adminIsrael has continued its bombardment of Gaza but failed to stop rocket fire across the border, as the US offered to help negotiate a truce.
At least 98 Palestinians, most of them civilians, have been killed in Israeli bombardment of the Gaza Strip, Palestinian officials said yesterday. Hundreds of others have been wounded.
Among those killed were eight Palestinian family members, including five children, who died in a Thursday morning air raid in Khan Younis, southern Gaza.
Avichay Adraee, a spokesman for the Israeli military to Arab media, yesterday morning said Israel had hit 1,100 targets since its campaign was launched earlier this week.
“There are still hundreds to finish off,” he said. “The terrorists continue their rocket attacks because of the painful attacks that aim to destroy their rocket power”.
Three people were reported injured in a rocket attack on the Israeli town of Ashdod yesterday morning, one critically, taking those injured by Palestinian fire to five, and no deaths reported.
Israel estimates 550 rockets have been fired from Gaza since Monday.
The clashes and exchange of rocket fire between Hamas and Israeli mlitary has drawn strong reactions from leaders across the globe.
The US president, Barack Obama, meanwhile “called for all sides to do everything they can to protect the lives of civilians”.
Ban Ki-moon, the UN secretary-general, condemned the rocket attacks and urged Israel to show restraint.
Al Jazeera’s James Bays, reporting from the UN in New York, said it was unlikely the Security Council would release anything more than a “carefully worded statement” on the matter.
Medical officials in Hamas-ruled Gaza said at least 60 civilians, including a four-year-old girl and boy aged five who were killed on Thursday, were among those killed.
In a statement, the Israeli army said it had hit a number of houses that were being used for military purposes.
“These houses may be used for weapons storage, command and control centre, or communications,” it said.
The Israeli offensive began after a build-up of violence following the killing of three young Israeli settlers last month and the murder of a Palestinian teenager in a suspected revenge attack.
Israeli leaders said the air offensive could be expanded into a ground invasion of one of the world’s most densely populated territories.
Some 20,000 reservists have been mobilised, the military says.
“Everyone in Gaza is talking about a ground invasion and people are saying that is the next step,” said Al Jazeera’s John Hendren, reporting from Gaza.
Meanwhile, the ANC on Thursday described the Israeli military’s attacks on the Gaza strip as “barbaric”.
“The state of Israel has turned the occupied territories of Palestine into permanent death camps,” ANC deputy secretary general Jessie Duarte said in a statement.
“Of course the killing of any child, irrespective of race, colour or creed, must be condemned and the death of three Israeli young people is surely as senseless as any other death.”
However, the killing needed to stop, she said.
Three Israeli teenagers — Naftali Fraenkel, 16, Gilad Shaer, 16 and Eyal Yifrah, 19 — were kidnapped and murdered last month.
AFP at the time reported that the three disappeared from a popular hitch-hiking spot near the southern West Bank Gush Etzion settlement late on June 12.
The Israeli military found the teenagers’ bodies in a field northwest of Hebron on 30 June.
On July 2, 16-year-old Palestinian teenager Mohammed Abu Khder was burnt to death.
This reportedly triggered days of clashes in annexed east Jerusalem and Arab Israeli towns.
Duarte called for the attacks, and what she called the ongoing illegal Israeli occupation and punishment of Palestinians, to stop.
“Gaza is the world’s largest open air prison with over 1,5 million Palestinians caged in and cut off from the rest of the world,” she said.
“The Gaza strip is the world’s most densely populated piece of land on this earth, making the Israeli bombing of the Palestinian Gaza strip all the more horrendous.”
The South Africa Jewish Board of Deputies (SAJBD) and the South Africa Zionist Federation condemned Duarte’s statement.
“Such naked invective is something one expects to find only on the more extreme wing of the anti-Israel lobby; coming from our country’s ruling party, it is nothing short of disgraceful,” the SAJBD said.
It accused the ANC of keeping quiet when three Israeli teenagers — were murdered. The ruling party also did not condemn the bombardment by Hamas of Israeli population centres.
“Hundreds of deadly missiles have been and continue to be fired at Israel’s cities and towns.
“Not once in the statement issued in her name was Ms Duarte able to even acknowledge this fact, let alone denounce it,” the group said.
In 2012, the ANC resolved to call on “all South Africans to support the programmes and campaigns of the Palestinian civil society which seek to put pressure on Israel”. — Sapa
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