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Israel Broadens Targets in Gaza Barrage; Power Is Out Israel Steps Up Airstrikes in Gaza as International Cease-Fire Efforts Stumble
(about 7 hours later)
GAZA CITY — Israel’s aerial assaults on targets in Gaza broadened on Tuesday, with barrages that destroyed Hamas’s media offices, the home of a top leader and what Palestinians said was a devastating hit on the only electricity plant, plunging the enclave of 1.7 million into deeper deprivation with no power, running water or sewage treatment. JERUSALEM — As Israel intensified its aerial assaults on Tuesday against symbols of Hamas rule in Gaza and other targets, new efforts were underway to forge a cease-fire, though they were mired in confusion and mixed signals after 22 days of fighting.
The intensified assaults on the battle’s 22nd day came as diplomacy toward a cease-fire sputtered forward despite apparent confusion and mixed signals. The renewed diplomatic push came after what Palestinians said was a devastating hit on the only electricity plant in the Gaza Strip, which set off a huge fire and threatened to create a major humanitarian crisis, with the Palestinian enclave lacking the means to operate the water and sewage systems as well as hospitals.
Israel’s military made clear it had widened the scope of the bombing campaign in Gaza to hit the political structures of Hamas and another militant group, Islamic Jihad, including the home of Ismael Haniya, the No. 2 Hamas official behind Khaled Meshal, its leader-in-exile in Qatar. But Lt. Col. Peter Lerner, a spokesman for the Israeli military, said it was unclear whether Israel had been responsible for the debilitating strike on the power plant, where an enormous fire hurtled thick, black smoke skyward, visible for miles. After increasingly urgent international calls for a halt in the hostilities, the West Bank-based Palestinian leadership, led by President Mahmoud Abbas, announced that Hamas and Islamic Jihad, the main Palestinian factions fighting in Gaza, were ready for an immediate 24-hour truce, and that a Palestinian delegation was planning to head to Cairo for broader cease-fire talks.
Palestinian health officials in Gaza said at least 70 people were killed in the attacks on Tuesday, vaulting the death toll in the past three weeks to nearly 1,200. Fifty-three Israeli soldiers and three civilians on the Israeli side have been killed. In a statement from the West Bank city of Ramallah, the leadership said that it had held intensive consultations with leaders of Hamas and Islamic Jihad and that a request by the United Nations to extend the truce to 72 hours was being considered favorably.
The shutdown of the power plant, which Israel previously attacked in 2006 and which sat idle for weeks this past winter for lack of fuel, threatened to turn the situation in Gaza into a major humanitarian crisis. The facility powers water and sewage systems as well as hospitals, and it had been Gaza’s main source of electricity in recent days after eight of 10 lines that run from Israel were damaged. But Sami Abu Zuhri, a Hamas spokesman in Gaza, immediately responded in a text message that the announcement of a unilateral 24-hour truce was “incorrect and has nothing to do with the positions of the resistance.”
“Today there is no electricity in Gaza,” said Jamal Dardasawi of Gaza’s electricity distribution company, noting that the power supplied by Egypt is not even enough for the southern city of Rafah. “The shelling of the station is a violation of all red lines.” He added: “When we have an Israeli commitment with an international obligation of a humanitarian cease-fire, we will study it. But declaring a unilateral truce while the occupation kills our children, this will never happen.”
Rafiq Maliha, director of Gaza’s power plant, said it would probably take “months or a year” to repair it. Mr. Maliha said the shells had hit the main fuel tank, the fuel-treatment facility and two turbines. Later on Tuesday, Mohammed Deif, the commander of Hamas’s military wing who lives in hiding, said there would be no cease-fire until Israel stopped its attacks and the blockade on Gaza was lifted.
The strikes, during the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Fitr, came after the latest humanitarian halt to hostilities collapsed because of attacks on both sides, culminating in the most deadly incursion yet by Palestinian militants through a tunnel from Gaza into Israel. “We will not accept any middle-ground solutions at the expense of the resistance and our people’s freedom,” he said in a two-minute audio recording on Hamas’s Al-Aqsa television station, which resumed broadcasting a few hours after Israeli airstrikes on its headquarters in Gaza City early Tuesday.
Colonel Lerner said Tuesday that between four and eight gunmen had burst from the tunnel near a military watchtower near the border and killed five soldiers in an adjacent building with antitank missiles. The Israeli leadership did not publicly respond to Mr. Abbas’s initiative.
