Gaza: Palestinian death toll tops 800, more than 30 Israelis killed

World Today

Palestinian medics treat a child wounded in an Israeli strike on a compound housing a U.N. school in Beit Hanoun, in the northern Gaza Strip, at the emergency room of the Kamal Adwan hospital in Beit Lahiya, on Thursday, July 24, 2014.(AP Photo/Lefteris Pitarakis).

In the Israel-Palestine conflict, the Palestinian death toll has risen to at least 800, according to Gaza health official Ashraf al-Kidra. Israel has lost 32 soldiers, all since July 17, when it widened its air campaign against the militant group Hamas into a full-scale ground operation.

Israeli tank shells hit a compound housing a U.N. school in the Gaza Strip on Thursday, killing at least 15 people and wounding dozens who were seeking shelter from fierce clashes on the streets outside. Two Israeli civilians and a Thai worker in Israel have also been killed by rocket or mortar fire.

The strike occurred during a day of heavy fighting throughout the coastal territory. Israel says the war is meant to halt rocket fire from the Palestinian militant group Hamas in Gaza and destroy a sophisticated network of cross-border tunnels. International efforts to bring about a truce appeared elusive, with the violence continuing and Hamas reiterating its demand for a cease-fire that a crippling Egyptian and Israeli blockade on Gaza be lifted.

Gaza health official Ashraf al-Kidra said the dead and injured in the school compound were among hundreds of people seeking shelter from heavy fighting in the area. It was the fourth time a U.N. facility has been hit in fighting between Israel and Palestinian militants in Gaza, since the Israeli operation began July 8. UNRWA, the Palestinian refugee agency, has said it has found militant rockets inside two vacant schools but the target of Thursday’s strike was not immediately clear.

UNRWA spokesman Chris Gunness has called on all sides “to respect the sanctity of civilian life, but also the inviolability of U.N. property.”

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The Israeli military said it was reviewing the incident, saying that rockets launched by Hamas had landed in the Beit Hanoun area during fighting with its forces, and that those rockets may be responsible for the deaths. Israel insists it does its utmost to prevent civilian casualties but says Hamas puts Palestinians in danger by hiding arms and fighters in civilian areas. Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhoum condemned the violence, saying Israel was targeting displaced people and “committing massacres.”

With the number of casualties growing on both sides, the international community has stepped up diplomatic efforts to broker a cease-fire. But Hamas is insisting on the lifting of the seven-year-old blockade, which was imposed when the Islamic militant group seized control of Gaza from the Western-backed government of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.

Egypt tightened its own restrictions last year after the overthrow of a Hamas-friendly government in Cairo and has destroyed many of the cross-border smuggling tunnels that sustained Gaza’s economy, and which were also used by Hamas to bring in arms

British Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond on Thursday urged Hamas to agree on an immediate humanitarian cease-fire and said Israel and Palestinian Authority could then come together to hold talks. “Hamas must agree to a humanitarian cease-fire without preconditions for the sake of the people in Gaza,” he said during a news conference after meetings with Egyptian officials in Cairo. “We are greatly concerned by ongoing heavy humanitarian crisis and the loss of lives.”

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, however, made no reference to the cease-fire efforts in underscoring his determination to neutralize the rocket and tunnel threats. More than 2,000 rockets have been fired at Israel from Gaza since July 8, and the Israeli military says it has uncovered more than 30 tunnels leading from Gaza to Israel, some of which have been used by Hamas to carry out attacks.

In other violence, six members of the same family and an 18-month-old infant boy were killed when an Israeli airstrike hit the Jebaliya refugee camp early Thursday, according to Gaza police and health officials. Twenty others were injured in the strike, they said, and rescuers were digging through the rubble of flattened homes, looking for survivors.

An airstrike on a home in the southern Gaza town of Abassan killed five members of another family, al-Kidra said.

Report compiled with information from Reuters and The Associated Press.