Bloody Sunday: Israel butchers 100 Gazans

GAZA CITY: The death toll in Gaza has hit at least 425 since the July 8 start of Israel’s military offensive there, with around 100 killed on Sunday alone, Palestinian health officials said. The vast majority of Sunday’s dead were in the Shejaiya neighborhood between Gaza City and the Israeli border, with at least 62 people killed there in a blistering bombardment which began overnight, emergency services spokesman Ashraf Al-Qudra said. At least 250 were wounded in Shejaiya, he said. Following an urgent appeal from the International Committee of the Red Cross, both sides agreed to temporarily halt fire in the neighborhood, ending at 1730 GMT. As the cease-fire got under way, a convoy of ambulances entered Shejaiya, with medics seen picking up at least three dead bodies, including that of a man with his intestines hanging out and his head destroyed, an AFP correspondent reported. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Sunday that the operation to destroy a network of tunnels used by Hamas in Gaza could be over “fairly quickly” but would not be pinned down on specifics. In an interview with CNN’s “State of the Union” weekly talk show, Netanyahu also called for an international effort to demilitarize the enclave. “We’re taking action to neutralize the tunnels and do it as long as necessary,” Netanyahu said. But when asked later how long the destruction of the tunnels would take, he responded: “Fairly quickly.” “The important thing right now is not to begin to put terms. I think the important thing is to end the hostilities and then get into a situation where we have a sustainable cease-fire,” he added. Israel’s army on Sunday said two more soldiers had been killed in fighting in and around the Gaza Strip, bringing the total Israeli death toll to seven. Bar Rahav, 21, and Bnaya Rubel, 20, were killed respectively by an anti-tank missile and in a gun battle, both late Saturday, the army said, as Israel intensified its ground assault against the Palestinian territory. The armed wing of Hamas claimed in a statement early Sunday it had lured Israeli troops and tanks into an ambush in a mine field east of Gaza City, killing 14 soldiers. An army spokeswoman had no immediate information on the incident. Also on Saturday, Sergeant Adar Bersano, 20, from Nahariya, and Major Amotz Greenberg, 45, from Hod Hasharon, were killed fighting a group of Hamas fighters who infiltrated Israel through a tunnel from the center of the Gaza Strip. Hamas’ military wing, the Ezzedine Al-Qassam Brigades, said 12 of their men stayed “behind enemy lines” for six hours before engaging in “direct confrontation with the enemy to avenge the blood of our martyrs, particularly the children.” Hamas claimed they “killed six soldiers on patrol and wounded several others,” but the Israeli army said there were only two deaths. Around 3,000 people staged a peaceful pro-Palestinian demonstration in Amsterdam on Sunday, calling for an end to the bloody Israeli invasion of the Gaza Strip, an AFP correspondent said. People of all ages — Arab and European — gathered on the Museumplein square, opposite the renowned Rijksmuseum, before marching through the city center, carrying signs including “Stop the war” and “Israel war criminals.” “It just has to stop. Children are being killed and they are innocent,” said Ekrem Kara, 32, wearing a traditional Palestinian black and white keffiyeh scarf. “I don’t understand why the world is silent, why no one says anything, it just has to end.” “It’s beyond words, they’re not human, because normal people don’t do this,” said female protester Esra, 26. “Look at children’s rights, at human rights, it’s just outrageous. No respect for people, no respect for belief, no respect for us.”   With inputs from AFP