Scores killed as eastern Gaza city turns into battleground

At least 98 Palestinians and 13 Israeli soldiers were killed on Sunday in the worst of 13 nights and days of cross-border fighting, as Israel heavily shelled an eastern Gaza City neighbourhood after expanding its ground offensive.

Hamas claimed late on Sunday it has captured an Israeli soldier. An Israeli military spokeswoman in Tel Aviv said the military was looking into the claim.

At least 60 Palestinians were killed in the neighbourhood of Shejae’yah, the deadliest incident in the fighting yet by far, Palestinian Health Ministry spokesman Ashraf al-Qedra said, adding that 210 were injured.

Later in the evening, an airstrike on a Gaza City high-rise killed eight people, among them four children, most from the same family, and another on a house in the south of the Strip killed a woman and an 8-year-old, al-Qedra said.

He called relentless Israeli artillery and tank shell barrages on Shejae’yah a “massacre.” Israel said its soldiers had come under heavy fire while searching the area for tunnels and rockets, and that for days it had urged residents to leave Shejae’yah and move from the eastern border areas toward central and western Gaza City.

US President Barack Obama told Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu he was concerned about the growing number of civilian dead and that Secretary of State John Kerry would head to Cairo on Monday to join the efforts to push for a truce.

Netanyahu and Defence Minister Moshe Yaalon, in a news conference at Israel’s security headquarters in Tel Aviv, expressed regret for civilian deaths, but placed full responsibility on Hamas, the Islamist movement in de facto control of Gaza.

“We are not deterred. We will continue with this operation as long as is necessary,” Netanyahu said.

He said Israel’s efforts to uncover tunnels on the ground was full of risks but essential because they could be “lethal” if used by militants to infiltrate Israel and attack civilian communities or army bases.

Yaalon said the lion share of the tunnels could be destroyed in two or three days, but warned “we are ready for long days of fighting.” Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas declared three days of mourning over the “brutal Israeli aggression” in Shejae’yah and demanded international convention.

The new Palestinian unity government spoke of a “war crime” and condemned “in the strongest terms the heinous massacre.” The shelling started in the darkness and continued until after daylight. Ambulances were initially unable to evacuate the wounded, with medics saying it was too dangerous.

Increasing death toll in Gaza

One medic and one local freelance journalist were among the dead, al-Qedra said. Palestinian television showed footage of some seven bodies lying in a street outside a shelled house.

The death toll became apparent after the sides agreed to a five-hour humanitarian lull in the fighting. Al-Ashraf said 17 children, 14 women and four elderly men were among the dead in Shejae’yah.

Israel had issued warnings in recorded telephone calls, text messages and leaflets dropped by planes for residents to evacuate the area.

But Gazans said that while residents had left eastern rows of buildings close to the border with Israel, many living deeper inside the neighbourhood had not heeded the evacuation calls.

Military spokesman Aryeh Shalicar said soldiers had come under fire “from all directions” while operating in the area.

He said that over the past 13 days, 140 rockets had been launched at Israel from Shejae’yah alone.

Israel sent more troops into the strip overnight, expanding the ground offensive. It has so far called up about 55,000 reserve soldiers.

The troops still operate mainly on the eastern outskirts of populated areas, near the border with Israel. Some 130,000 Palestinians have fled the border areas and become displaced, a Gaza-based rights group said. More than 60,000 have taken refuge in UN schools.

Large columns of people were seen leaving Shejae’yah, carrying their belongings. The main focus of the ground troops remains tracing and blowing up tunnels, officials said.

They said Palestinian militants have constructed a sophisticated network of tunnels under Gaza City and elsewhere.

They have used such tunnels to take cover, hide rocket stockpiles, and attack and abduct Israeli soldiers or civilians for use as bargaining chips, the military said. Several militants who infiltrated Israel through one such tunnel over the weekend had plastic handcuffs and anaesthetics with them for their intended victims, it said.

The Gaza death toll in the offensive that started with airstrikes on July 8 and expanded with ground forces late on Thursday crossed well over 450 with 3,040 injured, al-Qedra said. The dead included 112 children, 41 women and 25 elderly men, he said. The Israeli military said it killed 110 militants.

So far, 18 Israeli soldiers and two civilians have been killed. The dead include a man killed when a rocket hit a Bedouin housing cluster in the Negev desert in southern Israel. A 3-month-old was critically injured in the attack. The baby’s mother was also injured.

At least 77 soldiers have been injured in the Gaza ground fighting.

Over 100 Israeli civilians have also been injured.

The UN Security Council was to hold an emergency meeting on the situation late on Sunday in New York.

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