The death toll from a punishing Israeli offensive in theGaza Strip reached 100 on November 19, Monday night, making it the deadliestday of the conflict according to the Hamas-run Gaza health ministry, anddeepening a six-day-long crisis that shows no sign of relenting. Gazans, who areessentially trapped by a blockade, say they feel nowhere is safe, not eventheir own homes.
Israeli warplanes and naval gunships pounded hundreds oftargets ” including police stations, homes and moving cars ” across the GazaStrip. Gaza militants fired a number of rockets into Israel but it was unclearwhether that was because the Israeli strikes were working to deter themilitants, or because a potential cease-fire was in the making.
Hundreds of mourners buried the victims of an earlierIsraeli airstrike that killed at least eight members of the same family ” theAl Dalu family ” including women and children, in the Jabalia refugee campnorth of Gaza City. “We will sacrifice for the land. We will not care abouttheir aggression,” a Palestinian man giving a eulogy at one of the burial sitessaid. “We have to remember Allah. We must fear our God.” But not even a funeralwas safe in this cramped, pummeled enclave, where shops are shuttered and roadsare deserted for fear of attacks.
As hundreds of men carried on their shoulders the bodies oftwo Al Dalu children, their limp, bruised frames jerking with each step, anIsraeli airstrike nearby clapped like a roll of thunder against the hilltopcemetery, sending a gray pillar of smoke high into the sky. Later, two rocketslaunched from Gaza toward Israel left arcs of white smoke and cries of “AllahuAkhbar,” or “God is great,” in their wake.
Of the 109 killed earlier in the week, 26 were children and11 women. It is unclear how many of the casualties include fighters, althoughanother 850 people were injured, including 280 children and 140 women. “Theywere children inside the home, they were not fighting. Why did they kill them?”said an emotional Kamal Al Dalu, a 60-year-old cousin of the man whose entirefamily was wiped out in the strike. “Even if we put a tent where the house was,they would strike us again. They know the people there are civilians.”
Israel’s army has said it goes to great lengths to avoidcivilian casualties, instead using so-called precision strikes to hit targetswith minimal damage to surrounding areas. But having hit 1,350 targets acrossGaza since the offensive kicked off on November 14, the operation widened toinclude strikes on civil and administration buildings, including the primeminister’s office.
But for all the military technology, the human cost ofIsrael’s operation is mounting, even as Egypt attempts to broker a cease-firebetween Israel and Hamas, the rulers of Gaza. The chunks of inhabited landnorth of Gaza City, and the farmland dotted with villages in the east, arebearing the brunt of the assault.
In Deir Al Balah, a smaller town and refugee camp south ofGaza City, as the wounded poured into the hospital, the blast of a nearbyIsraeli strike rocked the compound, a sure-sign more casualties were likely toarrive. “Today, they took two of our family [to the grave],” said Abdul AzizIbrahim Bashir, a village elder in Deir Al Balah. “Tomorrow, maybe they’ll takeme. There is nowhere safe. Are we safe here?”
