AT LEAST five Palestinians were killed in Israeli airstrikes on Gaza yesterday, bringing to at least 10 the number of fatalities in a 24-hour surge in cross-border violence.
Dozens of Palestinians have also been wounded in the Israeli raids, which were stepped up after an anti-tank missile hit a school bus close to the border on Thursday, seriously injuring a 16-year-old boy.
The Palestinian victims yesterday included a mother and her daughter and a civilian in his 50s as well as two Hamas gunmen identified by Israel as responsible for the firing of projectiles. An Israeli army statement accused Hamas of operating from within civilian populations and using local residents as human shields.
More than 60 rockets and mortar bombs landed in southern Israel yesterday despite a ceasefire declared on Thursday night by Hamas and other militant groups. Israeli residents in the south were ordered to stay close to bomb shelters.
Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas condemned the Israeli “aggression” on the Gaza strip and called on the international community to intervene to stop the escalation. He urged the Palestinian factions in Gaza to stop giving Israel an excuse to escalate the situation “and cause more suffering to our people”.
Israeli prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu, who was briefed by security chiefs after returning from a trip to Germany and the Czech Republic, said the rocket attack on the school bus had crossed a red line.
“Whoever tries to hurt and murder children, the blood is on his hands.”
European Union foreign policy chief Caroline Ashton called for a complete cessation of violence between Gaza and Israel.
“I strongly condemn mortar and rocket attacks out of the Gaza strip, which once again hit the innocent civilian population and which must stop immediately,” she said, adding that she was also “deeply concerned by the current escalation of violence”.
Israel’s state-of-the-art Iron Dome missile defence system managed to intercept and destroy at least four incoming missiles.
Defence minister Ehud Barak said the successful interceptions were “an extraordinary achievement” for the system, still in its experimental stage.