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Israeli assassination strikes kill scores of Palestinians, wound hundreds

Jul 14, 2024

The onslaught in Gaza is continuing unabated despite ceasefire negotiations which have now been ongoing since November last year.

Just as negotiators on both sides were talking of a breakthrough, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Friday imposed a raft of new conditions he requires for a truce to be agreed. He described these as four ‘ironclad principles.’

Meantime the carnage continues. On Saturday Israeli airstrikes targeted what they had deemed as safe-zones and where up to 1.5 million Palestinians had sought refuge. Instead of safety however, on Saturday the Israel Air Force sent a raft of warplanes across the Gaza Strip, zeroing in on this area. The airstrikes, according to the Ministry of Health, have left seventy-one people dead and 289 injured. Scores more are believed to be buried in rubble. Al Jazeera reported later Saturday the death toll had increased from 71 to ninety.

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According to Israel’s Army Radio, the attack targeted Mohammad Deif, the leader of the Izzadin al-Qassam Brigades, Hamas’s military wing (left), and Rafa Salama, the commander of Hamas’s Khan Yunis Brigade (right). Deif survived an assassination attempt by Israel during the 2014 hostilities in Gaza dungi which his wife, his 3-year-old daughter and seven month old, son were killed.

Army Radio quoted the IDF as saying ‘lots of preparation had gone into the strike, that the strike itself was very precise, and that intelligence provided opened a window of opportunity mere hours beforehand.’

Army Radio correspondent Doron Kadosh said a security source had said, that as far as was known, no hostages were being held in the area.

Army Radio, citing security officials, said the IDF estimated there would likely be dozens killed as a result of the strikes but carried out the attacks nonetheless.

Later the IDF said in a statement that the dozens of people killed were active Hamas terrorists who were guarding Deif and Salama.

“In a joint IDF and ISA activity based on precise intelligence, the IDF’s Southern Command and the IAF carried out a strike in an area where two senior Hamas terrorists and additional terrorists hid among civilians,” the IDF statement published on Saturday said. “The location of the strike was an open area surrounded by trees, several buildings, and sheds.”

Hamas on Saturday issued a statement saying the Israeli claims were false and that the victims of the attacks were innocent and defenceless civilians. A spokesman said the assassination claim was “to cover up the big scale of the horrific massacre.

The IDF later said they were investigating the reports of large scale civilian casualties and seeking to verify the numbers of thise killed and wounded.

The round of attacks occurred around 10:30am Saturday morning in the Al-Mawasi region south of the Gaza Strip, near the city of Khan Yunis. A number of refugee camps were targeted. Al-Mawasi has been designated as a safe humanitarian zone by the Israeli army, which has been calling on Palestinians from all over Gaza to relocate to.

The UN Palestinian relief agency, UNRWA, has said it estimates up to 1.5 million people are now in the Al-Mawasi district.

Saturday’s attack follows the resumption of a shipment of U.S. bombs to the Israel Defense Forces (IDF).

Separately, hours later, Israeli tanks and artillery strikes killed at least 20 Gazan civilians and injured scores more in the al-Shati refugee camp to the west of Gaza City.

Local sources reported Israeli warplanes targeted a prayer hall near the White Mosque in the camp, resulting in the killing of at least seventeen civilians and the wounding of an undisclosed number of others, including children and women, taking the confirmed death toll for the day to 110, with many more bodies still to be recovered from the rubble.

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