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| A Palestinian man takes a picture of a fire raging in Gaza's main power plant following an overnight Israeli airstrike, south of Gaza City©EPA |
Israeli shells hit Gaza’s only power plant
By Joel Greenberg in Jerusalem FT
Israeli shells hit the fuel depot of the Gaza Strip’s only power plant on Tuesday, cutting electricity to Gaza City and wide areas of the coastal enclave as Israel intensified its bombardments of the territory after losing 10 soldiers in militant attacks.
Towering flames and plumes of smoke rose from the power station, as Israel’s offensive against the Islamist group Hamas entered its fourth week, with no signs of a breakthrough in US and regional efforts to broker a ceasefire.
Air strikes overnight targeted symbols of Hamas control in Gaza, hitting the studios of the group’s Al-Aqsa television and radio stations in a media complex in the centre of Gaza City that also contains offices of several Arab satellite television news channels. Al Aqsa television broadcasts continued from another location, according to local reports.
The vacated home of Ismail Haniyeh, the top Hamas leader in Gaza, was bombed, as well as the financial department of group’s administration in the territory, along with four mosques that the army said were used to store weapons.
“My house is not more valuable than the house of any other Gazan and destroying stones will not break our determination and resistance,” Mr Haniyeh said in a statement. “We will resist until freedom.”
The Palestinian death toll climbed beyond 1,100, according to health officials, as fresh strikes were reported on homes, some of which the army asserted had been used as “command and control centers” by Hamas militants.
A total of 53 Israeli soldiers have been killed in the fighting, along with three civilians who died in rocket and mortar strikes in Israel
Multiple members of extended families were reported to have been killed in strikes on houses in the al-Bureij refugee camp, where the home of the mayor was struck, in Khan Yunis and in Rafah, where seven members of the Abu Zeid family, including four women and a child, were reported to have died in a strike on their home.
The Israeli strikes followed the killing of 10 Israeli soldiers on Monday. Four died when mortars hit an army staging area in southern Israel near the Gaza border. Another five were killed when militants who had tunnelled into Israel attacked their position with an anti-tank rocket.
One of the infiltrators was killed in a subsequent exchange of fire as the rest fled back to the Gaza Strip, the army said. A bulldozer driver from the army’s corps of engineers was killed in Gaza when an anti-tank rocket hit his vehicle, the army said.
A total of 53 Israeli soldiers have been killed in the fighting, along with three civilians who died in rocket and mortar strikes in Israel.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu pledged on Monday to press on with the offensive, telling Israelis to “prepare for a prolonged campaign”.
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