GAZA CITY: Israeli warplanes kept up a punishing campaign of air strikes over Gaza, killing five Palestinians on Saturday as militants fired rockets into Israel and ceasefire talks in Cairo stalled.
The Palestinian interior ministry said Israeli jets launched 21 strikes after midnight, destroying three mosques, one in the Zeitoun area, one in Jabaliya in the north and Nuseirat in the middle of the enclave.
At least two of the mosques were considered close to Hamas.
Gaza emergency services spokesperson Ashraf al Qudra said two men were killed in a strike that "targeted a motorbike in the Al Maghazi camp" and that the bodies of three other men were pulled from the rubble "of the Al Qassam mosque" in the Nuseirat camp.
The strike on the site in Nuseirat levelled the huge Al Qassam mosque, an AFP photographer said, leaving only the minaret standing.
"We heard a loud explosion and it was the beginning of the explosions and a warning to residents to evacuate the area to stay away," said Jood Irhaem, who lives close to one of the mosques.
"Minutes later there were two strong explosions," he said.
Palestinian militants fired six more rockets into Israel on Saturday, the Israeli army said. The projectiles slammed into the desert, causing no injuries or damage.
The month-long conflict flared again after mediators tried but failed to extend a ceasefire that expired on Friday morning as Palestinian militants shattered the quiet with pre-dawn rocket attacks.
The fighting between Israel and Hamas has killed at least 1,898 Palestinians and 67 people on the Israeli side, almost all soldiers, since July 8.
The United Nations says at least 1,354 of the Palestinians killed since July 8 were civilians, including 447 children.
Egyptian mediators met a Palestinian delegation again Friday evening and are understood to be waiting to hear back from the Israelis after Shabbat, the Jewish sabbath which ends at sundown Saturday.
Five Palestinians, including a 10-year-old boy, were killed in Israeli air strikes on Friday.
But fighting has not resumed with the same fierce intensity seen before a 72-hour ceasefire was implemented on Tuesday, feeding hopes for the possibility of a new ceasefire.
"Our hope is that the parties will agree to an extension of the ceasefire in the coming hours," State Department spokesperson Marie Harf told reporters.
Israel warned it would not negotiate under fire, and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordered the military to retaliate "forcefully" and blamed the militant movement Hamas for breaching the ceasefire.
Egypt said negotiations had made progress before the truce collapsed.
"There had been an agreement on the vast majority of matters that are important to the Palestinian people, but some limited points remained undecided, a matter that should have led to an acceptance to renew the ceasefire," its foreign ministry said.
Since the collapse of the truce, Palestinian militants have fired 44 rockets into Israel, injuring one civilian and a soldier, the army said.
In response, the Israeli military has carried out around 100 strikes in Gaza since Friday, about 30 of them since midnight, a spokesperson said. The army said at least three militants had been killed in Gaza.
Two Palestinian men died after being shot by Israeli troops during violent clashes at protests in Hebron and near the Jewish settlement of Psagot in the occupied West Bank, Palestinian medics said.
In southern Israel, the army has banned gatherings larger than 500 people within 40 kilometres of Gaza, and said kindergarten and summer camps could only operate if there was a bomb shelter nearby.
Israeli pressure group Peace Now has called on supporters to rally on Saturday night in Tel Aviv against the war and to call for a diplomatic solution.
Hamas and Palestine Liberation Organisation officials laid out a number of demands, including the lifting of Israel's eight-year blockade of Gaza and the building of a sea port.
They also want Israel to free 125 key prisoners.
Despite withdrawing all its troops from Gaza by the time the truce began on Tuesday, Israel has retained forces along the border, ready to respond to any resumption of fighting.
A British, French and German proposal to rebuild Gaza aims to strengthen the hand of Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas and his Palestinian Authority while clamping down on Hamas and other Gaza militants to ensure Israel's security.
Israel first launched an air campaign on July 8, followed nine days later by a ground offensive designed to destroy Hamas's arsenal of rockets and its network of attack tunnels stretching into Israel.
COMMENTS (18)
Comments are moderated and generally will be posted if they are on-topic and not abusive.
For more information, please see our Comments FAQ
@AJamal: Ah, so according to your "source", how many rockets did Hamas launch into Israeli cities between July 1st and 8th this year!!!!
@numbersnumbers. My source is Jewish historian and researcher at Exeter University Professor Ilan Pappe's Ethnic Cleansing of Palestinians. I support Palestinians in their liberation struggle. Hamas is one of the political and liberation forces of the Palestinians.
@AJamal: All please note that I provided sources for my comment, while @AJMal, (as a paid Hamas commentator?) provides nothing!
@p r sharma: Do your own research and read from independent sources and prominent Jewish writers like Ilan Pappe. Not the crap of god promised 3500 back stuff.
