GAZA: Israel’s bombardment of the Gaza Strip has entered its seventh consecutive day, with air raids killing more than 33 Palestinians, injuring several others and flattening at least two residential buildings on Sunday.
At least 33 people died in Gaza after 150 Israeli airstrikes hit the besieged enclave in one hour on Sunday in what a Palestinian security source said was the “most intense” shelling since the second intifada or uprising that began in 2000.
Israeli airstrikes on Gaza claimed the lives of 33 more people, taking the death toll to 181 as the UN Security Council prepared to meet amid global alarm at the escalating attacks.
Rescue teams worked to pull out dead from vast piles of smoking rubble and toppled buildings as relatives wailed in terror and sorrow.
Rescue officials said almost half of the rockets targeted the Gaza City district of al-Wehda where residential houses, infrastructure and roads were destroyed.
Health officials confirmed 34 people were killed overnight – including Dr Ayman Abu al-Ouf, head of internal medicine at Shifa hospital – following Israeli bombardment on their homes. Five children were found alive under the debris, the health ministry added.
“We can still hear people shouting from under the rubble,” said Medhat Hamdan, a civil defense worker who came from Khan Younis to Gaza City and worked nonstop for 11 hours to save lives.
“Continuing to search for martyrs or missing from the massacre on Al-Wehda Street after retrieving more than 34 martyrs, most of them children and women,” a Palestinian-affiliated, youth-oriented media service tweeted.
مواصلة البحث عن شــهــداء أو مفقودين من مجـــزرة شارع الوحدة بعد انتــشال أكثر من 34 شــهيـدًا غالبيتهم من الأطفال والنساء#GazaUnderAttack #غزة_تحت_القصف pic.twitter.com/yjvNFxmQQ5
— شبكة قدس الإخبارية (@qudsn) May 16, 2021
More than 33 Palestinians were killed in Israeli airstrikes across the coastal enclave, health officials said, and many were injured as the sounds of heavy bombardment also targeted the home of Gaza’s Hamas chief, Yehya al-Sinwar.
Since Monday Israeli air and artillery strikes on Gaza have killed 150 people including 41 children and injured another 1,100, health officials say, the worst violence in the region in seven years.
Palestinian armed groups have fired at least 2,300 rockets at Israel, killing 10 people, including a child and a soldier, and wounding over 560 Israelis. Israeli air defenses have intercepted many rockets.
US Secretary for Israel-Palestinian Affairs Hady Amr was to hold talks Sunday with Israeli leaders before meeting Palestinian officials to seek a sustainable calm, the State Department said. The UN Security Council was to meet Sunday to discuss the violence and plans to stop further losses.
The latest outburst of violence began in Jerusalem and has spread across the region, with Jewish-Arab clashes and rioting in mixed cities of Israel. There were also widespread Palestinian protests Friday in the occupied West Bank, where Israeli forces shot and killed 11 people.
Pro-Palestinian rallies
Several pro-Palestinian supporters marched through New Zealand’s largest cities to protest against Israeli aggression on the Gaza Strip.
Hundreds of demonstrators protested in the capital Wellington, as well as in Auckland and Christchurch, holding signs, banners and Palestinian flags.
The marches coincided with Nakba Day, which commemorates the displacement of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians during the war for Israel’s independence in 1948.
Famous football players show solidarity with Palestinians
On Sunday, Hamza Choudhury and Wesley Fofana, football players with Britain’s Leicester City, waved a Palestine flag during their celebration for their team’s FA Cup final victory, showing solidarity with the Palestinian people under Israeli attacks.
Letter to Hamza Choudhury and Wesley Fofana, Leicester Football Club, who used the occasion of the FA cup triumph to show solidarity with the Palestinian people ????????????????✌????✊
@Wesley_Fofanaa@HamzaChoudhury1@LCFC
#SavePalestine #Jerusalem #GazaUnderAttack pic.twitter.com/LpaIENZMCL— Palestine in the UK (@PalMissionUK) May 15, 2021
UN chief disturbed by Israeli strikes
United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres was disappointed by civilian casualties in Gaza and deeply disturbed by Israel’s strike on a building containing international media outlets.
“The Secretary-General is dismayed by the increasing number of civilian casualties, including the death of ten members of the same family, children, as a result of an Israeli airstrike last night in the al-Shati camp in Gaza, purportedly aimed at a Hamas leader,” his spokesman, Stephane Dujarric on Saturday said in the written response to questions on the Israeli airstrikes in Gaza.
Guterres was also deeply disturbed by the destruction by an Israeli airstrike today of a high-rise building in Gaza City that housed the offices of several international media organizations as well as residential apartments,” Dujarric added.
“The Secretary-General reminds all sides that any indiscriminate targeting of civilians and media structures violates international law and must be avoided at all costs,” Dujarric said.
Canada calls for protecting journalists
Canada stressed “the fundamental importance of protecting journalists” following the Israeli attack on a building housing international media in Gaza, and called for “immediate steps” to end the violence.
Foreign Minister Marc Garneau said Canada was following the situation in Israel, the West Bank and Gaza “with grave concern” and urged “all parties to take immediate steps to end the violence, deescalate tensions, protect all civilians, refugees, journalists and media workers.”
He reiterated on Twitter “the fundamental importance of protecting journalists,” stressing they “must be free to do their work,” adding: “Their safety and security must always be ensured.”
2/2 Canada reiterates the fundamental importance of protecting journalists and will always stand for media freedom. They are the cornerstone of any fair, strong, and vibrant society and must be free to do their work. Their safety and security must always be ensured.
— Marc Garneau (@MarcGarneau) May 16, 2021
Attacks on Gaza will continue: Israeli premier
Israel’s prime minister said that attacks on the Gaza Strip would continue as long as they were necessary.
The Israeli premier also claimed that the tower, which housed offices of different media groups, was being used by Palestinian groups, including Hamas, before being destroyed by the Israeli army, adding that Israel shows “special care” to avoid civilian deaths in attacks on Gaza.
“Israel’s operations on Gaza will continue as long as needed to reach its aims,” he said at a news conference where he thanked US President Joe Biden for his support.
Biden reaffirms support for Israel
US President Joe Biden spoke with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and reaffirmed his “strong support for Israel’s right to defend itself against rocket attacks from Hamas and other terrorist groups in Gaza”, the White House said.
He also spoke with Palestinian Authority President Abbas and “conveyed a commitment to strengthening the US-Palestinian partnership,” the White House added in a tweet.
Today the President spoke with Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu, reaffirmed his strong support for Israel’s right to defend itself against rocket attacks from Hamas and other terrorist groups in Gaza, and condemned these indiscriminate attacks against Israel. pic.twitter.com/baHWh1b6Q2
— The White House (@WhiteHouse) May 15, 2021
