26 Palestinians Killed in Bloodiest Day of Assault on Gaza as Israel Hits Media Center
Israeli air strikes on Sunday killed 26 Palestinians in the bloodiest day so far of its massive air campaign on the Gaza Strip, as diplomatic efforts to broker a truce intensified.
With Egypt at the center of efforts to broker a ceasefire, Palestinian officials said it was possible a deal would be reached "today or tomorrow."
But there was no letup in the bloodshed in the Hamas-run Gaza Strip, with medics saying women and children accounted for most of Sunday's 26 killed, among them 10 toddlers, in Israeli strikes from the air.
In the day's most lethal raid, at least nine members of the same family -- five of them children -- were among 11 people killed when an Israeli missile destroyed a family home in Gaza City, the health ministry said.
At the scene, medics and bystanders all pitched in to remove the rubble to dig out the bodies in the futile hope of finding survivors, as people watched in shock, some weeping openly.
The latest violence hiked the Palestinian casualty toll to 72 dead and more than 660 injured in almost 100 hours of raids, while three Israelis have been killed and more than 50 injured by rocket fire since Wednesday.
Another three people died in two separate strikes shortly afterwards, one hitting Shejaiya in eastern Gaza City and a second in Jabaliya in the north.
The Israeli army confirmed it had struck "a few targets in northern Gaza City."
Later on Sunday, "two Palestinians were killed in an air strike on the Tal al-Hawa neighborhood," Hamas health ministry spokesman Ashraf al-Qudra said, without adding details.
A third Palestinian, a six-year-old child, was killed in another strike in northern Gaza on Sunday evening.
"Hussein Jalal Nasser, six years old, was martyred in an air strike that targeted his house," emergency services spokesman Adham Abu Selmiya told Agence France Presse.
Hamas' armed wing, the Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades, said they launched a Fajr-5 rocket at Tel Aviv in response to the "occupation's massacre."
But Israel's police said the Iron Dome anti-missile system shot down two rockets over Tel Aviv as sirens wailed across the city, in the fourth such interception in one day.
"Sirens sounded in Tel Aviv, and the Iron Dome shot down two rockets," said police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld.
"There were no reports of injuries or damage on ground level in Tel Aviv or (the surrounding region of) Gush Dan," he added.
Sunday was the fourth straight day sirens sounded across Tel Aviv. Earlier in the day, Israeli police confirmed two rockets had been intercepted over the city by Iron Dome.
Iranian-made Fajr 5 rockets have a range of up to 75 kilometers (46 miles).
On Thursday, Hamas said it had developed its own longer-range rocket, the M75, which was used to target Jerusalem.
Also on Sunday, Israeli aircraft hit two media centers in Gaza City, wounding at least eight journalists, one of whom lost a leg, health ministry spokesman Ashraf al-Qudra told Agence France Presse.
The Israeli military defended the strike, saying it had targeted Hamas operational communications and sought to minimize civilian casualties.
Russia's state-run RT global television broadcaster said its office was badly damaged in the incident, adding that none of its staff were hurt.
The first Israeli strike on a media building came around 2:00 am (0000 GMT), as Israeli navy ships fired a barrage at the Gaza shore elsewhere.
"At least six journalists were wounded, with minor and moderate injuries, when Israeli warplanes hit the al-Quds TV office in the Showa and Housari building in the Rimal neighborhood of Gaza City," said health ministry spokesman Ashraf al-Qudra.
Witnesses reported extensive damage to the building, and said journalists had evacuated after an initial strike, which was followed by at least two more on the site.
The wounded were taken to Gaza City's Shifa hospital. One journalist lost his leg in the attack, Qudra said.
A second raid hit a different, nearby media building at around 7:00 am (0500 GMT).
"We have two journalists injured in the Shuruq building, which houses Al-Aqsa TV, where there has been an air strike," Qudra told Agence France Presse. Al-Aqsa TV is another Hamas-affiliated television station.
The Gaza reporter with Russia's RT was separated by only a "thin wall" from the Palestinian station's office and was damaged in the attack.
