Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
Israeli strike kills 11 in Gaza
Death toll adds pressure on sides to end hostilities
GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip — An Israeli airstrike Sunday killed at least nine members of the same family — all women and children— in the deadliest single attack and worst civilian tragedy since the current fighting in Gaza Strip began lastweek.
Though Israel has sought to limit civilian casualties during its five-day military campaign, the strike against the Dalu home in Gaza City was likely to test the limits of international support it has received in its battle to stop militants from firing rockets at Israeli cities.
Yet despite immediate condemnation by Hamas, the militant group that controls Gaza, the tragedy did not appear to derail ceasefire negotiations under way in Cairo, where Israeli and Palestinian representatives are meeting.
The civilian death toll from Sunday’s attack only increased the international pressure on both sides to end their hostilities, coming on a day both President Barack Obama and British officials raised concerns about the conflict expanding into a ground war.
Israeli military officials said they were targeting a Hamas militant in his home but provided no further information. The Dalu family was believed to have links to Hamas’ military wing and had been targeted by Israel before.
There were conflicting reports about whether the strike killed the home’s owner, Jamal Dalu, or his son Mohamed. Hamas’ Health Ministry put the final death toll at 11, which may include two neighbors. More than 20 people were injured.
On its website, the military wing of Hamas said that the attack on the family “will not go unpunished” and that the group had beganfiring rockets at Israel in response. By Sunday night, Gaza militants had fired 114 rockets at southern Israel during the day, hitting buildings in Beersheba, Sderot and Ashdod. Five people were injured from shrapnel from a rocket in Ofakim.
The Israeli missile strike destroyed the Dalu family’s three-story building.
For hours panicked neighbors and rescueworkers clung to hope of finding survivors. While a bulldozer pulled apart pieces of the collapsed walls, volunteers in orange vests searched for signs of life.
In a grim scene that played out over 90 minutes, the bodies of four children were pulled out one after one. Each time they found a body, the men would yell and wave their hands at the bulldozer’s driver to stop digging, while others climbed down to retrieve the child. As mobs of onlookers chanted “God is great,” a rescue worker raced toward an ambulance with a limp, dust-covered child.
“This is a massacre,” shouted a distraught Nasser Dalu, 56, a cousin and neighbor. “What did these children do?”
Israel Defense Forces said it has launched more than 1,000 airstrikes over the past five days, mostly targeting military compounds, in an attempt to put an end to rocket and mortar attacks on communities in southern Israel. In recent days it expanded its targets to include the homes of Hamas leaders; Gaza officials said 17 homes were attacked on Sunday alone.
Sunday’s airstrikes brought the death toll in Gaza to 69 people since Wednesday, including at least 24 civilians, hospital officials said. More than660 Palestinians have been wounded. Three Israelis were killed when a projectile fired from Gaza hit their apartment complex on Thursday.
The Dalu strike came at delicate time in the Gaza conflict, when Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi has been trying to broker a long-term truce between Israel and Hamas. Talks continued behind the scenes Sunday night, Hamas officials said.
Without an agreement soon, many fear Israel will launch a ground invasion. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told his Cabinet on Sunday that Israel is “prepared for a significant expansion of the operation.”
At a news conference in Bangkok, Thailand, Obama urged both sides to resolve their differences “without further escalation of violence in the region.”
While repeating his previous statements that Israel has a right to press for an end to attacks on its people, Obama said, “If that can be accomplished without a ramping-up of military activity in Gaza, that’s preferable. That’s not just preferable for the people of Gaza, it’s also preferable for Israelis, because if Israeli troops are in Gaza, they’re much more at risk of incurring fatalities or being wounded.”
British Foreign Secretary William Hague told Sky News television that “a ground invasion of Gaza would lose Israel a lot of the international support and sympathy that they have in this situation.”