Israel pounded the Gaza Strip early Tuesday in some of the heaviest bombardments since the conflict began after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned his country that the mission would be longer and bloodier than previously thought, dashing hopes for a cease-fire despite intense international efforts.
Israeli airstrikes struck a fuel tank off Gaza’s only electricity plant early Tuesday, forcing it to shut down, according to Palestinian officials. The attack threatens to cut off power to the more than 1.8 million residents of Gaza, who were getting electricity only a few hours a day.
Israeli airstrikes also struck the home of one of the top leaders of Hamas, the Islamist militant group that runs Gaza, as well as Hamas’s al-Aqsa TV broadcast center, a finance building and the homes of local mayors. Along the coast of the tiny seaside enclave, Israel struck at least four times, hitting the sea port and shaking hotels where scores of international journalists are staying.
Palestinian officials said at least 40 people were killed overnight, bringing the death toll on the Palestinian side to at least 1,100 people, about 70 percent of them civilians.
The Israeli military said five Israeli soldiers were killed in a battle Monday evening when militants from Gaza infiltrated into southern Israel via a tunnel from Gaza. A gunfight broke out, leaving at least one militant dead.
The deaths of the five soldiers brought the total number of Israeli troops killed in the three-week-old conflict to 53, the largest toll since Israel’s 2006 war with Lebanon. Hamas mortar and rocket attacks from Gaza have also killed two Israeli civilians and a Thai worker.
Multiple rocket barrages from Gaza overnight sent people scurrying to shelters in Tel Aviv, Israel’s commercial capital, in the dead of night.
Rebuffing appeals from President Obama, the United Nations and others for an immediate cease-fire, Netanyahu said Monday in a televised address, “We will not finish the mission, we will not finish the operation, without neutralizing the tunnels” through which Hamas fighters have sought to infiltrate Israel. The tunnels, he said, “have the sole purpose of destroying our citizens, killing our children.”
In Gaza City, explosions Monday rocked a neighborhood and left at least 10 people dead, including children playing in a street, as a brief lull on one of Islam’s holiest days gave way to fresh attacks and tragedy.
Palestinian health officials said the deaths were among 18 reported in Gaza on Monday, the start of the Muslim Eid al-Fitr holiday capping the end of the fasting month of Ramadan. They said 70 people were injured.
Hamas officials blamed Israeli airstrikes for the blasts at the al-Shati camp, also called Beach Camp. A spokesman for the Israel Defense Forces denied firing at the neighborhood and attributed the explosions to failed rocket launches from Gaza militants.
Reporters said a shell or rocket also crashed into a medical facility in the Shifa Hospital compound in Gaza City but that there was no serious damage and that it was unclear whether there were any deaths or injuries from that strike. Hamas and the Israeli military each denied responsibility for the blast.
In a text message to journalists, Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri called the strike on Beach Camp “a massacre” and vowed that “this crime will not break our will, and the occupation will pay a price.”
Later, Hamas militants fired three rockets into southern Israel, as revenge, they said.
At Shifa Hospital, the best-equipped in the coastal enclave, chaotic scenes unfolded as the dead and the wounded arrived, some by ambulance, some carried in the arms of relatives. One woman was shaking uncontrollably and screaming, “My brother, my brother!” One man was crying in front of the mangled corpse of his father.
Naji al-Deen was seated on a chair, staring blankly, his clothes covered in blood.
Like hundreds who had come to the hospital, he was from the al-Shati camp, a seaside neighborhood filled with the families of refugees from the 1948 war that created the Israeli state. On Monday, it was a death zone. Children had been playing on a portable swing set brought in to celebrate the holiday, as well as in the narrow, tree-lined street, witnesses said. About 4:30 p.m., the blast occurred.
“It was Eid, and the children wanted to play,” said Deen, his voice cracking. “Then we heard the explosion. I saw my son running covered in blood. There were kids torn to pieces.”
Deen said he carried his son to the hospital, where he was being treated for his injuries. At least seven children were killed, witnesses said.
There were signs of rising hostilities Monday evening.
Sirens sounded across southern, central and northern Israel, warning people to seek shelter from incoming Gaza rockets.
The Israeli military made cellphone calls and sent text messages to thousands of Palestinians living in the Shijaiyah, Zeitoun and Jabalya neighborhoods, warning them to evacuate immediately and head for Gaza City. Similar mass messages have preceded large strikes and incursions by Israel recently.
“If the terrorist organizations in Gaza think they can break Israel and its citizens, they will come to understand in the next few days that this is not the case,” said Israeli Defense Minister Moshe Yaalon.
The day started quietly, with many Palestinians hoping to celebrate Eid al-Fitr, typically a joyous time of parties. Israel mostly held its fire overnight, shelling only a site in the northern Gaza Strip in response to rocket fire there. But it turned out to be the briefest of respites in Gaza.
In an emergency meeting that stretched into early Monday, the U.N. Security Council urged Israel and Hamas to “accept and fully implement the humanitarian cease-fire into the Eid period and beyond,” allowing for the delivery of urgently needed assistance to Palestinians, who cannot leave the territory.
U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon again appealed to Israel and Hamas to end the bloodshed.
Netanyahu heaped scorn on the U.N. statement, saying it focused on “the needs of a murderous terrorist organization that is attacking Israeli civilians and does not address Israel’s security needs, including the demilitarization of the Gaza Strip.”
In a telephone conversation, Netanyahu told Ban that the United Nations had ignored Hamas attacks on Israeli civilians and the group’s use of civilians as human shields.
On Sunday, Obama had also urged an immediate humanitarian cease-fire, according to the White House.
In Washington on Monday, U.S. officials confirmed that Israeli authorities had detained a 15-year-old American citizen for allegedly taking part in violent protests in East Jerusalem this month. State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said the U.S. government was urging a quick resolution of the case of Mohamed Abu Nie, arrested July 3. Israeli officials alleged that he had a knife and threw rocks and attacked police during a protest, Psaki said. She added that the U.S. government was concerned about reports that he had been beaten while in custody.
Source- The Washington Post
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