Sunday, 28 December 2008
Gaza – Ma’an – Israeli airstrikes continued on Gaza throughout Saturday night and into Sunday afternoon. The death toll of the attacks rose to 285, with 900 injured 180 seriously so.
Israel began attacks on Gaza at 11:30 Saturday, ostensibly to root out Palestinian military groups launching rockets at Israeli targets. Two massive waves of strikes kicked off the operation, known as Operation Cast Lead, and strikes have continued throughout the night and early morning.
The death toll rises with each strike, and as more bodies are pulled out of Saturday’s rubble. A timeline of the latest is:
1:45 Israeli airstrike hits near school in Az-Zaitoun neighborhood in Gaza City
12:00 Israeli air forces launched a fresh raid against the governmental compound known as “As-Saraya” killing one child and injuring several others.
11:45 Israeli bombs targeted the government municipal council offices in Beit Hanoun in the northern Gaza Strip; several injured Gazans were taken to hospital.
11:00 Israel bombs the temporary headquarters of the Rafah governorate injuring several people; the original building was destroyed in Saturday’s attacks.
10:30 Israeli jets targeted a jeep in the Zaitoun neighborhood of Gaza City killing one child. A second strike took place on the Jabalia area, no casualties were reported.
10:00 Three were killed after Israeli forces bombarded a police station in the Shuja'iyya neighborhood of Gaza City, and three homes were destroyed in the Tal Al-Hawa neighborhood west of the city.
8:00 The last Israeli raid targeted two de facto government police headquarters in the evacuated Israeli settlement Kfar Darum and Al-Matahin (the mills).
7:30 Al-Qarara greenhouses were obliterated in a strike on the southern Strip, killing a civilian, identified as Nabil Abu Tu'eima.
7:15 Bombs hit the Shuja'iyya neighborhood of Gaza City and another on a military base called “Sa'd Sayil” in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip. Dozens were injured.
6:45 Israeli bombs landed on Gaza City’s Shuja’iyya neighborhood where a police center was destroyed and several injured.
6:30 The attack was preceded by a strike on a medical storehouse in the Al-Junayna neighborhood and a fuel storehouse with diesel and benzene in the Tal As-Sultan area, both in Rafah in the southern Strip. The strikes destroyed the buildings and much needed civilian supplies, and killed three who have not yet been identified.
1:01am After midnight on Saturday Israeli fighter jets bombarded the security room in front of the Ash-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City as well as a mosque in the compound killing two and injuring seven. The blast shattered most of the windows of the emergency ward. The hospital’s morgues were declared full on Saturday and bodies line the hallways waiting to be claimed by family.
12:01am Three Palestinian activists with Hamas’ Al-Qassam Brigades were killed when an Israeli strike hit the Al-Mansura area east of Gaza City around midnight.
11:50 Israeli forces launched airstrikes on Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip and several targets in the north.
11:30 Three from Hamas’ Al-Qassam Brigades were killed when Israeli airstrikes hit the Al-Mansura neighborhood east of Gaza City.
10:15 Two airstrikes killed three and injured four when they hit the Zaitoun neighborhood of Gaza City and on Jabalia in the north.
Director of Ambulance and Emergency Services in the de facto Palestinian Ministry of Health Muawiya Hassanein explained that despite media reports to the contrary, a large number of the casualties are civilians including women and children.
Saturday’s attacks
Two massive waves of airstrikes dropped 100 bombs on Gaza at 11:30 and a second at approximately 2pm. Smaller strikes hit northern Gaza at 5:30 and 8pm.
Israeli strikes targeted de facto government buildings; one Hamas source told Ma’an “every de facto security building was targeted.” Confirmed casualties include Commander of the de facto Government Police Tawfiq Jabir, Governor of the Al-Wusta (central) Districts Ahmad Abu Aashur and Commander of Security and Protection Services in the de facto government police Ismail Al-Ja'bari.
Islam Shahwan, a Hamas police spokesman, said that the attacks destroyed most of the police headquarters in the Gaza Strip and that a police graduation ceremony was being held during the assault.
Saturday afternoon Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak declared the 20 square kilometers of Gaza a “special military zone.” The classification is one degree below a declaration of total war against an enemy state.
Palestinian response
In Gaza military wings launched homemade projectiles and shells at Israeli targets, killing one man in the western Negev on Saturday afternoon. The launches continued throughout the evening, though no other Israeli damages or casualties were reported.
In the West Bank and East Jerusalem demonstrations broke out against the Israeli violence, and clashes erupted in the streets of Jerusalem neighborhoods and in Hebron, where Israeli troops are present.
