Israel has denied responsibility for an attack on a playground in Gaza earlier today which killed eight Palestinian children.
Children were playing on swings in the Shati refugee camp on the edge of Gaza City when a huge explosion obliterated the site.
Palestinian medics said two adults were also killed in the blast, which witnesses said was an Israeli air strike. Israel denied responsibility, claiming it was a misfire of a rocket launched by Hamas militants.
A mother wails over the bodies of children killed in an attack on a refugee camp playground in Gaza City
A father reacts after learning of the death of his son in the attack, which locals said was an an Israeli air strike
Relatives of the children killed in the attack are disconsolate as they see their loved-ones’ bodies laid out
A man kisses the body of a dead child at the mortuary of the Shifa Hospital in Gaza City
A hospital worker carries the body of another child into the morgue. Israel blamed the attack on Hamas
Medical workers stand around the bodies of two children killed in the strike, now laid out on the mortuary floor
Nahid Elian, father of ten-year-old Jamal Elian, one of the eight dead children, cries outside the morgue
The latest atrocity comes after at least four Israeli civilians were killed by mortar fire on a kibbutz close to the border with Gaza last night, according to local radio and TV.
Ayman Sahabani, head of the emergency room at Gaza City’s Shifa Hospital, said 46 people were also wounded in the attack on the Shati camp playground.
The explosion at the park came just minutes after the hospital’s crowded outpatients clinic was also hit, leaving several people wounded.
Camera crews were prevented from filming the area of impact at Shifa, according to Reuters.
Mr Sahabani said the deaths and injuries were caused by Israeli air strikes, an accusation repeated by Gaza’s police operations room and Civil Defence.
Israel has previously accused Hamas militants of hiding at the hospital, but its defence spokesman, Lieutenant Colonel Peter Lerner, denied that his country’s military was involved.
‘This incident was carried out by Gaza terrorists whose rockets fell short and hit the Shifa Hospital and the Beach (Shati) camp,’ he said.
A toy gun lies in a puddle of blood at the playground of the Shati refugee camp after the attack earlier today
Men crowd around a blood-stained stretcher close to the site of the attack, which killed eight children
Children look at blood smeared across the ground at the scene of the explosion
A woman embraces her daughter near the site of the explosion at the densely populated refugee camp
Blood lay pooled on the pockmarked ground of the Shati camp’s playground in the aftermath of the explosion. Munther Al-Derbi, a resident of the camp, told Reuters: ‘We came out of the mosque when I saw the children playing with their toy guns. Seconds later a missile landed.’
‘May God punish … Netanyahu,’ he said, referring to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
The grief of today’s strike followed bittersweet elation at the news of a ‘miracle’ baby girl who was delivered from the womb of a Palestinian woman killed in an Israeli airstrike.
The premature baby girl was delivered by emergency caesarean section after her mother was killed in the airstrike, it has been reported.
United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has today demanded an end to the violence in Gaza ‘in the name of humanity’ and has accused the leaders of Israel and Hamas of being irresponsible and ‘morally wrong’ for letting their people get killed.
Palestinian baby girl, Shayma Shiekh al-Eid, lies in an incubator after doctors delivered her from the womb of her mother, whom medics said was killed in an Israeli air strike
The baby girl was delivered by emergency caesarean section after her mother was killed in the airstrike, it has been reported
Dr Fadi Al-Khrote has described the baby girl’s survival as ‘a miracle’
Ban today urged Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal to demonstrate ‘political will’ and ‘compassionate leadership’ to end the suffering.
The UN chief reinforced the UN Security Council’s call earlier today for ‘an immediate and unconditional humanitarian cease-fire.’
Ban said ‘Gaza is in critical condition’ after Israel’s offensive that has killed helpless civilians and raised ‘serious questions about proportionality.’
Baby Shayma Shiekh al-Eid, named after her mother by her family, remained in an incubator at a hospital in Khan Younis, in the southern Gaza Strip, over the weekend.
Dr Fadi Al-Khrote told Al Jazeera that he believed ‘what’s happened is a miracle’.
According to the BBC meanwhile, the little girl has a 50/50 chance of survival.
A demonstration against Israel’s military offensive on the Gaza Strip was held today at al-Aqsa mosque compound in the old city of Jerusalem, on the first day of Eid al-Fitr holiday
Palestinians pray in the courtyard of a U.N. school in Gaza City today. The school is one of dozens of emergency shelters for those who have fled the fighting
A Palestinian Sheikh leads a prayer on the first day of Eid al-Fitr, at the heavily damaged Al-Faruq mosque, destroyed a week ago by an Israeli air strike on Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip
Earlier today, the Israeli military said Israeli jets struck several sites in Gaza as rockets continued to fall on Israel, disrupting a relative lull in the Gaza war at the start of a major Muslim holiday.
The latest strikes followed an almost 12-hour pause in fighting.
Israel’s military said it struck two rocket launchers and a rocket manufacturing facility in central and northern Gaza after a rocket hit southern Israel earlier in the day. The rocket caused no damage or injuries.
An Israeli soldier stands on a tank near Kafar Azza, Israel. Israeli jets struck several sites in Gaza today after a rocket was launched at Israel, the military said, disrupting a relative lull in the war-torn territory at the start of the Muslim holiday
A picture taken from the Israeli side shows an Israeli army Merkava tank positioned along the border in front of buildings in the Gaza Strip
Damage caused by a mortar fired by Palestinian militants from the Gaza Strip, which hit the Israeli Kibutz of Nahal Oz, Israel, on Sunday
At least two more Palestinians have been killed today. A four-year-old boy died when tank shells hit his family’s house in Jabaliya, in the northern Gaza Strip, Gaza health officials said.