@numbersnumbers: Can the paid commentators of IDF come up with facts? Or do you want us to believe in the propaganda of Rupert Murdock empire?
@unbelievable: This crap of island of democracy has been fed for bit too long. A nation which has no respect for UN and UNSC binding resolutions, and other international bodies and is roundly condemned for its atrocities. It is using the garb of "democracy" to cover its racist policies. This island of democracy is in illegal occupation of East Jerusalem, West Bank and Gaza for almost 50 years and continues its illegal settlement activities on the land belonging to the Palestinians who were forced out of their by terrorists of Hagana, Stern, etc and later became the leaders of this terrorist state.
@AJamal: Wow, So Israel started it! Let's see, ALL can Google "rocket attacks on Israel, 2014" to see a chronological list of Hamas rocket and mortar attacks on Israel starting January 1st! Note that in the period from July 1st up to July 8th, (start of operation Protective Edge) Hamas launched some 100 plus rockets into Israel! Curious how that item was (conveniently) omitted from your "Lie #3"!!! Wonder how many "other" pro-Hamas omissions we can find!
@AJamal: Hate to bust your bubble but .. Israel is the only functioning Democracy in the Middle East. Hamas does want to destroy Israel, Hamas does use civilians as shields (recent video of them launching missiles next to apartments), and while Israel may not be innocent they didn't start this recent conflict - that's all on Hamas.
@vinsin: So? That doesn't condone injustices anywhere.
@AJamal: We first make up our mind what we like and then explore the arguments/ rationale to justify it and you are not an exception.
@AJamal: Muslims countries also receives military aid from US. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UnitedStatesforeign_aid
What about struggle of Kashmiri Pandits, Sikhs, Punjabi Hindus, Sindi Hindus,Kashyaps? What about their freedom and lands? What about Zorastrians, Arab Pagans?
Lie # 4 – Hamas hide behind civilians using them as “human shields” In 2002 Israel assassinated a Hamas leader with a one ton bomb, destroying several adjacent apartment blocks, killing 15 people and injuring 50. Among the dead were the Hamas leader’s nine children and his wife. In 2009, two prominent Hamas leaders—along with of course the civilians in the neighbourhood—were assassinated by targeted Israeli attacks. Interior Minister Sa’id Siyam was killed through the obliteration of his entire neighbourhood, and Sheikh Dr. Nizar Rayan was killed along with his family including 11 children. When falling Israeli bombs kill hundreds of innocent women and children, we are promptly reminded that the blame for Israel’s murder falls on Hamas. The notion that any blame for Israel’s crimes can even be shifted onto anyone else is twisted to say the least; indeed it is Israel that must be held to account for these crimes. However, are Hamas’ actions contributing to civilian deaths?The Gaza strip is a relatively small plot of land. At 360 square kilometres it houses an incredibly cramped population of 1.8 million people, mostly refugees who were brutally expelled from their homes in Palestine. This means that, on average, any Hamas member walking through the street will be surrounded by over 5000 civilians within that square kilometre. Hamas is not only a military organisation, but it employs ministers, politicians, civil servants and police men, all of whom live and work amongst the population of Gaza. It is unrealistic to expect these individuals to live separately from the population they protect and serve, and targeting them with bombs is in reality targeting the civilians around them.Israel is not concerned with collateral damage, and in fact it is clear that children are deliberately targeted. On the 16th of July Israel targeted and murdered 4 children playing football on a wide, open beach far from any Hamas members to use them as ‘human shields.’[19] Recorded footage time and time again shows that, even with a weapon as precise as a sniper rifle, through which a killer can see his victim clearly, Israel is perfectly ready to murder civilians. The belligerence of Israel against the civilians of Gaza is irrational and inexplicable. Children in Gaza are not the unfortunate ‘collateral damage’ of tactical and strategic decisions Israel is forced to make; they are the targets for all intents and purposes.
