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Israel-Gaza conflict: At least 100 Palestinians killed and power station shut down in heaviest day of bombardment yet Israel-Gaza conflict: At least 100 Palestinians killed and power station shut down in heaviest day of bombardment yet
(about 1 hour later)
Israel escalated its military campaign against Hamas in Gaza on Tuesday, in an offensive which killed 109 Palestinians and shut down the area’s only power plant – marking the heaviest day of bombardment in the conflict so far. Much of what little is left of the shattered infrastructure of Gaza was pulverised by the Israeli military in a night of ferocious and relentless attacks by air, sea and land.
At least 36 of the 100 people killed were hit by airstrikes and tank shelling on five homes, according to Palestinian health officials and the Palestinian Red Crescent. There was also symbolic punitive destruction of the homes of Hamas officials, including that of the movement’s leader, Ismail Haniyeh. The attacks piled up more misery for the battered population. What little electricity there was has disappeared after tank shells set the only power station alight.
In one strike in the northern refugee camp of Jebaliya on Tuesday afternoon, 10 members of one family were killed and 50 people were wounded in tank shelling, officials said. In the evening, residents of the sprawling camp in northern Gaza continued to report intense shelling and two brothers driving in a car with markings of a UN aid agency were reportedly killed by shrapnel, a resident claimed. Senior officials stayed away from Shifa, the main hospital, after an adjoining clinic was hit by a missile strike, causing serious problems.
Earlier on Tuesday, Anas Abu Shamaleh, the 50-year-old mayor of the central Gaza refugee camp of Bureij, his 70-year-old father, and three of their relatives were among eleven people killed in a strike on a house, according to Palestinian health officials and the Palestinian Red Crescent. But the explosions taking place carried echoes of the past – fateful, violent repetition of the conflicts Israel had engaged in in Gaza every few years. A futile cycle of rockets and retribution, tearing down and rebuilding, doomed to repeat itself.
Meanwhile at the power station, thick black smoke continued to rise from its burning fuel tank hours after it was struck by two tank shells. Crew members working at the scene had been trapped by the fire for several hours, but had since been evacuated, according to Fathi Sheik Khalil of the Gaza Energy Authority. Tonight, there were renewed rumours of a ceasefire, but the rumours proved false. The attack on the power station came as part of the Israeli ground offensive, Operation Protective Edge, which followed the kidnap and murder of three Jewish teenagers by militants linked to Hamas. The key objective, the Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, has declared, is destroying tunnel networks which have been used to launch rockets and carry out cross-border infiltration.
The shutdown of the station will leave most of the 1.7 million people living in the narrow territory without power. Water will also be affected, since electricity is needed to operate pumps. The same power station was also blown up in Operation Summer Rains eight years ago. That followed the capture of Corporal Gilad Shalit by Hamas. The Israelis entered the Gaza Strip to obtain his release and also to suppress the firing of Qassam rockets and carry out the dismantling of the smuggling tunnels in the Philadelphi Corridor.
Prior to the fire, damage to power lines during the conflict meant residents in Gaza only had electricity for around three hours a day. Last week, a UN school used as a refugee shelter was hit by Israeli tank fire, killing 15 people and leading to international condemnation, and trading of accusations between the UN and the Israeli military over evacuation plans. In 2009, during Israel’s Operation Cast Lead, again launched over Hamas rocket firing, there were similar recriminations over the bombing of another UN school. The finance ministry was among the buildings hit by air strikes tonight; the same ministry was bombed in 2008.
"We need at least one year to repair the power plant, the turbines, the fuel tanks and the control room," said Khalil. "Everything was burned," he added. The killing of four boys, sons of fishermen, in an air strike while they played football on a beach was one of the most emotive of many bloody fatalities involving young people in the current conflict. In 2012, there was an outcry after four teenagers were killed by a missile while playing football during the last Israeli mission, Operation Pillar of Defence, launched on Gaza.
Lt. Col. Peter Lerner, an Israeli military spokesman, did not comment on the explosion at the plant, but told AP reporters that Israel's latest strikes signal "a gradual increase in the pressure" on Hamas. He added Israel is "determined to strike this organization and relieve us of this threat." Two Palestinians injured in Israeli air strikes wait outside the Khan Yunis hospital in the southern Gaza Strip on July 29, 2014. (Getty) Um Hania and Um Mohammed Abu-Rigala have been witnesses to the little-changing pattern from a special vantage point, the house next door to Ismail Haniyeh’s in Gaza City’s Beach Camp.
The conflict's overall death toll in Palestine has reached at least 1,210, according to Gaza Health Ministry spokesman Ashraf al-Kidra. He added that 7,000 Palestinians had been wounded, with 16 people dying of injuries sustained on previous days. Israel has reported that 53 soldiers and three civilians, including one Thai national, have been killed. “He was born here, we saw him grow up, saw people come to his house planning the resistance against Israel. He would talk to us; it has been very interesting”, said Um Hania, aged 60.
