Neighborhood Ravaged on Deadliest Day So Far for Both Sides in Gaza

JERUSALEM - The Israeli military said on Sunday that it had expanded its ground activities in Gaza, increasing the number of forces and the areas in which they were operating, as eastern Gaza came under heavy shelling and as resistance from Hamas fighters appeared to intensify.

Overnight, the shriek of warplanes could be heard low over the Gaza coast. Farther east, residents said the thump and crack of artillery hardly ceased during the night.

As soon as it was light, masses of Palestinians began fleeing west and north toward the center of Gaza City from Shejaiya and the east of Gaza City. Shelling could be heard all around as people rushed through the streets, some barefoot. Occasionally, bodies of people apparently killed in the streets by the shelling could be seen on the sides of the road, according to reporters in the area.

Casualties grew on both sides as Israel pressed on with its campaign aimed at quelling rocket fire into Israel and exposing and destroying a labyrinth of tunnels, including many that lead into Israeli territory, apparently designed for attacks on Israeli soldiers or civilians.

Two Israeli soldiers were killed in combat overnight, according to the military, one by an antitank missile fired at the engineering vehicle he was operating, and the other, an infantry combatant, in battle. That brought to five the total of Israeli soldiers killed since the ground operation began late Thursday. Two Israeli civilians have also been killed by rocket and mortar fire.

The military wing of Hamas claimed early Sunday that it had ambushed an Israeli force after luring it into a minefield in the northeast of Gaza City, causing many more casualties, but there was no immediate confirmation of that from the Israeli side.

The Palestinian Health Ministry in Gaza said that at least 13 Palestinians were killed and more than 200 wounded in the shelling of east Gaza. Among the dead was Osama al-Hayya, his wife and their two children. Mr. Hayya is the son a senior Hamas leader, Khalil al-Hayya, a member of Hamas's politburo who lives in Shejaiya. More than 350 Palestinians have been killed since July 8, when Israel began its air offensive in Gaza, and more than 2,400 have been wounded, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry. About 75 percent of the casualties have been civilians, according to the United Nations.

The Israeli military said it had killed at least 70 militants since the start of the ground operation and that Israeli forces had discovered 14 tunnels and 36 access points to tunnels.

Armed militants from Gaza emerged from at least two tunnels dug under Gaza's border on Saturday, in one case wearing Israeli military uniforms and firing a rocket-propelled grenade at two military jeeps on patrol inside Israeli territory, killing two Israeli officers. One of the militants was killed in that battle, and seven more retreated back to Gaza. In another incursion on Saturday night, Israeli troops fired on a militant who had slipped through a different tunnel and killed him.

On Sunday, the military said it had demolished two tunnels with explosives. One of them led to Netiv Haasara, an Israeli border community just north of Gaza, according to Lt. Col. Peter Lerner, an army spokesman.

'The main effort now is to destroy these tunnels,' Colonel Lerner said, adding that most of the exchanges of fire with militants on the ground had to do with the tunnels. 'Hamas is trying to save these tunnels,' he said. 'It is trying to prevent us from carrying out this activity.'

Despite the heavier engagement inside Gaza, rocket fire against Israel continued on Sunday morning, though at a lower rate than in previous days.

One rocket was intercepted over the Tel Aviv area by Israel's Iron Dome missile defense system, according to the police, and 10 more rockets were fired toward the southern Israeli cities of Beersheba and Ashkelon. Four were intercepted and six landed in open areas, according to the police. Some shrapnel landed in a residential area of Ashkelon but caused no injuries.

from Google News http://#

via IFTTT

Tweet