians, including children, in the blockaded Gaza Strip, according to officials there. There are no reported deaths on the Israeli side, but Israel says several Palestinian deaths were actually caused by militant¹ rockets that fell short of their Israeli targets. Israel launched the airstrikes after it said at least 580 rockets were fired from Gaza. We're joined now by The Washington Post's Jerusalem bureau chief, Steve Hendrix. He's in Gaza now. Hi, Steve.

STEVE HENDRIX: Hi, Leila.

FADEL: So I know you just arrived in Gaza, but would you tell us what you're seeing so far?

HENDRIX: Yeah, I've just gotten in. I haven't been all over the enclave yet, but clearly there's been a lot of fighting here. There's evidence of fires in several places. There's damaged buildings. I know that something like 16 buildings were destroyed utterly⁴. It's maybe the tragedy of Gaza that people have had - seen so many of these escalations here that they sort of rank them. And this isn't as bad as it was last year, when - 11-day war - but this has been a very brutal⁶ weekend for people living here.

FADEL: What triggered this latest violence?

HENDRIX: The immediate⁷ cause was the arrest early last week of a senior Islamic Jihad leader, not in Gaza, but in the West Bank, in the city of Jenin. There's been a series all summer long of Israeli troops raiding and arresting suspected terrorist cells across the West Bank. This was a senior leader, and, immediately, the Islamic Jihad group in Gaza threatened retaliation⁸. So tensions have really ramped⁹ up very quickly. Israel sealed off access to Gaza. They closed a lot of roads in the surrounding areas. And then, by Friday - Friday afternoon - they launched what they called a preemptive strike because they had evidence, they said, that a major attack from Islamic Jihad was about to be launched.

FADEL: Now, Hamas - the group that runs Gaza - seems to have distanced itself from these rocket attacks. Why?

HENDRIX: Well, that definitely shows the factionalism within Gaza. Islamic Jihad is a rival to Hamas and a much smaller organization, and the two don't always get along. In this case, Hamas had a decision to make. It would have been a much larger escalation⁵ had they taken hand and begun launching their own rockets into Israel. They decided¹⁰ not to do that. It's easy to imagine that they're not sorry to see the leadership of this group be decimated.

FADEL: Now, in the past, as you mentioned, Israel has responded after the rocket fire from Gaza with what critics say is overwhelming, disproportionate strength. Does this signal a different approach by Israel - this latest round?

HENDRIX: It's hard to say. We're talking about different enemies, as it were. Last year, during the 11-day war, they were targeting Hamas assets, and those are distributed all over the enclave. Islamic Jihad is a smaller group, with a smaller number of facilities, training grounds, manufacturing plants. And yes, it was very, very targeted. I mean, obviously, there's a lot of destruction here, but nothing like sort of the carpet bombing that you could almost say that we saw a year ago.

FADEL: The Washington Post's Jerusalem bureau chief, Steve Hendrix. Thank you so much for your time.

HENDRIX: Thank you, Leila.

1 militant   

adj.激进的，好斗的；n.激进分子，斗士

参考例句：

• Some militant leaders want to merge with white radicals.一些好斗的领导人要和白人中的激进派联合。
• He is a militant in the movement.他在那次运动中是个激进人物。

2 militants   

激进分子，好斗分子( militant的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The militants have been sporadically fighting the government for years. 几年来，反叛分子一直对政府实施零星的战斗。
• Despite the onslaught, Palestinian militants managed to fire off rockets. 尽管如此，巴勒斯坦的激进分子仍然发射导弹。

3 transcript   

n.抄本，誊本，副本，肄业证书

参考例句：

• A transcript of the tapes was presented as evidence in court.一份录音带的文字本作为证据被呈交法庭。
• They wouldn't let me have a transcript of the interview.他们拒绝给我一份采访的文字整理稿。

4 utterly   

adv.完全地，绝对地

参考例句：

• Utterly devoted to the people,he gave his life in saving his patients.他忠于人民，把毕生精力用于挽救患者的生命。
• I was utterly ravished by the way she smiled.她的微笑使我完全陶醉了。

5 escalation   

n.扩大，增加

参考例句：

• The threat of nuclear escalation remains. 核升级的威胁仍旧存在。 来自辞典例句
• Escalation is thus an aspect of deterrence and of crisis management. 因此逐步升级是威慑和危机处理的一个方面。 来自辞典例句

6 brutal   

adj.残忍的，野蛮的，不讲理的

参考例句：

• She has to face the brutal reality.她不得不去面对冷酷的现实。
• They're brutal people behind their civilised veneer.他们表面上温文有礼，骨子里却是野蛮残忍。

7 immediate   

adj.立即的；直接的，最接近的；紧靠的

参考例句：

• His immediate neighbours felt it their duty to call.他的近邻认为他们有责任去拜访。
• We declared ourselves for the immediate convocation of the meeting.我们主张立即召开这个会议。

8 retaliation   

n.报复，反击

参考例句：

• retaliation against UN workers 对联合国工作人员的报复
• He never said a single word in retaliation. 他从未说过一句反击的话。 来自《简明英汉词典》

9 ramped   

土堤斜坡( ramp的过去式和过去分词 )； 斜道； 斜路； （装车或上下飞机的）活动梯

参考例句：

• With the arrival of George Lucas, the pace has ramped up. 随着乔治·卢卡斯的到来，速度大大加快。
• They also sold corporate bonds as the global financial crisis ramped up. 在全球金融危机加剧之际，他们还抛售了公司债券。

10 decided   

adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的

参考例句：

• This gave them a decided advantage over their opponents.这使他们比对手具有明显的优势。
• There is a decided difference between British and Chinese way of greeting.英国人和中国人打招呼的方式有很明显的区别。