Defying truce calls, Israeli jets strafe Gaza

Hamas replies with rockets; death toll in five-day Israeli campaign reaches 135 .

GAZA CITY:

The world implored Israel and Hamas on Saturday to end hostilities as warplanes pounded Gaza for a fifth straight day, killing at least 30 Palestinians, and Hamas replied with rockets.

Both sides have brushed off calls for a truce, and Israel is building up troops and armour on the Gaza border in preparation for a possible ground invasion.

As the Palestinian death toll hit 135, and with no Israelis killed, the UN Security Council urged Israel and Hamas to respect ‘international humanitarian laws’ and stop the loss of life.

In a unanimous declaration, the 15-member council urged a return to the “calm and restitution of the November 2012 ceasefire”, referring to Gaza’s last deadly full-scale conflict.

Israel’s aerial campaign — the largest and deadliest since 2012 — saw strikes start early on Saturday, including one that hit a centre for the handicapped, and another that killed two nephews of Gaza’s former Hamas premier, Ismail Haniya.

Two Gaza rockets fired from Gaza and apparently targeting Jerusalem hit the southern West Bank city of Hebron, and another struck near Bethlehem, the army said, as Hamas threatened to rain down more rockets on major Israeli population centres.



Hundreds of rockets have so far caused no Israeli deaths, and many have been intercepted by the Iron Dome missile defence system.

An attack on the northern Gaza Strip hit a centre for the handicapped, killing two disabled women and wounding four, the centre’s director said.

“They didn’t understand what was happening and they were so frightened,” Jamila Alaywa said of those inside the care home. “They fired the rocket and it hit us without any warning.”

The army had no immediate comment. Other targets included a bank, the homes of Hamas leaders and a mosque that Israel said was being used to store weapons. Two nephews of Haniya were among the dead in one strike, residents said.

Three rockets fired from Gaza, apparently at Jerusalem, fell short, hitting Hebron and Bethlehem, the army and Palestinian security sources said. There were no reports of casualties from the attacks.

International efforts were under way to mediate a truce, with Egyptian president Abdel Fatah al Sisi’s spokesman saying he was in touch with both sides. Sisi met Middle East Quartet envoy Tony Blair in Cairo on Saturday to discuss the crisis, and released a statement warning against escalation causing further loss of ‘innocent lives’.

In Washington, the White House has said it is willing to ‘leverage’ its relationships in the region to bring about a ceasefire.

The chief diplomats of Britain, France, Germany and the United States are due to discuss how to achieve a truce when they meet in Vienna on Sunday, on the sidelines of talks on Iran’s nuclear programme.

The Israeli military’s so-called ‘pinpoint strikes’ on houses in Gaza have killed whole families and children but few of the wanted men they are meant to target because they have long made themselves scarce, Palestinian residents say.

After five days of cross-border barrages between Gaza militants and Israel’s air force, at least 81 of the 135 Palestinians killed have been civilians, including 25 children, according to Palestinian medical officials.

While relatively few militants and even fewer of their commanders have been killed, according to Hamas sources and media reports, Israel appears more determined than in previous wars to bring the fight to their homes in the densely populated enclave hugging the Mediterranean coast.


Published in The Express Tribune, July 13^th, 2014.