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world news Dialuna 17 Mei 2021

Israel kills 42 in Gaza as Netanyahu warns war will go on

(AP) — Israeli airstrikes ing a 5-year-old boy and a
on Gaza City flattened soldier.
three buildings and killed Hamas and the Islamic Jihad
at least 42 people Sunday, militant group have acknowl-
Palestinian medics said, in edged 20 fighters killed in
the deadliest single attack the fighting. Israel says the
in the latest round of vio- real number is far higher and
lence. Despite the toll and has released the names and
international efforts to photos of two dozen alleged
broker a cease-fire, Israeli operatives it says were “elimi-
Prime Minister Benjamin nated.”
Netanyahu signaled the The assault has displaced
fourth war with Gaza’s some 34,000 Palestinians
Hamas rulers would rage from their homes, U.N.
on. Mideast envoy Tor Wen-
nesland told the Security
In a televised address, Ne- Council on Sunday.
tanyahu said the attacks were The turmoil has also spilled
continuing at “full-force” and over elsewhere, fueling pro-
will “take time.“ Israel “wants tests in the occupied West
to levy a heavy price” on the Bank and stoking violence
Hamas militant group, he within Israel between its Jew-
said, flanked by his defense ish and Arab citizens, with
minister and political rival, clashes and vigilante attacks
Benny Gantz, in a show of the 2014 war.” Among those reported killed ligence people.” on people and property.
unity. Rescuers furiously dug was Dr. Ayman Abu Al- Buzbee called for any such On Sunday, a driver rammed
Hamas also pressed on, through the rubble using ex- Ouf, the head of the internal evidence to be laid out. into an Israeli checkpoint in
launching rockets from ci- cavators and bulldozers amid medicine department at Shifa “We are in a conflict situa- the east Jerusalem neighbor-
vilian areas in Gaza toward clouds of heavy dust. One Hospital and a senior mem- tion,” Buzbee said. “We do hood of Sheikh Jarrah —
civilian areas in Israel. One shouted “Can you hear me?” ber of the hospital’s corona- not take sides in that con- where the Palestinian fami-
slammed into a synagogue in into a hole. “Are you OK?” virus management commit- flict. We heard Israelis say lies had been threatened with
the southern city of Ashkelon he asked. Minutes later, first tee. Two of Abu Al-Ouf’s they have evidence; we don’t eviction — injuring six of-
hours before evening services responders pulled a survivor teenage children and two know what that evidence is.” ficers before police shot and
for the Jewish holiday of Sha- out. The Gaza Health Min- other family members were The AP has operated from killed the attacker, Israeli po-
vuot, Israeli emergency ser- istry said 16 women and 10 also buried under the rubble the building for 15 years, in- lice said.
vices said. No injuries were children were among those of their home. cluding through three previ- The violence also sparked
reported. killed, with more than 50 The death of the 51-year-old ous wars between Israel and pro-Palestinian protests in
In the Israeli air assault early people wounded. physician “was a huge loss at Hamas. The news agency’s cities across Europe and the
Sunday, families were buried Haya Abdelal, 21, lives in a very sensitive time,” said cameras, operating from its United States.
under piles of cement rubble a building next to one that Mohammed Abu Selmia, the top floor office and roof ter- Israel appears to have stepped
and twisted rebar. A yellow was destroyed and said she director of Shifa. race, offered 24-hour live up strikes in recent days to
canary lay crushed on the was sleeping when the air- Gaza’s health care system, al- shots as militants’ rockets inflict as much damage as
ground. Shards of glass and strikes sent her fleeing into ready gutted by an Israeli and arched toward Israel and Is- possible on Hamas as inter-
debris covered streets blocks the street. She accused Israel Egyptian blockade imposed raeli airstrikes hammered the national mediators work to
away from the major down- of not giving its usual warn- after Hamas seized power city and its surroundings. end the fighting and stave off
town thoroughfare where the ing to residents to flee before from rival Palestinian forces “We think it’s appropriate at an Israeli ground invasion in
three buildings were hit over launching such an attack. in 2007, had been struggling this point for there to be an Gaza.
the course of five minutes “We are tired,” she said, “We with a surge in coronavirus independent look at what The Israeli military said it de-
around 1 a.m. need a truce. We can’t bear it infections even before the happened yesterday — an stroyed the home Sunday of
The hostilities have repeat- anymore.” latest conflict. independent investigation,” Gaza’s top Hamas leader, Ya-
edly escalated over the past The Israeli army spokesper- Israel’s airstrikes have lev- Buzbee said. hiyeh Sinwar, in the southern
week, marking the worst son’s office said the strike tar- eled a number of Gaza City’s The latest outbreak of vio- town of Khan Younis. It was
fighting in the territory that geted Hamas “underground tallest office and residential lence began in east Jerusa- the third such attack in the
is home to 2 million Palestin- military infrastructure.” As a buildings, alleging they con- lem last month, when Pal- last two days on the homes
ians since Israel and Hamas’ result of the strike, “the un- tain Hamas military infra- estinians clashed with police of senior Hamas leaders, who
devastating 2014 war. derground facility collapsed, structure. Among them was in response to Israeli police have gone underground.
“I have not seen this level of causing the foundation of the the building housing The tactics during Ramadan and Egypt and the U.S. were in-
destruction through my 14 civilian houses above them Associated Press office and the threatened eviction of volved in cease-fire efforts,
years of work,” said Samir al- to collapse as well, leading to those of other media outlets. dozens of Palestinian families but it wasn’t clear if they were
Khatib an emergency rescue unintended casualties.” Sally Buzbee, the AP’s execu- by Jewish settlers. A focus of making progress, in light of
official in Gaza. “Not even in Netanyahu’ statement that
tive editor, on Sunday called the clashes was the Al-Aqsa the campaign is continuing.
for an independent investiga- Mosque, a frequent flash- The U.N. Security Council
tion into the airstrike that de- point located on a hilltop was also meeting Sunday, and
stroyed the AP office the day compound revered by both Secretary-General Antonio
before. Muslims and Jews. Guterres called for an end to
Netanyahu alleged that Hamas began firing rockets the “senseless cycle of blood-
Hamas military intelligence toward Jerusalem on Mon- shed, terror and destruction.”
was operating inside the day, triggering the Israeli as-
building. sault on Gaza.
“It’s a perfectly legitimate tar- At least 188 Palestinians have
get,” he told CBS’s Face the been killed in the hundreds
Nation on Sunday. of airstrikes in Gaza, in-
Asked if he had provided any cluding 55 children and 33
evidence of Hamas’ presence women, with 1,230 people
in the building in a call Sat- wounded. Eight people in Is-
urday with U.S. President rael have been killed in some
Joe Biden, Netanyahu said, of the 3,100 rocket attacks
“we pass it through our intel- launched from Gaza, includ-