Israel Warns 100,000 Gazans To Evacuate Their Homes, Death Toll Passes 200
By Ma'an News Agency
16 July, 2014
Maannews.net
Palestinians mourn victims of Israeli air strikes in Gaza City, 12 July. ( Mohammed Asad / APA images )
GAZA CITY -- Israel urged 100,000 Gazans to flee their homes on Wednesday, but the warning was largely ignored despite an intensification of the military's nine-day campaign.
As the punishing Israeli operation resumed pace, President Mahmoud Abbas was to travel to Egypt and Turkey in search of regional support for an immediate end to the fighting after an attempt at an Egyptian-brokered truce collapsed.
So far, Israel's campaign, now in its ninth day, has killed 208 Palestinians, with a Gaza-based rights group saying over 80 percent of them were civilians.
In the same period, militants have fired more than 1,200 rockets at Israel, which on Tuesday claimed their first Israeli life.
Overnight, warplanes struck about 40 sites across Gaza, among them political targets, as militants also kept up their fire on Israel's coastal plain, with four rockets shot down over metropolitan Tel Aviv.
The air force also dropped flyers warning 100,000 in northeastern Gaza Strip to evacuate their homes ahead of an air campaign targeting "terror sites and operatives" in Zeitun and Shejaiya, two flashpoint districts east of Gaza City.
An identical message was sent to Beit Lahiya in the north, echoing a similar army warning on Sunday, when more than 17,000 residents of the north fled for their lives, most seeking refuge in UN-run schools.
As well as the flyers, residents also received texts and pre-recorded phone messages urging them to evacuate and not return until further notice.
Gazans defiant
But the warnings did not have any immediate effect, with only limited numbers seen leaving, as children picked up the flyers and played with them, an AFP correspondent said.
"They dropped these bits of paper from planes telling people to leave. Where should we go?" asked Faisal Hassan, a father of five who lives in Zaytoun.
"I will not leave my house, whatever happens."
Hamas told residents to ignore the warnings, saying there was "no need to worry."
"This is part of the psychological war, intended to disrupt the domestic front," it said in a statement.
Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed to step up the military campaign after it claimed Hamas dismissed an Egyptian ceasefire proposal.
"This would have been better resolved diplomatically ... but Hamas leaves us no choice but to expand and intensify the campaign against it," he said.
Hamas said that it was not consulted officially by any party and only found out about the initiative through media outlets.
Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri condemned international and regional support for the ceasefire initiative, explaining that if one of the sides involved in the conflict is not consulted it is "worthless."
The Israeli security cabinet met overnight to discuss the possibility of a limited ground operation, army radio reported, saying ministers had approved plans to destroy Hamas' network of tunnels.
They also discussed the possibility of a limited ground incursion which would not initially involve entering towns or villages, it said.
"Israel has no option but to continue the operation and intensify it," former national security adviser Giora Eiland told army radio.
"The main dilemma is over a ground operation," he said, explaining that only a ground operation could inflict "real destruction" on Hamas's network of underground tunnels.
"It looks like we’re rolling in that direction, since air strikes have their limitations."
12 Palestinians killed in Gaza, death toll passes 200
Israeli airstrikes killed twelve Palestinians since midnight, bringing the death toll in Israel's military offensive to over 200 Palestinians.
Abdulrahman Ibrahim Khalil al-Sarhi, 37, was killed in an airstrike on the Zaytoun neighborhood of Gaza City Wednesday afternoon.
An Israeli airstrike in Khan Younis targeted a civilian car killing Omar Abu Daqqa, Ibrahim Abu Daqqa, and Khadra Abu Daqqa, 65.
Five others were injured in the strike.
Israel also targeted houses belonging to the al-Ashi, Abu Hashim, and Kallab families in Gaza City, and the al-Kafarneh family house in Jabaliya.
Ealier, Ashraf Abu Shanab, 33, was killed in Shabura camp in Rafah and Muhammad Abu Audah and Muhammad Zahouq were killed in an Israeli airstrike on the Abu Audah family home.
Four others were injured.
A five-year-old girl also died after falling from a building following an airstrike on a residential building in Rafah.
Islamic Jihad fighter Muhammad al-Dabari was killed in an airstrike on a Rafah building, while two men were killed in Khan Younis.
Ahmad al-Nawajha died from injuries sustained when a missile struck his car in Rafah before midnight.
Overnight, Israeli warplanes struck about 40 sites across Gaza, including homes of senior Hamas officials, including Mahmoud Zahhar, but there were no reports of casualties in those strikes.
Earlier, AFP correspondents saw flyers dropped over the Zaytoun neighborhood southeast of Gaza City, and residents there and elsewhere also reported receiving recorded phone and text messages urging them to evacuate by 8 a.m.
The Israeli army said it was sending messages to residents of parts of eastern and northern Gaza, "requesting them to evacuate their homes for their own safety" ahead of new strikes.
The army issued similar messages to north Gaza residents on Sunday, causing the exodus of 17,000 people who took shelter in United Nations schools.
President Mahmoud Abbas was due in Cairo on Wednesday, but it was unclear if Hamas officials there were continuing to discuss the truce bid and if Israeli officials would also travel to Egypt.
The proposal won support from Western governments with US President Barack Obama saying he was "encouraged" by Egypt's efforts and hoped to see calm restored.
On Monday, a senior UN official said more than a quarter of Palestinians killed in Israel's assault were children.
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