05/16/2021 12:00
Clarín.com
World
Updated 05/16/2021 12:05 PM
Israel incessantly bombed the Gaza Strip on Sunday,
killing 40 Palestinians
, the highest number of casualties in a day since the start of the military escalation, hours before a UN Security Council meeting.
Palestinian armed groups, including Hamas in power in Gaza, have
fired more than 3,000 rockets at Israel since May 10
, the highest rate of rockets ever fired at Israel, according to the Israeli army, which stated that most were intercepted.
These new bombings take place a few hours after
a virtual meeting of the Security Council,
whose members were asked by the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) to "exercise maximum influence to put an end to hostilities."
"The intensity of this conflict is something
we have never seen before
, with constant airstrikes on Gaza, which is densely populated, and rockets hitting major cities in Israel, killing children on both sides," he said. Robert Mardini, Director General of the ICRC.
Pope Francis also warned of a "spiral of death and destruction," calling the loss of innocent lives "terrible and unacceptable."
Since the early hours of Sunday,
40 Palestinians, including at least eight children, have been
killed in Israeli bombings in the enclave, where two million people live under Israeli blockade.
This is the highest daily death toll
since the beginning of this new cycle of violence, which has already caused the death of 188 Palestinians, including 55 children, and more than 1,230 injured, according to the latest Palestinian balance.
In Israel, 10 people have lost their lives
, including a child and a soldier, and 282 have been injured, by Palestinian rocket fire.
Against Hamas
Abu Anas Achkanani, a resident of the Al Rimal neighborhood, targeted by bombings, explained that he lost his sister-in-law and four of his nephews, the oldest of whom was 11 years old, and that, according to him, they were
sleeping when the projectile fell.
"I was in the house next door (...) Nothing was happening and suddenly, around 12 o'clock (...) there was a bombing in the street and it was hell! (...). We went down to see and it was surreal. We pulled the mother and children out of the rubble, "he says.
In its persecution of Hamas structures, the Israeli army announced on Twitter that it "
attacked the home of (Hamas political boss
in Gaza) Yahya Sinwar and that of his brother, Mohamad Sinwar, Hamas logistics chief," and posted a video showing severe damage under a cloud of dust.
Palestinian security sources confirmed the attack on Sinwar's home, but his fate is unknown for now.
Although the parties to the conflict have so far turned a deaf ear to international calls for a cessation of hostilities, diplomatic talks are intensifying
with a virtual meeting of the Security Council
.
The European Union announced an emergency ministerial meeting for Tuesday.
For its part, a US delegation, led by special envoy Hady Amr, met with Israeli Defense Minister Benny Gantz on Sunday.
Gantz claimed on Twitter to have expressed "
deep appreciation for the US support
for Israel's
right
and duty to defend itself against terrorist attacks."
"Contrary to our enemies, we are careful to attack only military targets," he added.
On Saturday, a 13-story building that housed among others the equipment of the Qatari television network Al Jazeera and the US press agency Associated Press (AP)
was reduced to rubble
in a bombing by the Israeli army that had called for the evacuation of the building. .
According to the army, the building housed
Hamas "military intelligence entities"
accused of using civilians as "human shields".
This new escalation of the conflict broke out after the launch from Gaza of a rocket barrage against Israel
in "solidarity"
with the hundreds of Palestinians wounded in the riots with the Israeli police on the Esplanade of the Mosques, in East Jerusalem, a Palestinian sector occupied by Israel since 1967.
The riots on the esplanade, Islam's third holy place, were the culmination of strong tensions and clashes in East Jerusalem, mainly due to the threat of expulsion of Palestinian families in favor
of Jewish settlers in a neighborhood of the Holy City.
The hostilities spread to the West Bank, a Palestinian territory also occupied by Israel since 1967, where clashes with the Israeli army since May 10
have caused 19 Palestinian deaths.
On its territory, Israel also faces unprecedented violence and lynching threats in its "mixed" cities, where Jews and Palestinians with Israeli citizenship live.
The last major confrontation between Israel and Hamas dates back to 2014. In 50 days, the Gaza Strip was devastated and at least 2,251 Palestinians, mostly civilians, and 74 Israelis, almost all military, were killed.
Source: AFP and AP
Look also
The images of the bombing of the building where the offices of the AP, AFP and Al Jazeera agencies were in Gaza
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Look also
Pope Francis warns that escalating violence in Gaza could turn into a "spiral of death and destruction"
Israel and Hamas stand firm on the seventh day of hostilities