The Israeli army intensified its bombardment of the Gaza Strip on Tuesday, killing two members of Hamas’s political office. This escalated the conflict that began on Saturday after the Palestinian militant group launched an offensive inside Israel that left at least 900 people dead. Images from that day show entire city blocks reduced to rubble. As previously announced, at 5:00 p.m. local time, Hamas’s military wing fired rockets at Ashkelon, a city in southern Israel with a population of 170,000.
Israel claims to have regained control of all of its territory, stopped further infiltration and recovered 1,500 bodies of Hamas militants who crossed into Israel in a surprise operation on Saturday. In Gaza, some 200,000 of Gaza’s 2.2 million residents have already sought refuge, either because they have lost their homes or because of the intensity of the air and naval bombardment and the expected ground attack. Many of them attend schools run by UNRWA, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees. Gaza, where the death toll so far stands at 788, has been completely encircled since Monday after Israel cut off food, electricity and fuel deliveries.
The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) reports an increase in mass displacements in the last 24 hours and expects this increase to continue to increase. On Tuesday, Egypt closed the only non-Israeli-controlled Gaza border crossing, Rafah, “until further notice.” After the bombing, it was barely functioning late Monday. Under normal conditions, few Palestinians manage to pass this border crossing (after long queues and often with bribes). On Monday, only people with an exit permit were allowed to enter Egypt.
An Israeli emergency service official, this Monday, next to a window damaged by a Hamas attack in the Israeli city of Ashkelon.RONEN ZVULUN (Portal)
Israeli army spokesman Richard Hecht this morning advised Gazans to “flee” via Rafah as a “destructive and serious” offensive was imminent, he said in a video conference with journalists. The army later clarified that Rafah was indeed closed and that it was not an official call for Gazans to flee to Egypt.
Hamas, for its part, said Monday that it would begin executing an Israeli civilian hostage with any new airstrike Israel launches without warning. This involves the firing of small rockets – usually with a very low explosive charge – shortly before the actual bombardment so that civilians can escape.
According to the Israeli military, two Hamas officials were killed in an airstrike. Yoad Abu Shmala was economy minister in the Gaza government (in Hamas hands since 2007), and Zakaria Abu Maamar was head of the internal relations department. Both belong to Hamas’ political office, not its military branch. An official Hamas source confirmed the deaths to Portal.
Three journalists killed
Three Palestinian journalists were also killed. Said al-Taweel, Mohammed Sobboh and Hisham Nawajhah were killed in a bomb attack on a residential building near the fishing port in the capital Gaza, the local journalists’ union reported.
The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk condemned the total blockade of the Gaza Strip on Tuesday. “The imposition of sieges that endanger the lives of civilians by depriving them of essential supplies is prohibited under international humanitarian law,” he said in a statement.
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