Skip to main content

Al Jazeera English - Middle East - Israeli forces pound Gaza City

Al Jazeera English - Middle East - Israeli forces pound Gaza City

Israeli ground forces are continuing to pound Gaza City, shelling a UN building and a hospital while pushing deeper into densely-populated neighbourhoods.

Thousands of fear-stricken Gazans fled the advancing Israeli trooops on Thursday, but no place seemed safe in the territory under relentless Israeli attack.

Officials said that a building of the UN relief agency in Gaza had been hit and set ablaze.

"They are phosphorus fires so they are extremely difficult to put out because if you put water on it, it will just generate toxic fumes and do nothing to stop the burning," John Ging, director of UN relief operations, said.

"This is going to burn down the entire warehouse ... where thousands and thousands of tonnes of food, medical supplies and other emergency assistance is there."

Ban Ki-moon, the UN secretary-general, said he was "outraged" by the attack on the UN compound and demanded an explanation as he met Israeli officials in Tel Aviv.

Intense shelling

The hospital in Tal al-Hawa had about 500 people inside when it came under attack. Many had taken shelter in the hospital, hoping to escape the fighting.

"The last hit was on the Red Crescent's operations building and destroyed the pharmacy. There's a hole in the roof and a fire is still burning," Sharon Locke, a hospital volunteer, told Al Jazeera.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Act now: more Palestinian hunger strikers in hospital with serious health problems

Act now: more Palestinian hunger strikers in hospital with serious health problems Yesterday, Palestinian lawmaker and leader of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine Ahmad Saadat was moved to Ramleh prison hospital by the Israeli Prison Service, according to Maan News Agency. Saadat joined the mass hunger strike which started on 17 April. One day earlier, Muhammad Halas was moved to an Israeli hospital after 12 days without food, according to Maan. More than 60 days ago, Palestinian political prisoners Bilal Diab and Thaer Halaheh went on hunger strike to protest their administrative detention.

What's Driving the Jerusalem Attacks - by Uri Avnery

What's Driving the Jerusalem Attacks - by Uri Avnery The Jewish public is not interested in all this. They don't know - and don't want to know - what is going on in the Arab neighborhoods, some hundreds of meters from their homes. So they are surprised, surprised and shocked, by the ungratefulness of the Arab inhabitants. A young man from Sur Baher recently shot pupils of a religious seminary in West Jerusalem. A young man from Jabal Mukaber drove a bulldozer and ran over everything that crossed his path. This week, another youngster from Umm Touba repeated exactly the same act. All three of them were shot dead on the spot. The attackers were ordinary young men, not particularly religious. It seems than none of them was a member of any organization. Apparently, a young man just gets up one fine morning and decides that he has enough. He then carries out an attack all by himself, with any instrument at hand - a pistol bought with his own money, in the first instance, or a bu