At least 72 people have been killed in the Gaza Strip in the last two days as Israel intensifies its military offensive, Al Jazeera reports.
Israel’s army has also mobilised on the border for a possible ground invasion, with the escalating hostilities marking the most serious surge of violence over the Gaza Strip for two years.
The rising death toll includes many children including 12 Palestinian minors, the ABC cites hospital officials as saying.
Palestine’s Ministry of Health said 550 people had been wounded in Gaza this week, while Israeli authorities say more than 200 rockets have been fired into Israel from Gaza in that time.
An Israeli aircraft also killed at least one civilian when it targeted a car in the centre of Gaza’s busiest shopping street on Wednesday night local time, the ABC reports.
Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas told a crisis meeting on Wednesday that Israel is committing “genocide,” the SBS reports.
“(T)he killing of entire families is genocide by Israel against our Palestinian people,” he told the meeting of the Palestinian leadership in the West Bank city of Ramallah, News.com.au reports.
“What’s happening now is a war against the Palestinian people as a whole and not against the (militant) factions… We know that Israel is not defending itself, it is defending settlements, its main project,” Abbas said.
He added Palestinian leaders were talking to Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi and UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon.
Israel prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office also said he had discussed the situation with Ban Ki-moon. The UN Security Council will meet on Thursday morning local time to discuss the hostilities, the ABC reports.
The surge in violence this week follows outrage over the abduction and killing of three Israeli youths in the occupied West Bank last month, and a retaliatory killing of a Palestinian teenager, who was reportedly burned alive last Wednesday.
Top Comments
At this stage, it is pretty much tit for tat, with both sides pointing at the other and shouting 'You started it!' Unless both sides are serious about peace (and I have my doubts about that), this will probably continue indefinitely.
For anyone who thinks Israel's response is heavy handed, try living in a country, roughly the size of Tassie, surrounded by countries who want to - and try to - blow them off the face of the earth. Over 200 Palestinian rockets fired into the north of Israel… Now, if that's not initiating all-out-war then I don't know what is? While I pray for ALL people and their right to live their lives across the Middle East, NO country would be expected to put up with that. Furthermore, you need to remember a few things about the brutal force that is Hamas… Yes, attacking and defending do look the same but they are different. In this case, Israel is defending… and has a right to as ugly as it is. Perhaps, Hamas should reconsider who it fires missiles at if they're not prepared to cop some back. Hamas should also reconsider where they fire their missiles from. They fire missiles from schools, residential areas, hospital areas and the like. They use their own people as a fighting ground and shields.
Again, Israel has a right to defend itself. Right and defend being the operative words.
This article needs some serious revision.