Israel kills 30 Palestinians in Gaza as violence escalates
Israel has killed 30 Palestinians and wounded more than 90 others in airstrikes on the Gaza Strip since Tuesday, the Palestinian health ministry said.
The victims include six children and three women, as well as the head of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) missile force and his deputy.
Palestinian factions in Gaza continued to fire rockets from the besieged coastal enclave into Israel in retaliation, killing one person on Thursday.
Amid mediation efforts by Egypt, neither side seemed ready to put out the worst flare-up since August, now in its third day.
“We are at the height of a campaign, both offensive and defensive,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a videotaped statement while visiting an air base.
“Whoever comes to harm us, his blood will be forfeited.”
The deaths of Ali Ghali and Ahmed Abu Daqqa brought the number of senior PIJ figures to five since Israel began attacking Gaza early Tuesday.
Egypt said it was trying to broker a ceasefire, but so far its efforts have proved futile.
Cairo, where senior PIJ official Mohammad al-Hindi hosted talks, was cautious about prospects for a ceasefire.
“Egypt’s efforts to calm things down and resume the political process have not yet borne fruit,” Egypt’s foreign minister, Sameh Shoukry, told reporters.
Meeting with Jordanian, French and German counterparts in Berlin, Shoukry urged “peace-supporting countries to step in and stop the attacks” and said Israel must “stop unilateral measures aimed at shaping the future of the Palestinian state.” destroy”.
One of the conditions for a ceasefire is that PIJ wants to end the Israeli killings of its leaders.
“Islamic Jihad demands that if there is a ceasefire, Israel must commit not to kill any more of their leaders. This is something Israel says it will not do. We have seen five of their leaders killed by Israel in the past two days and they say they have a right to do that,” said Al Jazeera correspondent Mohammed Jamjoom.
Israel seems to be hoping that the PIJ, without missiles and commanders, would unilaterally end hostilities.
The initial Israeli airstrikes on Tuesday that sparked the firefight killed three senior PIJ fighters and at least 10 civilians, most of them women and children.
More than 90 people have been injured in the attacks that destroyed five buildings and damaged more than 300 apartments, said Salama Marouf, chairman of the media office of the Hamas group that rules Gaza.
Israel has kept border crossings closed to the movement of people and goods since Tuesday, completely blocking travel even for urgent humanitarian needs and preventing patients from accessing medical treatment not available in Gaza, human rights groups have said.
Some “292 patients and companions were denied access to medical treatment not available in Gaza, many of them cancer patients and others in need of life-saving treatment provided by hospitals in the West Bank or Israel,” Israeli rights group, Gisha – Legal Center for Freedom of Movement, said in a statement.
“The closure of Beit Hanoon Crossing puts additional lives at risk by preventing urgent evacuations, which may be necessary, of civilians injured in the attack.”
Gisha, together with rights organizations Adalah, Physicians for Human Rights – Israel and Al Mezan, sent a urgent letter to several Israeli officials demanding that Israel stop all harm to civilians and allow humanitarian access immediately.
“Security challenges, including risks during active hostilities, do not exempt Israel from its humanitarian obligations to the residents of Gaza,” the organizations said.
amount to war crimes.”