Six days after the start of a new episode of escalating violence between Israel and the Islamist movement of Hamas, tension is not easing across the country. Another bombardment by the Israeli army on Saturday morning, May 15, left ten dead, belonging to the same family, in the western Gaza Strip.
Two women and eight children were killed while in their three-story apartment building, located in Al-Shati refugee camp, according to Palestinian relief workers in Gaza. “They [les enfants] were safe in their house, they did not carry weapons, they did not fire rockets ”, testified Mohammad Abou Hatab, the father of eight children, at the Shifa hospital in Gaza City. All “Wore their Eid-al-Fitr clothes”, he added, in reference to the holiday marking the end of the fasting month of Ramadan.
The father explained that his wife and five of his children went to celebrate Eid-al-Fitr with other family members. She and four of her children, aged 5 to 15, were killed. Her 5 month old baby is, so far, the only one to have survived. Four of their cousins, aged 8 to 14, and their mother were also killed in the bombing.
The building housing Al-Jazeera and AP targeted by a bombardment
Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh denounced in a statement “A heinous massacre in the Al-Shati camp”.
And now bombs could fall on our office. We ran down the stairs from the 11th floor and now looking at the building… https://t.co/IahbG5Zbgy
The Israeli army, meanwhile, claimed to have targeted “A number of senior officials” Hamas police station in an apartment in the Al-Shati camp area. Among the targets was one of the headquarters of Tawfiq Abou Naim, commander of the Hamas security forces, as well as several “Rocket launch sites” in the north and south of the enclave and buildings “Military intelligence” of Hamas. It had already announced during the night that it had carried out at least five strikes on the whole of the Gaza Strip.
“Children continue to be victims of this murderous escalation. I repeat that children must not be the target of violence or be put in danger ”, reacted on Twitter, Tor Wennesland, UN envoy for the Middle East, saying “Appalled”.
Separately, the Israeli army carried out a strike on Saturday. having sprayed the 13-storey building which housed the premises of the Qatari television channel Al-Jazeera and the American news agency Associated Press (AP). “The army warned the owner of the tower in which AP has its premises that it would be targeted” by a strike, had written on Twitter a journalist of the agency AP shortly before. During the week, two buildings where several media had their offices also went up in smoke. According to France Inter, Israel still prohibits access to the Gaza Strip to international media.
During the night from Friday to Saturday, bombardments had targeted a “Operating office” of Hamas near the center of Gaza City, with nightly bombardments targeting what the military called “Underground launch sites” rockets, Israeli military forces said. The army had also struck “A military intelligence site”, she also said on Twitter, as well as “Surface-to-surface rocket launch sites” and “Two terrorist squads”.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Friday that the raids on the Gaza Strip were not going to end anytime soon. “I said we would inflict serious setbacks on Hamas and other terrorist groups (…). They are paying and will continue to pay dearly. It’s not over yet “, had warned Mr. Netanyahu after a meeting at the defense ministry, according to a statement.
Nakba commemorations take place on Saturday
Since the start of this new round of violence on Monday, 139 people have died in Gaza, including 39 children, and nearly 1,000 people have been injured, according to the latest Palestinian authorities on Saturday. In addition to these victims in Gaza, there are those who perished in violent clashes with Israeli forces during protests in the occupied West Bank. Eleven Palestinians were killed and more than 150 protesters injured, according to a report from the Palestinian health ministry and the Red Crescent. Most of these Palestinians were killed by bullets fired by the Israeli army.
In Israel, where the Iron Dome missile shield intercepted around 90% of the some 2,300 rockets fired this week from Gaza, the death toll was ten dead and more than 560 wounded on Saturday, after further rocket fire towards Tel Aviv.
Faced with a death toll that is increasing hour by hour, Egypt announced on Saturday that it had opened its land border with Gaza and sent ten ambulances to the Palestinian enclave to evacuate and treat Palestinians injured by the attacks in its hospitals. bombardments. The Rafah crossing is the only opening in the Gaza Strip to the world that is not controlled by Israel.
A security official at the border clarified that this decision was “Exceptional” as the passage usually remains closed on public holidays, including Eid-al-Fitr. The public health care authority had already announced on Friday that three health establishments had “Started to prepare” to receive wounded from Gaza.
Saturday, while the situation is more than uncertain as to what will happen next, the tension could still rise a notch. Palestinians today commemorate the Nakba (“catastrophe” in Arabic), the exodus of an estimated 700,000 Palestinians who fled or were driven from their homes during the Israeli-Palestinian war in 1948, in what is today – and since May 14, 1948 – Israel.