GAZA CITY: Another massacre, which took the lives of several Palestinian children in the Gaza Strip, failed to move world public opinion as Israel, supported by the United States and other Western nations, continued its brutal attacks Sunday, bombing civilian targets from the air and sea for a fifth straight day.
Israeli strikes Sunday killed 23 Palestinians including 14 women and children in the bloodiest day of its Gaza bombing campaign, the Hamas-run health ministry said.
Nine children, five of them babies and toddlers, and five women were among the victims in violence that raised the overall number of Gazans killed to 69 in around 100 hours of relentless Israeli air strikes.
An air strike flattened a two-storey building of the Daloo family. Gaza health official Ashraf Al Kidra said four women and five small children of the same family were among the dead. Frantic rescuers pulled the children’s bodies from the rubble, including a toddler, as shocked survivors and bystanders screamed in grief.
The world continues to watch and even supports the aggression, as Israel repeats its war crimes –crimes that the occupation had committed with impunity in Lebanon in 2006 and in Gaza in 2008-2009.
US President Barack Obama and British Foreign Secretary William Hague both again insisted Sunday that Israel had “a right to defend itself” but it would be “preferable” to avoid an Israeli ground offensive in Gaza.
“Israel has every right to expect that it does not have missiles fired into its territory,” Obama said.
Meanwhile, an Arab League delegation headed by the bloc’s chief Nabeel Al Arabi will visit the Gaza Strip tomorrow in a show of support for the territory in the face of Israeli air strikes.
Egyptian President Mohammad Mursi said there were “some indications” a ceasefire could come soon but added he did not have guarantees.
An Israeli official arrived in Cairo Sunday for Egypt-mediated truce talks with Hamas to end the conflict, Egyptian security officials said. Hamas officials say intensive truce talks are focused on agreeing guarantees for the ceasefire conditions.
Israel’s Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman insisted that “the first and absolute condition for a truce is stopping all fire from Gaza,” and that all armed groups would have to commit to it.
Earlier, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned that Israel was ready to “significantly expand” its operation.
