20 Dead in Israeli Strikes on Gaza as Rocket Hits Jerusalem
At least 20 Palestinians were killed on Tuesday as Israeli air strikes rocked the Gaza Strip, medics in the Hamas-ruled territory said, as a rocket fired by Palestinian militants exploded near Jerusalem.
Two cameramen from Hamas-owned Al-Aqsa TV were among six people killed in a series of Israeli air raids on Gaza City and the north, a Hamas spokesman said.
"Two cameramen from Al-Aqsa TV have been killed: Mahmoud Komi and Hossam Salama," health ministry spokesman Ashraf al-Qudra told Agence France Presse, saying the strike hit a car in Gaza City's Nasser which was clearly marked as a press vehicle.
Another three people were killed in the city's Shejaiya neighborhood, and another person died in an air strike on the northern town of Beit Hanoun.
"That takes the total today to 20," Qudra told AFP.
Earlier, "six people were killed and two others wounded in the Sabra neighborhood," the spokesman said.
Separately, the Hamas ambulance service announced the deaths of two children in an air strike in the Zeitoun neighborhood of Gaza City.
"Two children were martyred, arriving at the Shifa hospital in pieces, and another two children were injured in a strike on the Zeitoun neighborhood," it said a statement.
It said the deaths in Sabra came in two air strikes that targeted two cars, and footage broadcast on Hamas' al-Aqsa television showed the mangled remains of several vehicles.
Earlier in the day, medics said another six people were killed in a wave of strikes across the territory, ending a night of relative calm in which no-one was killed for the first time since Israel launched its relentless aerial assault on November 14, medics said.
More than 920 people have been injured in the bombing campaign.
The Hamas-run emergency services named the earlier victims as Abdel Rahman Hamed, who died in Safina just north of Gaza City, and Mohammed Badr who was killed in a strike on Deir al-Balah in central Gaza.
Elsewhere, 15-year-old Yahya Mohammed Awad was killed as he hunted birds near the beach when a missile hit the northern Sudaniya area, and two men died in the nearby town of Beit Lahiya: Yahya Maarouf, a farmer who was working his land, and another man called Bilal Birawi, 20.
And in Mughraqa, just south of Gaza City, another strike killed Mahmoud Rizk al-Zahar, he said.
Overnight, the Israeli military said it attacked about 100 targets with a combination of aircraft, warships and artillery, one of which targeted "a financial institution used by Hamas".
Palestinian officials confirmed that the National Islamic Bank in Gaza City, which was set up by the Islamist movement that runs Gaza, was severely damaged in a raid.
Hamas officials and witnesses also told AFP that strikes hit the homes of several leaders within its armed wing, the Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades.
Among those targeted were the homes of senior Hamas military commander Raed Aatar in the southern city of Rafah, as well as that of Abu Anza, a Qassam official in Khan Younis, also in the south, where raids also targeted Islamic Jihad offices.
Monday was the bloodiest day of the Israeli operation since it was launched on Wednesday, with 33 people killed.
During the late evening, a family of four was killed in an attack on Beit Lahiya, and two teenage brothers were killed in Rafah.
During the day, warplanes had attacked Gaza City's Shurouq tower media center -- the second time the building has been targeted -- killing a senior Islamic Jihad militant.
Islamic Jihad sources named him as Ramez Harb and said he was a senior commander in its armed wing, the Al-Quds Brigades.
The rocket fired at Jerusalem crashed into an olive grove near Jabba village, in an attack claimed by the armed wing of Hamas, the Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades, the second such attempt to hit Jerusalem in five days.
Nobody was hurt, but the sirens sparked panic in the Jerusalem.
In Gaza City, new air strikes killed 12 people after Israeli warplanes dropped leaflets urging people to evacuate their homes amid fears of an imminent ground invasion, Hamas' health ministry and ambulance services said.
Earlier, in a rare statement aired on Hamas television, the Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades commander Mohammed Deif said "the enemy will pay a heavy price if it thinks of entering Gaza."
Since the violence erupted on November 14, Gaza militants have fired more than 1,000 rockets at the Jewish state, killing three people and injuring dozens.
Of those, 715 have crashed into southern Israel and another 359 were intercepted by Israel's Iron Dome anti-missile system.
Also on Tuesday, Israel's air force dropped leaflets across several districts of Gaza City urging people to evacuate their homes "immediately."
"For your own safety, you are required to immediately evacuate your homes and move toward Gaza City center," the one-page Arabic-language leaflet said.
The message directed residents to use specific roads to move out of their neighborhoods, which form a crescent around the southern half of the city center.
Among the districts named were Sheikh Ajlin, Tel al-Hawa, Rimal, Zeitoun, Shejaiya-Turkman and Shejaiya-Jadida.
The message gave no reason for the order but pledged that everyone who complied would be safe.
"This is a temporary confrontation. In the end, everyone will go home," the leaflet said on the seventh-day of Israel's fiercest assault on the coastal enclave in four years.
"In keeping with Israel Defense Forces (army) regulations, all civilians will be kept from harm's way."
A military statement confirmed that two sets of leaflets were dropped across various districts of Gaza City with specific instructions about where residents should go.
But the statement failed to mention the security pledge to civilians or the reference to a "temporary" campaign.
An army spokeswoman said leaflets had been dropped over Gaza on previous occasions during the current offensive but did not say why they were dropped on this occasion as well.
A senior Israeli official earlier Tuesday said the leadership had decided to postpone a decision on a ground operation "to give diplomacy a chance to succeed."
A ceasefire to end almost a week of hostilities with Israel is to be announced at 9:00 p.m. Cairo time and will go into effect at 2200 GMT, Hamas announced on Tuesday, shortly after Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi said Cairo-mediated truce efforts would produce results within hours.
Agence France Presse quoted Hamas and Islamic Jihad sources as saying that the ceasefire is to be announced in Cairo on Tuesday night.
"There will be a joint press conference between Hamas and Islamic Jihad and the Egyptian mediators tonight to announce the truce," an Islamic Jihad source told AFP, while a Hamas source confirmed the announcement.
But an Egyptian source close to the negotiations, speaking to AFP from Cairo, was more cautious and said "up to this point there is no final decision."
"Egypt has sent the final proposal... and we are waiting for the final Israeli response," he said. "If there is agreement on this it means we are close to announcing a ceasefire.
An Israeli diplomatic source told AFP that negotiations were ongoing.
"We are working very hard using our diplomatic channels. We are working continuously. But I cannot give you an estimated time of arrival (of a truce)."
The diplomatic correspondent for Haaretz newspaper said that a ceasefire "might start this evening" during a visit by U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
"Two senior Israeli officials: cease fire in Gaza might start this evening -- within a few hours -- during Clinton's visit to Jerusalem," said Barak Ravid on his Twitter account.
Source: Agence France Presse
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