Hundreds of Palestinian families in Gaza fled their homes after sunrise on Friday morning after the worst Israeli airstrikes to date this week. “Our neighbor’s house was bombed, we fled without knowing if our house is still standing,” Rewaa Marouf told Reuters news agency.
During the heavy bombing on Thursday night, Marouf took her children by the hand and fled from her hometown of Beit Lahiya, in the north of the Gaza Strip. Now she and her family are in a school building in the Jabalia refugee camp, which is run by the United Nations. According to the UN, thousands of civilians have fled their destroyed homes. They arrived with their children, blankets, food, pans and other belongings in pickup trucks, on donkeys and even on foot, local media reported.
The death toll in Gaza rose to 119 on Friday after four days of Israeli air strikes, including 27 children. More than 830 people were injured, 200 of them since Thursday night. Also in Beit Lahiya, the family of Rafat Tanani, his pregnant wife and four small children were killed in an air raid. At 11 p.m. the building collapsed after four direct hits. The owner of the apartment complex and his wife were also buried under the rubble. “It was a massacre,” an eyewitness told AP news agency. “I have no words to describe my feelings.”
The Israeli army stepped up the airstrikes on Gaza Thursday night with the aim of destroying the tunnel network that fighters of the Palestinian resistance movement Hamas use to hide and move their missiles. Three – now evacuated – houses of senior Hamas commanders have also been bombed, as well as one of Hamas’s central bank buildings.
False rumors
In the 40-minute air raid early Friday morning, an estimated 450 missiles were fired at 150 targets. Hundreds of artillery and tank grenades were also fired from the border. Late Thursday night also appeared to be an Israeli ground operation, but this turned out to be a premature rumor. Thousands of extra reservists have been called up to prepare for a possible invasion at the Gaza border.
Hamas also continued unabated firing rockets at Israel. In the past week, the Palestinians are reported to have fired some 2,000 projectiles, the lion’s share of which were intercepted by the Israeli anti-aircraft system. Eight people have now died on the Israeli side.
“I said we would make Hamas pay a heavy price,” Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu said. ‘And we are working on that now.’ Egyptian negotiators have been in talks with both sides since Thursday to negotiate a truce. The talks continued on Friday, but so far without results. Qatar and the UN are also involved in the negotiations.
Joint statement
The UN Security Council will meet again on Sunday. At the two previous meetings this week, the United States – Israel’s main “friend” – was the only one of the 15 members to block a joint statement calling on the parties to cease fighting. President Biden, as well as EU leaders such as Prime Minister Rutte, emphasize that Israel has the right to defend itself.
Turkish President Erdogan, on the other hand, called on Muslim countries – ‘but also other countries’ – on Thursday ‘to form a bloc and to speak out, within the UN, against Israel,’ with its attacks on Gaza and provocations earlier this week. Jerusalem ‘would have once again proved that it is’ a terrorist state’.
Neighboring countries Lebanon and Syria are also stirring. On Friday evening, three missiles were fired from Syria, but failed to hit any target. The shelling is said to be in response to the death of a Lebanese protester earlier today. The man had been shot by Israeli forces when an angry mob of pro-Palestinian protesters tried to cross the border from Lebanon. On Thursday evening, three rockets were also fired from Lebanon at Israel, presumably by Palestinian activists.
The flared up battle with Hamas in Gaza is a major threat, especially in Israel itself, because it splits the population. Seven civilians have been killed in the occupied West Bank and 400 injured in clashes with Israeli soldiers. Riots between Jewish and Arab Israelis in various cities continued on Thursday night and Friday.
According to Israeli President Rivlin, “a civil war poses a greater threat to Israel than all outside dangers.” Prime Minister Netanyahu also called the civil riots the “greatest danger” and therefore said “he had no choice but to use force to restore peace in the country.”
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