150 killed as Israel continues to hit Gaza  US ‘appalled’ by shelling of UN school; Britain seeks unconditional ceasefire; Israel shuns Cairo truce talks; at least 1,708 Gazans killed; 64 Israelis dead   Monday, August 04, 2014 From Print Edition    95  0  3  0

 

GAZA: The Israeli military on Sunday bombarded Gaza, killing at least 150 people in 24 hours, medics said.More than 71 people were killed in Rafah alone in the fresh wave of bloodshed.

 

Shelling exchanges continued on Sunday, pushing the Gaza death toll given by Palestinian officials to 1,708, most of them civilians. Israel has confirmed that 64 soldiers have died in combat, while Palestinian shelling has also killed three civilians in Israel.

 

At least 30 Palestinians in Rafah were killed by Israeli fire on Sunday, including nine from the same family, hospital officials said.At least 10 people died in a fresh strike on a UN school in Gaza Sunday shortly after Israel confirmed it had begun withdrawing some troops from the war-torn enclave.

 

The strike on the school sheltering displaced Palestinians in the southern city of Rafah came as Israel pounded the region following the suspected capture of soldier Hadar Goldin by Hamas fighters. It was the third time in 10 days that a UN school had been hit and came four days after Israeli tank shells slammed into a school in the northern town of Jabaliya, killing 16 in an attack furiously denounced by UN chief Ban Ki-moon as “reprehensible”.

 

The US said it was “appalled” by the shelling of another UN school in Gaza Sunday and called for a “full and prompt” investigation.State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki did not say which side was responsible for the attack that left at least 10 dead, but stressed that “Israel must do more to meet its own standards and avoid civilian casualties.”

 

The UN expressed outrage at the shelling of one of its schools. UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon strongly condemned the shelling, calling it “a moral outrage and a criminal act.” “This madness must stop,” he said.

 

“The bloodshed needs to stop,” said a statement signed by the European Union and the European Commission presidents on behalf of the bloc’s 28 member states.“We deplore the terrible loss of lives, including innocent women and children,” it said, condemning the “intolerable violence” being suffered by Gaza residents.

 

Britain’s Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond demanded an unconditional ceasefire to resolve the “intolerable” situation for civilians.Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed to keep up pressure on Hamas even after the army completes its core mission of destroying a tunnel network that extends into Israel.

 

Israel began its air and naval offensive against Gaza on July 8 following a surge of cross-border rocket salvoes by Hamas and other guerrillas, later escalating into ground incursions.TRUCE EFFORTS: The talks in Cairo, without Israeli participation, were unlikely to produce any breakthrough, as Israel and Hamas’ positions remain far apart. Israel says it must be allowed to act against Hamas’ rocket arsenal and tunnel network in the framework of any long-term truce.

 

Hamas, sworn to Israel’s destruction, demands Israel withdraw its troops and a lifting of the blockade that has choked Gaza’s economy.Israeli Justice Minister Tzipi Livni, a member of Netanyahu’s decision-making security cabinet, said any agreement on the issue was still far off.

 

“You want to talk about lifting the blockade? Not with us, and not now,” she told the news website Ynet TV. Crowded Gazan towns close to the Israeli border have seen destructive clashes and the flight of tens of thousands of Palestinians as tanks and troops swept in to confront dug-in guerrillas.

 

The Palestinian Centre for Human Rights said 520,000 people had been displaced by the fighting - more than a quarter of Gaza’s population.With no resolution in sight, a senior Palestinian

delegation landed in Cairo for talks Sunday on an Egyptian ceasefire initiative, but Israel said it was not sending a negotiating team.

 

“Hamas has proven that it breaches any agreement reached right away, as happened five times in previous truces,” Deputy Foreign Minister Tzahi HaNegbi said.“It is therefore unclear at this stage what benefit Israel might see for participating in an attempt to reach agreements, based on the Egyptian initiative,” he added.

 

US Middle East envoy Frank Lowenstein is expected to arrive for talks, along with representatives of both Hamas and Islamic Jihad.The Gaza violence has claimed 1,720 Palestinian lives and displaced up to a quarter of the territory’s population. Goldin’s death brings Israeli army deaths to 64 since the start of hostilities on July 8, its heaviest toll since the 2006 war against the Lebanese Hezbollah.

 

Earlier on Saturday, Israel pulled back troops from two areas in Gaza in what was initially interpreted as a sign it was winding down its biggest military operation there in decades. The army informed residents of Beit Lahiya and Al-Atatra in the north that it was “safe” to return home.

 

Troops were also seen pulling out of villages east of Khan Yunis in the south, in the first such moves since the Israeli operation began last month. But there appeared to be little further indication Israel was planning to wrap up its operations, with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu promising that Hamas would pay “an insufferable price” for continued cross-border rocket fire.

 

“We will take as much time as necessary, and will exert as much force as needed,” he said at a news conference, adding that troops had also dealt a “significant blow” to Hamas´s infrastructure.

 

Troops would complete their mission to destroy a complex network of tunnels used by militants to infiltrate southern Israel before the next security objectives would be decided, he said, warning that “all options” were on the table.

 

Exiled Hamas chief Khaled Meshaal insisted that the Palestinian side had not broken the short-lived ceasefire, putting the spotlight on Israel.“A truce is a truce, but the presence of the Israeli forces inside Gaza and destroying the tunnels means it is an aggression,” he told CNN in an interview late Saturday. A spokesman for the Islamist movement mocked Netanyahu’s statements as “confused”, and as testimony of the “real crisis” he was facing.

 

“We will continue our resistance till we achieve our goals,” Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhum told AFP. The Israeli army on Sunday announced the death of Hadar Goldin, a soldier who had been missing in the Gaza Strip, as both sides of the conflict vowed to keep fighting.A special committee led by the army’s chief rabbi said Lieutenant Goldin had been “killed in battle in the Gaza Strip on Friday”, the Israeli armed forces said in a statement.

 

 - See more at: http://www.thenews.com.pk/Todays-News-13-31984-150-killed-as-Israel-continues-to-hit-Gaza#sthash.1jGz4fmd.dpuf