Jan 5, 2009

Gaza – Ma’an – Israeli shelling in the Gaza Strip on Sunday morning killed 14 members of two families whose homes came under fire.

Israeli ground troops, backed by tanks, bulldozers, and helicopters have now encircled Gaza City and cut the Gaza Strip in two. On Monday the Israeli defense minister declared the City "partially besieged."

Palestinian fighters continue to exchange fire with Israeli troops, primarily in northern towns and the outskirts of densely-populated Gaza City.

A total of 531 people have been killed in ten days of Israeli air, sea, and ground attakcs. Over 2500 have been injured. Since ground forces moved in on Saturday night, 82 have been killed.

Midmorning on Sunday, Israeli warplanes bombed a house in the town of Beit Hanoun, where Palestinians were mourning the death of a paramedic who was killed on Saturday. Some 40 others were wounded in this most recent attack.

Another Israeli airstrike targeted Abu Reida area in Khuza'a, east of Khan Younis, in the southern Gaza Strip. Casualties were reported.

Earlier, a man from Beit Lahiya in the northern Gaza Strip was killed by Israeli ground forces in the Al-Atatra neighborhood. Medics also said they transferred two dead bodies from Jabaliya Refugee Camp in the northern Gaza Strip to Kamal Udwan Hospital.

Seven members of the Abu Eisha family were torn to pieces by shelling, said medical officials at Ash-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City. According to the medics the parents and their five children were killed when Israeli warships shelled their home in the Al-Mashtal area in the north of Ash-Shati Refugee Camp, on the shore west of Gaza City.

Medical officials at Ash-Shifa hospital also confirmed on Monday morning the deaths of seven people, including four children all members of the Samuni family in the Zaytoun neighborhood of Gaza City. Family members who managed escape the shelling claimed more than seven people may have been killed.

Jalal Samuni said told Ma'an's reporters at Ash-Shifa Hospital that more than 20 people were left inside the house which was bombarded, and he fears that many of them were killed. He explained that the neighbors gathered in the house of Arafat Samuni who came to the area yesterday. He said that advancing Israeli troops told residents to stay in their homes. Then Israeli forces shelled the house, he said.

Earlier also in the Zaytoun area killed a five-year-old girl and her grandfather, members of the Al-Hilou family. The girl’s mother was critically injured. All the victims were evacuated to Ash-Shifa Hospital.

Israeli forces intensified the shelling after midnight on Sunday, shelling four homes of Hamas leaders as well as home of Jamil Mizhir, a senior leader in the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), in An-Nuseirat Refugee Camp in the central Gaza Strip.

Al-Umma University of Police Sciences in An-Nuseir neighborhood in Gaza City was also bombarded. A car was targeted west of Ash-Shifa tower in Ash-Shati camp, and as a result two were injured.

The Israeli military also issued a statment saying that warplanes struck more than 30 targets over night including:

• A mosque Israel says was used for storing weaponry
• An underground bunker in the area of Gaza city. The Israeli army says the attack caused secondary explosions indicating there were explosives inside. Tunnels in the area collapsed.
• A number of tunnels in the area of Rafah
• 4 houses of Hamas members that Israel says were used to store weaponry
• A rocket launcher
• A suspected anti-aircraft missile launcher


***Updated at 15:05 Gaza time