At least 20 dead in Israeli attack on Gaza district: medical officials

[cali]

Source: Reuters

At least 20 Palestinians were killed on Sunday by Israeli shelling in a Gaza neighbourhood, where bodies were strewn in the street and thousands fled toward a hospital packed with wounded, witnesses and health officials said.

The mass casualties in the Shejaia district in northeast Gaza appeared to be the heaviest since Israel launched its offensive on the Palestinian territory on July 8 after cross-border rocket strikes by militants intensified.

Anguished cries of "Did you see Ahmed?" "Did you see my wife?" echoed through the courtyard of Gaza's Shifa hospital, where panicked residents of Shejaia gathered in family groups, while inside bodies and wounded lay on blood-stained floors.

Video given to Reuters by a local showed at least a dozen mangled corpses, including three children, lying in the rubble-filled streets.

Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/07/20/us-palestinians-israel-idUSKBN0FP00U20140720

[azurnoir]

1. more details from Ma'an

Ashraf al-Qidra, a spokesman of the Palestinian ministry of health, said that among Shujaiyya's victims were family members of senior Hamas leader Khalil al-Hayya. He identified them as Osamah Khalil al-Hayya, his wife Halah and his sons Khalil and Umamah.

Al-Qidra highlighted that the last few hours were the “fiercest” against Palestinian houses. Residents, he said, have been appealing for help since midnight saying that large numbers of people have been killed or injured in the houses as shells continued to hit them from all directions.

Al-Qidra highlighted that Israeli forces denied ambulances access to attacked houses to evacuate victims despite the uninterrupted efforts to coordinate through the International Committee of the Red Cross.

“The Israeli occupation forces told the Red Cross Committee that Shujaiyya was a closed zone because of military operations,” the medical official explained.

As a result, added al-Qidra, Palestinian ambulance teams decided to take the risk and access victims despite the Israeli military orders.

http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=714592

[cpwm17]

2. Palestinian ambulance drivers are very brave

Israel regularly targets them.

[seveneyes]

3. targeting ambulance drivers??? really?

Evidence? Links? Proof?

[cpwm17]

7. So you went there – shameful n/t

[cpwm17]

6. Here you go:

http://en.wikinews.org/wiki/Red_Cross_ambulances_hit_by_Israeli_strike

An Australian correspondent reports from the city of Tyre that at least 10 Lebanese ambulances bearing the International Red Cross emblem have been targeted in Israeli air strikes in the south of Lebanon that have killed more than a dozen civilian passengers on transport to hospitals.

[cpwm17]

10. Israel just killed an ambulance driver and a photojournalist

https://twitter.com/activestills/status/490822969103368192/photo/1


Destroyed ambulance

http://mondoweiss.net/2014/07/massacre-shujaiyeh-shelters.html

Palestinian photojournalist Khaled Hamad, 25, was killed while riding with Red Crescent emergency responders, and medic Fouad Jaber, 28, was killed in the line of duty.

This will be quickly forgotten by the Israel apologists.

[azurnoir]

5. Because Hamas runs the Ministry of Health by extension the ambulance drivers

could be conceivably considered be Hamas too if that were to become needed or something

[azurnoir]

8. more:

Israeli forces agree on 2-hour ceasefire in Shujaiyya

Israeli forces on Sunday agreed on a 2-hour ceasefire in the Shujaiyya area of Gaza City following Red Cross requests to evacuate wounded from a deadly bombardment.

http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=714706

however when I clicked back to the home page there is/was a banner across the top of page reading:

Israel bombards Gaza's Shujaiyya area despite ceasefire

http://www.maannews.net/eng/

[SnakeEyes]

11. According to the Palestinian wire service

Of course all credible sources did not report that and have reported that then extended the time period.

So what are your thoughts on the israeli hospitals that are helping the palestinian injured?

[azurnoir]

12. so Palestinian sources are not credible I take it? no surprise there

each side says the other broke the cease fire

as for the hospital Netanyahu used a word earlier today that IMO fits-telegenic

[Fred Sanders]

9. Bodies strewn in the streets......civilians slaughtered like lambs....is Shira here yet to defend

and deflect? Hamas is not a nation, as the media pretends, Israel is.

Human shields break so easily.....and they bleed, so they must be human..some do not think so, do they?

[muriel_volestrangler]

13. 60 killed in Shejaiya

It marked the bloodiest day in a blood-soaked conflict. Nearly 90 people were killed, 60 of them in Shejaiya alone, bringing the death toll in Gaza since the assault began to 425, 112 of them children, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry. Over three thousand people have been injured.
...
The attack began around 9pm and lasted well into late afternoon the following day. Tanks and artillery rained barrage after barrage of shells on the neighborhood, firing indiscriminately, according to multiple residents. Missiles slammed into apartment blocks. Ambulances could not get in. People say they waited for hours yet no one came to help. They say they were too afraid to put their heads out of the window to see what was happening around them. Some bled to death in their homes.
...
Some ambulances did eventually brave the shelling to try and rescue people. But one took a direct hit, killing the paramedic inside. A TV correspondent was also killed in Shejaiya. (A day earlier the Israeli government's press office sent an email warning that Hamas "has frequently exploited journalists as human shields" and confirming that "Israel is not in any way responsible for injury or damage that may occur as a result of field reporting.&quot
...
"Those of us who worked in Shifa can say that last night was the worst night of our lives," says Dr. Mads Gilbert, a Norwegian doctor at Shifa. He has come to Gaza many times to provide medical assistance, including during the previous two Israeli assaults in 2008/2009 and 2012.

"Israeli impunity is a huge medical problem," Gilbert says. "Every single dead child and adult, and all the injuries, all the amputations, are one hundred percent preventable. This is a man-made disaster. Cynically planned and brutally executed by the government of Israel."

http://www.thenation.com/article/180728/massacre-shejaiya