Staff Reporter.
At least 13 Israeli and foreign hostages held in the northern Gaza Strip have been killed in Israeli air strikes in the past 24 hours, Hamas’s armed wing said Friday.
In a surprise assault early Saturday, Hamas militants stormed Israeli communities near the Gaza border and fired barrages of rockets, in an attack that claimed more than 1,200 lives.
Israel says Hamas has taken more than 150 people hostage, including both civilians and security forces.
“Thirteen prisoners… including foreigners” were killed in five locations targeted by Israeli fighter jets, the Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades said in a statement.
Israel has rained air and artillery strikes on the blockaded Gaza Strip — a densely populated enclave of 2.4 million people — flattening buildings and killing more than 1,500 people.
According to the Hamas media office in Gaza, at least 500 children are among the dead.
The Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades had warned this week that “every targeting of our people without warning will be met with the execution of one of the civilian hostages”.
Meanwhile Palestine ambassador to South Africa Hanan Jarrar has reacted to the order by Israeli authorities for over 1 million northern Gaza residents to evacuate to the south of the enclave within 24 hours.
This comes as the United Nations (UN) has also called for Israel to call off the order, while warning of “devastating humanitarian consequences”.
“I don’t believe that Palestinians are in the state to do so. We have learned from the past and Palestinians will not leave their homeland, especially under the directive of the Israeli occupation forces,” Jarra said at a press conference held at the Palestinian embassy in Pretoria on Friday.
Jarrar’s called for international condemnation of the ongoing conflict which she described as a “genocide” and “ethnic cleansing” that has escalated to proportions that threaten peace in the Middle Eastern region.
“For over 16 years the over two million people of Gaza have been under siege by Israel and forced into what is considered the world’s largest open-air prison. Israel has dropped hundreds of tons of bombs on Gaza causing extensive destruction to homes, infrastructure, schools, and healthcare facilities.”