“As they were trying to escape and grab one of the bodies, the soldiers in the tower opened fire,” he said, and they killed or wounded one. The militants then escaped back to Gaza, he said. A military spokesman, Lt. Col. Peter Lerner, said Israeli forces were continuing operations in Gaza “to deal with the tunnels, to address the rockets and to strike at Hamas’s infrastructure.” But he said he had “no confirmation” that the military had struck the power plant and said that in any case the plant “was not a target.”
Colonel Lerner said Israel had identified the tunnel, near the kibbutz Nahal Oz, as part of its objective to destroy underground pathways from Gaza into Israel, the stated goal of the Israeli ground invasion that began July 17. But he said that the military “did not know where its opening was,” and that the militants “only opened the tunnel immediately close to the time of the attack.” Militants from Gaza fired rockets toward Jerusalem and Tel Aviv on Tuesday night, and the Gaza Health Ministry reported that 13 people had been killed in Israeli shelling of Jabaliya in the northern Gaza Strip.
The intensified Israeli assaults came as renewed attempts to create a cease-fire swirled with no clear sign of any momentum, one day after Israeli leaders told their citizens to prepare themselves for a longer conflict. More than 1,200 Palestinians have been killed since Israel began its offensive on July 8, most of them civilians, according to the Health Ministry in Gaza. On the Israeli side, 53 soldiers have been killed since the army sent ground forces in on July 17, and three civilians have been killed by rocket and mortar fire from Gaza.
The West Bank-based Palestinian leadership, led by President Mahmoud Abbas, announced that the Palestinian factions fighting in Gaza were ready for another immediate 24-hour truce, an that efforts were underway for a Palestinian delegation to head to Cairo for broader cease-fire talks. A senior Palestinian official with knowledge of the latest cease-fire contacts said that internal Palestinian talks were continuing. Speaking on the condition of anonymity because of the delicate diplomacy, he said that Khaled Meshal, the exiled Hamas political leader who is based in Qatar, had agreed to a truce, but that there seemed to be disagreement or problems of coordination with some Hamas officials in Gaza.
In a televised statement made in Ramallah by Yasser Abed Rabbo, a senior Palestine Liberation Organization official, and carried by the official Palestinian news agency, Wafa, the leadership said that it had held intensive consultations with leaders of Hamas and its affiliate group, Islamic Jihad, and that there was a willingness to consider extending the truce to 72 hours at the request of the United Nations. But Sami Abu Zuhri, a Hamas spokesman in Gaza, immediately responded in a text message that the announcement of a unilateral, 24-hour truce was “incorrect and has nothing to do with the positions of the resistance.” The Palestinian official added that the strike on the power plant might be an additional factor pushing the sides toward a cease-fire, in order to avert a crisis. The plant had been Gaza’s main source of electricity in recent days, after eight of 10 lines that run from Israel were damaged.
The announcement was greeted with skepticism in Israel. Mark Regev, a spokesman for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, said, “This is just another example of them rejecting cease-fires.” The Palestinian announcement seemed to be part of a larger effort involving Egypt, an important participant in any cease-fire deal for both Israel and Mr. Abbas. The Egyptian Foreign Ministry said that Mr. Abbas had initiated a proposal to bring representatives of the Palestine Liberation Organization, Hamas and Islamic Jihad to Cairo for another round of cease-fire talks, which Egypt supports.
Still, the Palestinian announcement seemed to be part of a larger effort involving Egypt, an important participant in any cease-fire deal for both Israel and Mr. Abbas. The Egyptian Foreign Ministry said Mr. Abbas had initiated a proposal to bring representatives of the Palestine Liberation Organization, Hamas and Islamic Jihad to Cairo for another round of cease-fire talks, which Egypt supports. Regarding the talks, Osama Hamdan, a Hamas official in Beirut, said: “On principle, we have no objection and accept. A delegation will be formed, and we might leave for Cairo soon.”
Regarding the talks, Osama Hamdan, a Hamas official in Beirut: said, “On principle, we have no objection and accept. A delegation will be formed and we might leave for Cairo soon.” Israel favors Egypt as a broker, and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has described Egypt’s original proposal for a cease-fire, which Israel accepted and Hamas rejected, as “the only game in town.”
