Seven days after the start of a new episode of escalating violence between Israel and the Islamist movement of Hamas, Israeli army bombing continues in Gaza.
Diplomatic negotiations intensified on Sunday, May 16, while the United Nations (UN) Security Council is due to meet in the early afternoon.
On Sunday 33 Palestinians, including 8 children, were killed in Israeli bombings, the enclave’s health ministry reported, the heaviest death toll recorded in a day. The latest Palestinian report on Sunday reported 181 dead – including 52 children – and more than 1,200 wounded in Gaza since Monday. In Israel, ten people were killed, including a child, and 540 were injured.
Diplomatic negotiations intensify
UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres said “Appalled” speak “Growing number of civilian casualties” and “Deeply disturbed” by an Israeli attack on the media building in Gaza.
For his part, an American envoy, Hady Amr, is due to meet with Israeli leaders in Jerusalem and Palestinian officials in the occupied West Bank during the day. On Tuesday, May 18, the European Union’s foreign ministers will meet urgently, Josep Borrell, EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, announced on Sunday. “The violence must stop now”European diplomacy said in a statement.
For his part, Pope Francis expressed his “deep concern” at the new cycle of violence. The solution must be found “With the help of the international community” in order to stop this “Crescendo of hatred and violence which constitutes a serious wound to fraternity, difficult to heal if one does not open up to dialogue”, argued the Pope after his Sunday prayer of the Angelus.
Home of Yahya Sinouar, head of Hamas, bombed
On Sunday morning, May 16, the Israeli army said in a statement that it had carried out a bombardment against the home of Yahya Sinouar, the head of Hamas, in the town of Khan Younès, located in the southern Gaza Strip. However, the press release does not specify whether Mr. Sinouar was present during the bombardment.
The airstrike was carried out in the aftermath of bombing raids in Gaza that claimed the lives of civilians and pulverized international media offices, and rocket salutes into Israel. Army “Attacked the home of Yahya Sinouar and his brother, a terrorist militant”, wrote this one on Twitter, also posting a video showing a house destroyed in a cloud of dust, information confirmed by Palestinian security sources.
In March, Yahya Sinouar was re-elected as head of Hamas’ political bureau in the Gaza Strip, a Palestinian enclave of two million inhabitants under the control of the Islamist movement and under Israeli blockade since 2007. Imprisoned for more than twenty years by Israel and released through a prisoner exchange, Yahya Sinouar was elected to this post in February 2017.
The IDF, which said on Sunday it had targeted 90 Hamas and Islamic Jihad positions in the past twenty-four hours, also claimed 120 rockets were fired from Gaza at the same time, of which several dozen were intercepted by the Iron Dome defense system. Israel accuses Hamas and its allies of firing around 3,000 rockets since Monday.
Associated Press and Al-Jazeera journalists in Gaza relocated
Sunday, an official of Agence France-Presse in the region, Sylvain Estibal, announced that the press agency was going to welcome journalists from Associated Press and Al-Jazeera to its Gaza premises, whose building was destroyed the day before in a bombardment by the Israeli army, which argued that the building housed Hamas fighters.
“The army warned the owner of the tower in which AP has its premises that it would be targeted”, had written on Twitter a reporter from the AP agency shortly before. During the week, two buildings where the offices of several media were located also went up in smoke. According to France Inter, Israel still prohibits access to the Gaza Strip to international media.