Death toll mounts in Gaza
More Israeli airstrikes hit crowded areas in the Gaza Strip today, increasing the civilian death toll.
One series of attacks devastated several homes belonging to one clan – the fallout from a new tactic in Israel’s six-day-old offensive meant to halt Hamas rocket fire.
Escalating its bombing campaign, Israel on Sunday began attacking homes of activists in Hamas, the Islamic militant group that rules Gaza. These attacks have led to a sharp rise in civilian casualties, killing 24 civilians in less than 24 hours, a Gaza health official said. Overall, the offensive that began on Wednesday has killed 91 Palestinians, including 50 civilians.
The rising toll was likely to intensify pressure on Israel to end the fighting. Hundreds of civilian casualties in an Israeli offensive in Gaza four years ago led to fierce international condemnation of Israel.
Hamas fighters, meanwhile, have fired hundreds of rockets into Israel in the current round of fighting.
The new airstrikes came as Egypt was trying to broker a cease-fire, with the help of Turkey and Qatar. Israel and Hamas appeared far apart in their demands, and a quick end to the fighting seemed unlikely.
In the latest violence, a missile struck a three-storey home in the Gaza City’s Zeitoun area, flattening the building and badly damaging several nearby homes. Shell-shocked residents searching for belongings climbed over debris of twisted metal and cement blocks in the street.
The strike killed two children and two adults, and injured 42 people, said a Gaza heath official.
Residents said Israel first sent a warning strike at around 2 am, prompting many in the area to flee. A few minutes later, heavy bombardment followed.
Ahed Kitati, 38, had rushed out after the warning missile to try to hustle people to safety. But he was fatally struck by a falling cinderblock, leaving behind a pregnant wife, five young daughters and a son.
Sitting in mourning with her mother and siblings just hours after her father’s death, 11-year-old Aya Kitati clutched a black jacket, saying she was freezing, even though the weather was mild. “We were sleeping, and then we heard the sound of the bombs,” she said, then broke down sobbing.
In another area of Gaza City, the patriarch of the Daloo family, Jamal, sat in mourning for 11 members of his family killed in a missile strike on his home. Among the dead were his wife, his son, daughter-in-law, his sister and four grandchildren. His face swollen from crying, he embraced relatives and neighbours paying their condolences.
Israel also bombarded the remains of the former national security compound in Gaza City.
On the Israeli side, three civilians have died from Palestinian rocket fire and dozens have been wounded. An Israeli rocket-defence system has intercepted hundreds of rockets bound for populated areas.
A total of 1,350 targets in the Gaza Strip have been struck since the Israeli operation began. However, military activity over the past two nights has dropped off as targets change and international efforts to wrest a cease-fire plod ahead.
Israel and Hamas have put forth widely divergent conditions for a truce. But failure to end the fighting threatens to touch off an Israeli ground invasion, for which thousands of soldiers, backed by tanks and armoured vehicles, have already been mobilised and dispatched to Gaza’s border.