In Washington, Secretary of State John Kerry signaled on Tuesday that the Obama administration had not abandoned its hope of arranging a cease-fire. Mr. Kerry stressed that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel told him on Monday that he might accept a truce if it would allow Israeli forces to seal Hamas’s tunnels. In Washington, Secretary of State John Kerry signaled Tuesday that the Obama administration had not abandoned its hope of arranging a cease-fire. Mr. Kerry emphasized that Mr. Netanyahu had told him on Monday that he might accept a truce if it would allow Israeli forces to continue to operate against Hamas’s tunnels, some of which run under the border into Israeli territory and have been used for attacks.
“Last night we talked, and the prime minister talked to me about an idea and a possibility of a cease-fire — he raised it with me, as he has consistently,” Mr. Kerry said at a news conference with his Ukrainian counterpart. “He has consistently said that he would embrace a cease-fire that permits Israel to protect itself against the tunnels and obviously not be disadvantaged for the great sacrifice that they had made in order to be able to protect themselves thus far.” Mr. Kerry said the proposal he presented last week would have allowed Israel to continue its efforts to seal the tunnels. “Last night we talked, and the prime minister talked to me about an idea and a possibility of a cease-fire — he raised it with me, as he has consistently,” Mr. Kerry said at a news conference with his Ukrainian counterpart, Pavlo Klimkin. “He has consistently said that he would embrace a cease-fire that permits Israel to protect itself against the tunnels and obviously not be disadvantaged for the great sacrifice that they had made in order to be able to protect themselves thus far.”
The secretary of state rejected criticism he has received over his efforts in Israel, where many support their military’s assault on Gaza militants and see little to gain from a cease-fire.
“You know, I’ve spent 29 years in the United States Senate and had a hundred percent voting record pro-Israel,” he said, “and I will not take a second seat to anybody in my friendship or my devotion to the protection of the state of Israel. But I also believe, as somebody who’s been to war, that it is better to try to find a way, if you can, to solve these problems before you get dragged into something that you can’t stop.”
In Gaza City, the streets were nearly empty Tuesday. Most shops were shuttered as people hunkered down after what residents described as a night of terror, with flares fired by Israeli forces constantly lighting up the sky, and large booms resounding across the area.
The Israeli military said Tuesday morning that it had hit 150 targets in Gaza over the previous 24 hours, including the Shati refugee-camp where Mr. Haniya’s home was located. The home had been vacant for days.
“I’d like to know why they just hit the stone,” said Hamdallah Hassouna, a neighbor who said he fled with his family in the middle of the night after a few small missiles hit the empty house, expecting the bigger strike that came later. “Is it just to make noise, just to terrify people?”
On Tuesday, curtains and clothing jutted out from the remaining hunks of concrete, green Hamas flags still flew, and a large photo of Mr. Haniya sat atop the rubble. “It was revenge,” said a man who gave his name only as Abu Ghazi and who said he was related to Mr. Haniya. “Revenge against the Palestinian people and spreading the aggression against the Palestinian people.”
F-16 and Apache helicopter strikes also ruined the headquarters of the Al Aqsa satellite television and radio channels affiliated with Hamas. The television channel resumed broadcasting after a brief interruption, and the FM-radio station was back on the air at noon on Tuesday. The television station had also been destroyed during an Israeli assault in 2009.
Also flattened was the Financial Monitoring Authority, a government building where some Hamas leaders kept offices. Relatives of Raji Sourani, director of the Palestinian Center for Human Rights, own the home next door, which was damaged; Mr. Sourani said his brother, his brother’s wife and his 94-year-old aunt were in the house at the time of the strike and had received no warning.
“No one ever expected that this building would be a target,” Mr. Sourani said as he surveyed the damage from his roof. “Last night, they just went mad.”
In the Al Bureij refugee camp in central Gaza, an airstrike from an F-16 killed the mayor, Anis Abu Shamala, and four others in his home, some of whom had taken refuge there from intense artillery shelling nearby, witnesses said. In Khan Younis, 17 members of the Najjar family, which lost 21 people in a previous strike, were killed.
Ahmed Najam, a brigade commander of Islamic Jihad, the second-largest militant group in Gaza, was among those killed, according to news reports, apparently the highest-ranking military figure felled so far.
“It takes it up a notch to deal with terrorist organizations on all levels,” Colonel Lerner of the Israeli military said, referring to the attacks on political figures and their homes. “We are paralyzing the organizations, pursuing its leadership, and on the tails of the officers who are actually carrying out the attacks.”
Rocket fire from Gaza into Israel continued through the morning, over Tel Aviv in the wee hours and later mostly in the battered periphery of the coastal strip. Funerals were scheduled across Israel on Tuesday for the soldiers slain in the tunnel attack and a mortar shelling inside Israel the day before..