"We were not directly hit," correspondent Saed Swerky said. "The Israelis fired four rockets and destroyed the office of the (Palestinian) channel. Our office was next door and so we could not work any more."
The station had earlier issued a statement reading: "RT's office in Gaza destroyed after Israeli attack."
Imad Efranji, director of the Al-Quds TV office, slammed the incident as "a new crime against the media."
The Israeli military in a statement said it had "targeted two Hamas operational communication sites that were identified by precise intelligence."
"The first site... was an infrastructure of Hamas' operational communications, located inside a civilian building," the statement said.
"As a result, and in order to minimize the damage to non-involved persons, the IDF (army) only targeted the communication devices which were located on the roof of the building, and not the operations room of Hamas... on one of the floors."
The military said the second strike, on the Shurouq building, also targeted "part of Hamas' operational communications that was deliberately located on the roof of the building, in which several international media bureaus reside."
The statement called on "international journalists... to stay clear of Hamas' bases and facilities, which serve them in their activity against the citizens of Israel."
The Foreign Press Association issued a statement saying it was "concerned" by the attacks, adding that both buildings house or have been used by members of the association.
The statement pointed to a 2006 U.N. Security Council resolution condemning attacks on journalists in conflict zones.
With international opinion veering away from an escalation, U.S. President Barack Obama said on Sunday it was "preferable" for the Gaza crisis to end without a "ramping up" of Israeli military activity.
"Israel has every right to expect that it does not have missiles fired into its territory," Obama said in Thailand. "If that can be accomplished without a ramping up of military activity in Gaza, that is preferable."
In Cairo, senior Hamas officials said Egyptian-mediated talks with Israel to end the conflict were "positive" but now focused on the possible stumbling block of guaranteeing the terms of a truce.
An outcome acceptable to Hamas would be assurances by the United States, Israel's main backer, to be the "guaranteeing party," one official said on condition of anonymity.
Security officials in Cairo said an Israeli envoy also arrived in Cairo on Sunday for Egyptian-mediated truce talks with Hamas.
Israel's Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman, meanwhile, insisted that "the first and absolute condition for a truce is stopping all fire from Gaza," and that all armed groups would have to commit to it.
Earlier, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned that Israel was ready to "significantly expand" its operation against Gaza militants even as he prepared to receive French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius, who is on a whirlwind truce mission to the region.
"We are extracting a heavy price from Hamas and the terror organizations," Netanyahu said at the weekly cabinet meeting. "The army is prepared to significantly expand the operation."
Netanyahu said he was holding ongoing talks with world leaders, "and we appreciate their understanding of Israel's right to self-defense," as thousands of Israeli troops massed along the Gaza border.
But British Foreign Secretary William Hague pressed Israel not to escalate the conflict by sending ground troops into the Hamas-run Palestinian territory.
"The prime minister (David Cameron) and I have both stressed to our Israeli counterparts that a ground invasion of Gaza would lose Israel a lot of the international support and sympathy that they have in this situation," he said.
A 10-hour lull on Saturday night lull ended at 7:00 am (0500 GMT) after which 55 rockets hit Israel, and 36 were intercepted in mid-flight by the Iron Dome defense system, the Israeli army said.
Two were fired at Tel Aviv, triggering air raid sirens in the commercial metropolis for the fourth day. Iron Dome intercepted both, police said.
"Two rockets were intercepted by the Iron Dome system," police spokesman Luba Samri told AFP shortly after the sirens sent residents running for cover across the commercial metropolis and in nearby Bnei Brak and Ramat HaSharon.
The Israeli army confirmed the interception, but said that only one rocket had been fired from Gaza.
Since the start of its Operation Pillar of Defense, launched after the killing of top Hamas military commander Ahmed Jaabari in an air strike, the Israeli army says Palestinian militants have fired more than 800 rockets over the border.
Source: Agence France Presse
| Copyright © 2012 Naharnet.com. All Rights Reserved. | https://naharnet.com/stories/en/61208 |