Jam 15, 2009
Gaza – Ma’an – Israeli ground forces backed by tanks invaded Gaza City from the south on Thursday morning while warplanes bombed the city center, causing thousands to flee their homes.
In the southern Gaza City neighborhood of Tel Al-Hawa, gunfire and fierce clashes with Palestinian fighters have been reported. Witnesses said the tanks have reached Awan Street, the farthest Israeli forces have entered since the beginning of the invasion.
In the southern Rimal neighborhood, just to the north of Tel Al-Hawa, witnesses reported seeing dozens of families in their bedclothes in the streets, fleeing the Israeli onslaught on foot.
In Tel Al-Hawa, Al-Quds Hospital went up in flames after it came under Israeli shelling. Workers at the Palestine Red Crescent facility said they fear the fire could cause an explosion due to the fuel stored in the hospital's warehouse.
Dr Bashar Murad, the head of emergency services at Al-Quds Hospital, told Ma’an that three Israeli missiles hit the hospital, two of them containing white phosphorus. Shrapnel from the bombs was scattered in the hospital but no one was injured. Fire has engulfed the hospital’s administration building, a storehouse, and a pharmacy.
Murad said that up to 600 people had fled Tel Al-Hawa and areas around the hospital.
Meanwhile, UN's relief agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, says Israeli shells struck their headquarters in Gaza City, injuring three workers. The compound includes the UNRWA offices, warehouses and a school. As many as 700 Palestinians had taken refuge in the compound, which is still on fire.
The United Nations is claiming that shells were laced with the controversial chemical weapon, white phosphorus.
Separately, Israeli forces attacked a media compound home to the Reuters news agency, NBC, and a number of Arab networks in Gaza City late on Thursday morning. Two journalists working for Abu Dhabi television were injured when at least one Israeli shell struck the building.
The Mujahedin Brigades said that two fighters have been killed in street battles with Israeli forces in Tel Al-Hawa. They were identified as Ahmad Al-Bitar and Ahed Abu Asi.
Intense shelling overnight
Another 21 Gazans were confirmed killed in heavy overnight shelling. According to senior officials at the Palestinian Health Ministry, the official death toll is now 1,054. More than 4,600 have been wounded in two and a half weeks of the Israeli offensive in Gaza.
Israeli forces shelled a store near Al-Karameh towers in Gaza City, the Bashir mosque, and the Al-Arqam school in eastern Gaza City.
The Israel's air force said it attacked more than 70 targets in Gaza, in what appeared to be heavier-than-usual bombing. Heavy artillery shelling was also reported in Beit Lahiya and Jabaliya, north of Gaza City, and in Khan Younis, in the south of the Strip.
On Thursday morning the Israeli military said it would continue the operation in Gaza despite reports that Hamas had accepted an Egyptian proposal for a ceasefire.
***Updated at 17:56 Gaza Time
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