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Israel-Gaza crisis: Bomb disposal experts and journalists among five killed and four wounded in operation to defuse Israeli shell Israel-Gaza crisis: Gaza truce extended despite three rockets being fired at Israel
(about 3 hours later)
Three Palestinian members of a local bomb-disposal team and two journalists –including an Italian working with the Associated Press – were killed today while the sappers were trying to defuse unexploded ordnance left by the month-long war in Gaza. Israel and Hamas have agreed to extend a ceasefire to allow more time for Egyptian mediators to bridge the continuing gap between the two sides on a possible agreement to end the 35-day Gaza war.
The journalists were covering the disposal team’s operations to remove and neutralise an estimated 2,000 items of unexploded ordnance. The team’s task is especially dangerous because the members have no protective clothing or remote control and X-ray devices. Three days of intense, if indirect, negotiations failed to achieve the hoped-for breakthrough that might have produced a durable truce to end the conflict, which has cost more than 1,900 Palestinian lives and caused the deaths of 66 Israelis, the large majority of them soldiers.
The five men were killed – along with four others, including an AP photographer, Hatem Moussa, who were seriously injured – on the third day of the latest 72-hour ceasefire as Egypt’s mediators between Israel and Hamas were leading efforts in Cairo to reach a durable peace agreement. But after Egyptian attempts to prolong the ceasefire to allow time for further talks went to the wire, Palestinians and Israeli negotiators were said to have agreed to extend the truce beyond midnight local time tonight.
Associated Press photographer Hatem Moussa holds his camera, in Gaza City (AP) Palestinian negotiators were reportedly seeking some improvements to an Egyptian proposal under which Israel would offer some easing of the seven-year blockade of Gaza. The proposal would leave key issues like the Palestinians’ demand for a full end to the blockade – and a sea port in Gaza – and Israel’s for the “demilitarisation” of the Strip, to future talks. There were conflicting reports that the truce would be extended by three days and five days, and it was not immediately possible to reconcile the different timescales.
Those killed were named by medics as: the Italian video journalist Simone Camilli, 35; a Palestinian freelance translator and journalist who was working with him, Ali Shehda Abu Afash, 36; and three disposal engineers, Hazem Abu Murad, Bilal Mohamed al Sultan, and Taysir al Houm. Mr Abu Murad, 39, led the 70 disposal engineers in Gaza and although employed by the de facto Hamas government, had EU and US training and had worked under the old Fatah regime. Azzam al-Ahmad, head of the Palestinian delegation, said the ceasefire was meant to ensure a “positive atmosphere”, while noting there had been “lots of progress”.
(From left) Translator Ali Shehda Abu Afash, and video journalist Simone Camilli (AP/Reuters) A Hamas official had said earlier that the parties had “finished talks today without [a permanent] agreement”, saying “more work needs to be done to have a better deal”.
At Gaza City’s Shifa Hospital, an eye-witness with shrapnel injuries, Yahya al Zani, 20, said he had been to pick up his high school graduation results and was waiting for a taxi in northern Beit Lahiya when he saw the team about 20 metres away, including a man who was working on what appeared to be a tank shell. While Egyptian and Palestinian officials said the ceasefire had been extended, Israel had not commented specifically on the supposed deal. And there was an unconfirmed report that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had ordered the military to retaliate after at least three rockets were fired into southern Israel without causing any casualties.
“Some other guys were photographing as they were trying to defuse it,” he said. “Then there was a big explosion and I saw five or six bodies.” The AP photographer Hatem Moussa – who had on occasions taken pictures for The Independent over the past decade – underwent abdominal surgery in Shifa and was also being treated for leg and head injuries. Another rocket killed a child and wounded two others in Egypt near the border with Gaza, officials said. A 13-year-old girl, Sara Salama, was killed and her eight-year-old brother Khaled and sister Rahaf, 2, were seriously hurt in the Egyptian town of el-Mattallah, close to the Palestinian border town of Rafah, security and medical sources said.
Simone Camilli pictured on Monday, 11 August in Beit Lahiya, Gaza Strip, where he died aged 35. At Beit Lahiya’s Kamal Adwan Hospital, where the dead and injured were initially taken, Mr Abu Murad’s brother Majdi, beside himself with grief, said as he was embraced by a doctor offering condolences: “Doctor, you knew him. Please bring my brother back to me.” Hanin Othman, a colleague of Mr Abu Afash who worked at the local branch of the Doha Centre for Media Freedom, wept as she said: “He was like family. He was my brother, my friend.” A spokesman for the Hamas movement, which is in power in Gaza, denied that it had fired any rockets.
Earlier, amid reports that Israel was sending more troops to reinforce the border, Israel’s Major General Nitzan Alon said: “It is not clear what happens next, but one thing is clear: that the Israeli Defence Forces is vigilant and prepared to fight any enemy that will hurt Israeli citizens and threaten their safety.”
Associated Press photographer Hatem Moussa holds his camera, in Gaza City (AP) Meanwhile in Gaza, the casualties continued with the deaths of four members of a local bomb-disposal team and two journalists – including an Italian working with the Associated Press.
They were killed as sappers tried to defuse unexploded ordnance in Beit Lahiya. The team’s task is especially dangerous because the members have no protective clothing or remote control and X-ray devices. Four other people, including AP photographer Hatem Moussa, were seriously injured.
At Gaza City’s Shifa Hospital, an eye-witness with shrapnel injuries, Yahya al Zani, 20, said he was waiting for a taxi when he saw the team about 20 metres away, including a man who was working on what appeared to be a tank shell.
“Some other guys were photographing as they were trying to defuse it,” he said. “Then there was a big explosion and I saw five or six bodies.”
Mr Moussa, who has taken pictures for The Independent over the past decade – underwent abdominal surgery and was also being treated for leg and head injuries.
Simone Camilli pictured on Monday, 11 August in Beit Lahiya, Gaza Strip, where he died aged 35. AP quoted the agency’s chief producer in Gaza, Najib Jobain, as saying that Simone Camilli, the first foreign journalist to be killed in Gaza since the present conflict began, had recently turned down an assignment in Iraq.
“He was my brother. I have known him for almost 10 years. He was so happy to be with me working in Gaza,” Mr Jobain said.