A five-month-old baby boy has been pulled alive from rubble after an overnight Israeli air strike on a refugee camp in Gaza City killed 10 members of his family.
Harrowing pictures show nurses holding the boy, who was reported to have been found next to the body of his deceased mother, at Al-Shifa Hospital.
Israel's bombardment of the Gaza Strip continued into early Saturday, when an airstrike on a house in Gaza City killed at least 10 Palestinians, mostly children - the highest number of fatalities in a single hit since the battle erupted earlier this week.
Hamas militants responded by firing more rockets into Israel as their battle entered a fifth consecutive night and a US envoy arrived for talks.
US Secretary for Israel-Palestinian Affairs, Hady Amr, was due to meet Israeli leaders in Jerusalem on Saturday before heading to the occupied West Bank for talks with Palestinian officials.
He wants to encourage a 'sustainable calm', State Department deputy spokeswoman Jalina Porter said.
But despite intensifying diplomatic efforts to ease five days of fighting between Israel and Palestinian militants in Gaza, Israel's air force struck several sites in the coastal enclave overnight, while rockets again tore towards Israel.
Ten members of a single family - eight children and two women - were killed when a three-storey building in Shati refugee camp collapsed following an Israel strike.
Eleven Palestinians were killed in clashes in the occupied West Bank on Friday and there were fears of worse violence today as Palestinians commemorate the Nakba, the 'catastrophe' of Israel's creation in 1948, which turned hundreds of thousands into refugees.
Washington has been criticised for not doing more to end the intensifying violence after it blocked a UN Security Council meeting scheduled for Friday.
The overall death toll in Gaza since Monday now tops 130, more than 30 of them children. Around 950 people have been wounded.
A nurse holds a baby, who was pulled alive from underneath rubble while other members of his family perished, at Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City on Saturday after an Israeli air strike hit al-Shati Refugee Camp without advance warning overnight
A nurse holds the baby boy at Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City. An airstrike on a house in Gaza City killed at least 10 Palestinians, mostly children - the highest number of fatalities in a single hit since the battle erupted earlier this week
The two nurses seen wearing face masks as one holds the baby boy at Al-Shifa Hospital. Ten members of a single family - eight children and two women - were killed when a three-storey building in Shati refugee camp collapsed following an Israel strike
The baby boy is reported to have been found next to the body of his deceased mother. Hamas militants responded by firing more rockets into Israel as their battle entered a fifth consecutive night and a US envoy arrived for talks
US Secretary for Israel-Palestinian Affairs, Hady Amr (pictured left), was due to meet Israeli leaders in Jerusalem on Saturday before heading to the occupied West Bank for talks with Palestinian officials. But Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (right) gave no indication that Israel was ready to ease its campaign
Egypt opened its Rafah border crossing with Gaza on Saturday to allow in 10 ambulances carrying seriously injured Palestinians for treatment in Egyptian hospitals, medical officials said.
Israel, which is also trying to contain an outbreak of internal Jewish-Arab violence, is facing its bloodiest conflict with Palestinian militants in Gaza since a 2014 war.
Its bombardment began on Monday after the territory's Islamist rulers Hamas fired rockets towards Jerusalem in response to a bloody Israeli police action at the flashpoint Al-Aqsa mosque compound in annexed east Jerusalem.
More than 2,000 rockets have been fired at Israel since then, killing nine people, including a child and a soldier. More than 560 people have been wounded.
Between 7pm Friday and 7am Saturday, some 200 rockets were fired at southern Israel, over 100 of which were intercepted by air defences, the Israeli military said.
Israel's response has seen it hit nearly 800 targets, including a massive assault Friday on a Hamas tunnel network dug under civilian areas.
A Palestinian protester launches flares amid clashes with Israeli soldiers in the city centre of Hebron in the occupied West Bank, following a rally for Fateh movement supporters denouncing the Israeli Gaza attacks and supporting Palestinians of Jerusalem, on May 14, 2021
Israeli soldiers take aim during clashes with Palestinian protesters in the city centre of Hebron in the occupied West Bank, following a rally for Fateh movement supporters denouncing the Israeli Gaza attacks and supporting Palestinians of Jerusalem, on May 14
Israeli border guards detain a Palestinian youth in Jerusalem on May 14, 2021, during clashes between Israeli far-right extremists and Palestinian
Palestinian protesters set up barricades during clashes with Israeli forces in the Shuafat camp for Palestinian refugees, neighbouring the Israeli settlement of Ramat Shlomo, in Israeli-annexed east Jerusalem on May 14, 2021
A Palestinian protester lights a molotov cocktail during clashes with Israeli forces in the Shuafat camp for Palestinian refugees, neighbouring the Israeli settlement of Ramat Shlomo, in Israeli-annexed east Jerusalem on May 14, 2021
Rockets are launched from Gaza City, controlled by the Palestinian Hamas movement, towards Israel early on May 15, 2021
An Israeli rocket falls over buildings linked to the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas in Gaza City, amid the escalating flare-up of Israeli-Palestinian violence, May 14, 2021
Smoke rises after airstrikes over Ansar Government Complex building, carried out by Israeli army, on the second day of the Muslim holy fasting month of Ramadan, in Gaza City, Gaza on May 14, 2021
Palestinian mourners carry the body of Nidal Safadi, who was killed in clashes with Israeli forces, during his funeral in the West Bank village of Urif, near Nablus, Friday, May 14, 2021
Tower blocks and other multi-storey buildings have been levelled.
Some 10,000 Palestinians have fled homes near the Israeli border for fear of a ground offensive, the United Nations said.
'They are sheltering in schools, mosques and other places during a global Covid-19 pandemic with limited access to water, food, hygiene and health services, said UN humanitarian coordinator for the occupied territories, Lynn Hastings.
'All the children are afraid and we are afraid for the children,' said Kamal al-Haddad, who fled with his family to a UN-supported school in Gaza City.
Israeli soldiers prepare their artillery unit near the border with Gaza Strip on May 14, 2021 in Sderot, Israel
Israeli soldiers prepare their artillery unit near the border with Gaza Strip on May 14, 2021 in Sderot, Israel
Israeli troops are pictured at their position in southern Israel along the border with the Gaza Strip from on May 14, 2021
A Palestinian woman shouts in the street as those living in Gaza assess the damage after a night of IDF bombardment
Smoke rises after airstrikes over Ansar Government Complex building, carried out by Israeli army, on the second day of the Muslim holy fasting month of Ramadan, in Gaza City, Gaza on May 14, 2021
In the north of Israel, multiple pro-Palestinian protesters approached the border from Lebanon on Friday afternoon, and for a second time later on Friday evening, according to the Jerusalem Post. Pictured: People stand together in the southern Lebanese village of Khiam, near the border with Israel, Lebanon May 14, 2021
Israeli soldiers stand guard after firing flares above the northern town of Metula, by the border with Lebanon, following a pro-Palestinian protest across the border in the Lebanese Khiam area, on May 14, 2021
Early on Saturday, the Israeli army said it had hit a Hamas 'operation office' near the centre of Gaza City, with additional overnight strikes targeting what the military called 'underground launch sites'.
Meanwhile, the UN said the Security Council would meet on Sunday to address the violence.
But Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu gave no indication that Israel was ready to ease its campaign. I said we'd deliver heavy blows to Hamas and other terror groups, and we're doing that,' Netanyahu said.
'They're paying and will continue to pay dearly for that. It's not over yet.'
Israel estimates that more than 30 leaders of Hamas and its ally Islamic Jihad have been killed.
It has hit sites it describes as military targets such as Hamas bomb-making facilities and the homes of senior militant commanders.
No comments:
Post a Comment