Lie # 3 – Gaza started it The underlying logic of the statement “Israel has the right to defend itself” is actually incredibly juvenile. Israel and its friends justify the flattening of apartment buildings and killing of children as acts of ‘self-defence’ provoked by Hamas rockets. Essentially they are saying ‘he started it.’ Putting aside the utter insanity and inhumanity of Israeli terrorism, let us address whether or not Gazan resistance fighters are indeed responsible for ‘starting it’ as is so often claimed. Since 2006, the population of Gaza has been subjected to a crippling blockade, and three separate major military operations. In every case, the simple historical fact is that Israel began the hostilities mainly by assassinating Gazan leadership and civil servants (along with their families and other bystanders). The logic behind the blockade is straightforward enough: when the people of Gaza elected Hamas as their legitimate political representatives, the Israeli government decided to prevent all trade and transport of even the most basic, vital requirements in and out of Gaza. For almost a decade, the people of Gaza have slowly starved as their hospitals lose patient after patient due to the lack of medical supplies.With regards to operation ‘Cast Lead’ of 2008, it was Israel which initiated the violence against a population it had under siege. During her election campaign, the war criminal Tzipi Livni promised in advance that she intended to ‘overthrow Hamas’. By the expiration of a six month cease fire, Israel had already amassed its troops and tanks outside of Gaza and wasted no time before beginning the brutal campaign killing over 1400 Palestinians.In 2012 Israel killed 15 Gazan policemen, shot a disabled Palestinian to death with snipers, and killed a thirteen-year-old boy in a ground intrusion. In spite of this Hamas’ Ahmed al-Jabari persisted in peace negotiations with Israel, before Israel assassinated him, launching Operation Pillar of Cloud. Israel made sure to boast the precision of their strike against al-Jabari before killing a further 100 or so civilians.Media outlets often omit the fact that Hamas has been pushing for a substantial long-term peace agreement with Israel for several years. Hamas have continuously offered a cessation of violence for a period of ten years[13] in which both sides can take time to discuss the future. However, Israel are only ever content with ceasefires which are attached to further restrictions on the Palestinian people, and when a fair, long-lasting peace is offered, Israel prefer the path of war.And now, after Hamas’ denial of any involvement in the killing of three Israeli settlers, Israel launched its latest offensive, operation ‘Protective Edge’ in which thousands of innocent Palestinians have now been maimed or murdered. However this wasn’t until after an Israeli lynch mob had burned a Palestinian child to death, and Israeli police beat another child black and blue.[15]By simply looking at the chronological order of events we can see that every single time, Israel throws the first blow. We are told ‘Israel has a right to defend itself,’ but it is not ‘defence’ when time and time again Israel—an occupying force to begin with—is responsible for initiating every offensive against the men, women and children of Gaza.
Lie # 2: Palestinians want to destroy Israel. Prior to the existence of Israel, Jews in Europe had suffered persecution. However under Ottoman rule, Muslims, Christians and Jews lived together peacefully for several centuries. Unlike the Jewish communities in Byzantine or Spain, Jews who lived amongst Muslims were able to govern themselves by their own laws. During the Spanish conquest of Andalusia, the Ottoman Empire became a safe haven for Jews who fled persecution. In Europe anti-Semitism was rife and Jews were often ill-treated and demonised in the media, much as Palestinians and Muslims are today. In the late 19th century Theodor Herzl published ‘The Jewish State’ proposing the creation of a Jewish state in Palestine so that Jews could find shelter under the Ottoman Empire “far from the anti-Semitism of Europe.” European hatred peaked with the events of the Holocaust and the killing of millions of Jews while Europe turned a blind eye. Today the guilt for those crimes has been deposited on the very people who once offered sanctuary for the Jews.Even now after the establishment of the so-called ‘Jewish state’, the usurping of Palestinian land, and the oppression and ethnic cleansing of its people, Palestinians maintain that their military resistance to Israel is for the freedom and safety of their people, not an issue of racial hatred. Before his assassination at the age of 67, Hamas founder Sheikh Ahmed Yassin rahimahu Allah said, “We only ask for our right, nothing more. We don’t hate Jews or fight the Jews because they are Jewish. Jews are people of religion and we are people of religion, and we love all people of religion… We love all people even the Jews and we wish the Jews well. The Jews lived with us for years and we never transgressed against their rights.”
"Rockets hitting Israel"? Are you getting paid by Zionists?
Lie # 1 – Israel is the victim One of the key overarching themes which the world is expected to buy into, is that ‘Israel is the victim.’Israel is consistently represented as the single enclave of democracy in the Middle East; a civilised nation surrounded in every direction by merciless enemies who hate freedom and rationality. In reality Israel is incredibly well supported. It receives billions of dollars in ‘aid’ from around the world, endless munitions and arms from the United States and others, not to mention the constant pandering and moral justifications for their crimes against humanity from global media and politicians. Meanwhile Palestinians in general enjoy very little genuine political support, and Gaza even less. In fact it is Gaza that is surrounded by besieging enemies which seek its destruction, with a suffocating siege enforced by Egypt and Israel preventing the bare human necessities from reaching its wounded and starving populous.
This is not war which is fought between two countries. This is brutal attack on a people fighting for "freedom". Palestinians struggle will continue till liberation and return of all occupied land and refugees.
More copy-repasting of contextless stories from ro-Israel "news" agencies like AFP in the Pakistani press. Deadly rockets? Hello have you forgotten what has been transpiring for the last 66 years??