Jan 9, 2009

Gaza – Ma’an – Israel ignored a UN Security Council resolution calling for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, killing 21 Palestinians since the resolution was passed on Friday morning local time.

The latest casualty to be identified is 15 year-old Muhammad Atef Abu Al-Husna, who was killed when Israeli warplanes leveled a house in Jabaliya, in northern Gaza. He was taken to nearby Kamal Udwan hospital and identified by Mu’awiyah Hassanain, the director of Ambulance and Emergency Services in the Palestinian Health Ministry.

Dr Hassanain said that the death toll over two weeks of the Israeli offensive in Gaza is 774. The official toll is rising as dozens of bodies are recovered from demolished buildings, including many in the central Gaza Strip. An additional 3,200 Gazans have been injured.

Six Palestinians from the Salha family were killed by an Israeli tank shelling at 4am that leveled their home in the town of Beit Lahiya, in the northern Gaza Strip.

Later in the morning, two women were killed by another airstrike in Jabaliya. The women were identified by medics as 42-year-old Fatima Sa’ed and 25-year-old Sumayah Sa’ed. A 12-year-old boy, Ata Jamil, was injured.

In the town of Al-Zawaydah, in the central Gaza Strip, three were killed and seven injured by shelling from Israeli gunboats. The victims were taken to Al-Aqsa Hospital.

In Al-Zawaydah town central the Gaza Strip, three people were killed and seven were injured in the Israeli warships attacks and they were taken to the Al-Aqsa Hospital.

At the same hospital, nine corpses and 40 injured people arrived overnight, victims of an attempt by Israeli tanks to cut across the middle of the Gaza Strip to the sea. Israeli tanks have already cut across in one place farther north.

Among those killed in the central Gaza incursion is a member of the Al-Quds Brigades, the armed wing of Islamic Jihad. The movement said Jihad Abu Mudif died after being seriously wounded in fighting with Israeli troops near the city of Khan Younis.

Israeli airstrikes demolished ten homes overnight, including the residence of the chief of police in Gaza Abu Obeida Al-Jarrah, in the Sheikh Radwan neighborhood of Gaza City.

Warplanes also destroyed the house of the head of Palestinian security in the southern city of Rafah, a man who is said to be affiliated to Hamas’ armed wing.

A police station in the Zaytoun neighborhood of Gaza was also demolishes, along with the Ar-Rebat Mosque in Khan Younis and an office linked to Islamic Jihad.


***Updated at 11:28 Gaza time