Another person was killed by tank shelling in a separate incident, also in Jabaliya.
Earlier, the military said troops on the ground were pressing on with efforts to destroy the cross-border tunnels constructed by Hamas for attacks inside Israel.
Also, the Israeli military opened artillery fire on Beit Lahiya in northern Gaza in response to the rocket fired at Ashkelon, said the office of Israel’s military spokesman.
‘Quiet will be met with quiet,’ the office statement said. The military said eight rockets had been fired at Israel since midnight.
Six-year-old Mohammad Harara was wounded as his family tried to escape from the frontline in Gaza
Madeleen Abu Tawila, a 12 year old from Shejaya, was the first girl in her town to be wounded by an Israeli shell as her family tried to flee the area. Her father holds her hand while a nurse takes care of her wounds at Al-Shifaa Hospital
As Muslims today began celebrating the Eid al-Fitr holiday that marks the end of the fasting month of Ramadan, there was fear and mourning instead of holiday cheer in the Gaza Strip.
Palestinian families huddled inside their homes, fearing more airstrikes, while those who came to a cemetery in Gaza City’s Sheik Radwan neighborhood to pay traditional respects at their ancestors’ graves gathered around a large crater from an airstrike a week ago that had broken up several graves.
The UN Relief and Works Agency, which coordinates aid for Palestinian refugees, the number of Palestinians now taking shelter at with it had reached nearly 170,000, packed into 83 UN-run schools.
A temporary ceasefire on Saturday had allowed some to stock up on essential supplies and emergency workers do retrieve the dead from the rubble of neighbourhoods bombarded by Israeli jets.
It was possible to remove rubbish from some areas for the first time in a week and relief workers were able to take water to one shelter after it had been cut off from supplies for five days.
The agency warned that access to food was becoming an ‘increasing issue of concern in Gaza’, with many items no longer available on the local market and huge crowds gathering outside bakeries during temporary ceasefires.
While regular deliveries of emergency rations were keeping the supplies of staple foods relatively stable, prices of dairy goods and meat had risen by 5 per cent in a month and prices of vegetables were up 77 per cent because agricultural areas were no longer accessible, according to UNRWA
The call for a ceasefire followed fresh attacks launched by Israel and Hamas despite going back and forth over proposals for another temporary halt to nearly three weeks of fighting.
The statement agreed to by all 15 council members urges Israel and Hamas ‘to accept and fully implement the humanitarian cease-fire into the Eid period and beyond’.
It said this would allow for the delivery of urgently needed assistance.
Israeli security forces detain a Palestinian protester during clashes following the Eid al-Fitr prayer in a protest against the Israeli military operation on Gaza Strip, in the West Bank village of Bilin, near Ramallah
Palestinian protesters wave their national flag during clashes with Israeli security forces following the Eid al-Fitr prayer in a protest against the Israeli military operation on Gaza Strip, in the West Bank village of Bilin, near Ramalla
A 12-hour lull on Saturday, agreed to by both sides following intense United Nations and U.S. mediation efforts, could not be sustained.
The presidential statement called on the parties ‘to engage in efforts to achieve a durable and fully respected ceasefire based on the Egyptian initiative’.
Rwanda, the current council president, announced agreement on the statement, and called the immediate emergency meeting to approve it.
The statement was drafted by Jordan, the Arab representative on the UN’s most powerful body.
Presidential statements become part of the council’s official record and must be approved at a council meeting.
This afternoon a message posted on the White House website detailed a telephone exchange U.S. President Barack Obama had with the Israeli Prime Minister.
The message said Obama ‘reaffirmed Israel’s right to defend itself’ but stressed the U.S’s increasing concern at Palestinian civilian deaths and the ‘worsening humanitarian situation in Gaza’.
Obama is also said to have ‘made clear the strategic imperative of instituting an immediate, unconditional humanitarian ceasefire’ which he hoped would lead to a permanent end to hostilities.
The UN Security Council has today called for ‘an immediate and unconditional humanitarian ceasefire’ in the Gaza war between Israel and Hamas
Palestinian men clean up graves in the Sheikh Aduwan cementry after a nearby house was destroyed during an Israeli airstrike during the Muslim holiday of Eid al Fitr in Gaza City
The call for a ceasefire follows new attacks launched by Israel and Hamas despite going back and forth over proposals for another temporary halt to nearly three weeks of fighting
Palestinian women mourn at the grave of a relative during the Muslim holiday of Eid al Fitr in Gaza City
The White House said Obama backed the Egypt-brokered ceasefire but believed the plans need ‘regional and international’ support if they are to ensure both Israel’s security and also allow Palestinians ‘to lead normal lives’ and ‘address Gaza’s long-term development and economic needs’.
The President added that ‘any lasting solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict must ensure the disarmament of terrorist groups and the demilitarization of Gaza.’
They are a step below Security Council resolutions, but unlike resolutions they require approval of all 15 members.
The statement does not name either Israel or Hamas. Instead, it expresses ‘grave concern regarding the deterioration in the situation as a result of the crisis related to Gaza and the loss of civilian lives and casualties’.
The 21-day war has killed more than 1,030 Palestinians, mainly civilians, according to the Palestinian health ministry.
Israel has lost 43 soldiers, as well as two Israeli civilians and a Thai worker killed by rocket and mortar attacks from Gaza, according to the Israeli military.
