Conflict between Israel and Palestinians: air strikes topple news agency building and kill children in Gaza
A five-month-old baby was reportedly the sole survivor of an Israeli attack on a family home in the Al-Shati refugee camp in Gaza.
An Israeli air strike on Saturday afternoon (15) destroyed a building where the headquarters of several international news agencies, such as the Associated Press and Al-Jazeera, operated, as well as residential apartments and offices.
In a statement released shortly afterwards, the Israeli army said the building was also used to store military items belonging to Hamas, a Palestinian militant group.
However, the owner of the destroyed complex denied that there was any military presence there. He told reporters that there were only press offices and about 60 residential apartments in the building.
The bombed tower is the largest building destroyed in Gaza by Israel so far. The Associated Press (AP) said he was hit about an hour after Israeli forces ordered people to After the bombing of the building, White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said she asked the Israeli government to ensure the safety of journalists.
"We communicated directly to the Israelis that ensuring the safety of journalists and the independent press is a crucial responsibility," he posted on Twitter.
Baby is the only survivor of an attack that killed children
At least 139 people have been killed in Gaza and nine in Israel since clashes between Palestinians and Israelis began on Monday (10).
Israel says dozens of militants are among the dead in Gaza, while Palestinian officials say almost half of the victims were women and children.
On Saturday alone, 13 people died in the House Strip, 10 of which were hit by an Israeli air strike on a refugee camp in western Gaza. Palestinian officials say eight of those ten people, who would be from two families, were children.
A five-month-old baby would be the sole survivor of the bombing. He was reportedly found stuck in the rubble next to his dead mother. Several people are said to have disappeared after this air raid.
This Saturday, May 15, is when the Palestinians remember what they call al-Nakba- the catastrophe. It is the day that marks the expulsion of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians from their homes in the war between Arabs and Israelis that began a day after the founding of the State of Israel in 1948.
Palestinians leave homes
Akram Farouq, 36, left his home in Gaza with the whole family after a neighbor told him he had received a call from an Israeli military alerting that his building would be hit, the Reuters agency said.
"We did not sleep all night because of the explosions and now I am on the street with my wife and children, who are crying and fearing," he said.
An estimated 10,000 Palestinians have left their homes in Gaza since Monday because of the conflict, according to a United Nations report.
Attacks on homes in Israel
Israeli officials said some 200 rockets were launched from Gaza, hitting homes in the Israeli cities of Ashdod, Beersheba and Sderot.
A house was damaged by a rocket launched in the Israeli city of Sderot on Saturday
In Beersheba, 19 people were taken to the hospital with minor injuries after seeking refuge in shelters and three were in shock, according to The Times, an Israeli news agency.
On Saturday afternoon, a projectile hit a street in Ramat Gan, a suburb of Tel Aviv, killing a man.
Rocket hit Ramat Gan, Israeli neighborhood
Some 2,300 rockets have been fired from Gaza to hit Israeli targets since Monday, approximately 1,000 of which have been intercepted by Israel's anti-missile shields and 380 have ended up falling into Gaza without reaching Israeli territory.
The fuse
The first conflicts erupted out of the threat of eviction of Palestinian families from the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood, which is outside the walls of the Old City of Jerusalem.
The area where families now live is claimed by groups of Jewish settlers in Israeli courts.
Israelis have been occupying areas inhabited by Palestinians through settlements for decades in both East Jerusalem and the West Bank. In the latter alone, there are about 430 thousand Israeli settlers distributed among 132 settlements.
These colonies are considered illegal under international law. On at least six occasions since 1979 the UN Security Council has reaffirmed that they are "a flagrant violation of international law". The last one was in 2016 - the official document also mentions East Jerusalem.
Israel defends the initiatives, arguing that it is a strategy to defend its integrity, and not an attempt to seize Palestinian sovereignty.
This is one of the most contentious points in peace negotiations in the region and helps to explain why the current conflict was inevitable, according to BBC Middle East editor Jeremy Bowen.
The fact that the conflict has disappeared from international headlines in recent years, he says, does not mean that it is over. It is an open wound in the heart of the Middle East, which generates hatred and resentment that crosses not only the years, but generations.evacuate the site.
No comments:
Post a Comment