Two Palestinians injured in Israeli air strikes wait outside the Khan Yunis hospital in the southern Gaza Strip on July 29, 2014. (Getty) Tens of thousands of Gazans have been displaced by fighting in the border areas, which have come under heavy tank fire. “We expected the Israelis to bomb his house in the past, but he would disappear and sometimes his family as well when the wars took place, and, of course, that is what happened this time. Didn’t the Israelis know there was no one there?
As part of Israel's attacks on Tuesday, warplanes flattened the home of Ismail Haniyeh, the top Hamas leader in Gaza, and damaged the offices of the movement's Al-Aqsa satellite TV station. A central mosque in Gaza City and government offices were also hit. “They sent two rockets that did not explode, then they waited 10 minutes before blowing up the house. Perhaps the warning was meant for us neighbours to go, but we just went to the back of our house. We are not going to leave our home.”
Although Haniyeh's house was levelled, no one was hurt. Following the attack, residents placed a large framed portrait of Haniyeh atop the wreckage, and draped it with green Hamas flags and Palestinian national banners. Haniyeh said in a statement on Tuesday that "destroying stones will not break our determination." A large photograph of Mr Haniyeh had been put up on a pole amid the debris, with a Palestinian flag draped nearby. Um Mohammed, 57, added: “It is a pity because it was his home for such a long time. Why should he move from the area? We always rebuild what they destroy. Don’t forget, they have not been able to kill him, they have been killing civilians, children.”
The strikes came as part of Israel's offensive against the homes of several Hamas leaders. None have been killed — presumably because they have kept a low profile. Ten young boys were killed, while playing 500 metres away, on Sunday, the day of Eid, the end of Ramadan. Around the same time a clinic adjoining the Shifa Hospital was hit by another missile, causing some injuries. The Israeli military and Hamas have blamed each other for the attacks.
The heavy strikes were a further blow to international efforts to reach a sustainable truce. In the West Bank, a top Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) official offered a 24-hour truce on Tuesday, and claimed to speak in the name of Hamas. But Izzat Rishq, a senior Hamas official in exile responded by saying it wanted to hear from Israel first. An Israeli government spokesman, Mark Regev, declined comment. The rubble of the house of the Hamas leader, Ismail Haniyeh, – pictured in the poster, hit by a pre-dawn Israeli strike, in Gaza City (AP) What happened at Shifa has had a significant effect. A few Hamas officials who could be met there have disappeared, but so, too, have some senior hospital officials. “Obviously what happened has been very worrying for some hospital staff. If they start targeting hospitals, everyone’s in danger”, said Dr Nasser al-Tatar, the director.
The largest group in the PLO is the Fatah movement of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, Hamas' main political rival. Hamas is not a member. Dr Nasser’s own home was destroyed in an air strike and, he wanted to point out, this was a dangerous new development. “The Israelis have hit hospitals before in their other attacks in Gaza, but we have not had this kind of deliberate targeting of doctors before. My house was targeted, they knew who I was. The staff here have been working around the clock, but obviously, when they are away, this causes problems.”
On Monday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned that Israel's campaign against Hamas would be "prolonged". Dr Nasser had not been told, for example, by late morning the casualty figures for the previous 24 hours or details of where they had taken place and how many patients he could expect at the hospital.
Prior to Netanyahu's televised addressed, UN Secretary-General, Ban Ki-moon, warned both Israel and Hama that: "there must be accountability and justice for crimes committed by all sides." Five children, aged between five and 14, were killed at Bureij in central Gaza during the Israeli mission in 2009. Today there were reports that 10 people had died there overnight. On reaching there, The Independent found that 17 members of one family, the Abu Jabr family, had been killed when an air strike flattened two buildings, and six others may have died in another part of town.
Additional reporting by agencies The youngest of the Abu Jabrs to die was two-year-old Lena, the oldest, 70-year-old Hamdan; Dina, 25 years old, was eight months’ pregnant. Yusuf Abu Jabbar, her cousin, pulled two other women to safety. “There is no reason why my family should have been killed. They are very religious, but they do not belong to Hamas or any other religious group. So many killed were kids. Dina was pregnant – was she a Hamas fighter as well ?”
A woman wounded in an Israeli strike is taken to hospital in Beit Lahia, Gaza (Getty) Fadil Hussein Sharqi recalls the deaths in 2009. “They happened in January, all from the Batran family. There were two very young boys, I think three and five years old, and older ones. I think the Israelis said their father was in Hamas. There were a lot of people killed at the time. The one that came next [2012] was not so bad, but this one is the worst – they are just determined to kill people now. We are just praying that we stay alive at the end of this.”
The Israeli military have instructed the residents of Bureij, by leaflet, mobile calls and text messages, to leave the town. “They did this the first time [2009]. We went to Deir al-Balah, and while we were away the soldiers came in and ruined our house,” said Ibrahim Ahmed Moqdad, 56. “They did dirty things, stole things, and put insults on walls. I am not going to leave this time.”
As he spoke there were distant echoes of tank shelling. “It’s going to get much worse at night,” warned his 48-year-old brother, Musaib. “We need to go, you need to go, we need to be safe. A house is just a house. If it is destroyed, we will rebuild it. Our family have done this before, we will do it again.”