Gaza toll passes 400 in deadliest attack

Palestinian leader declares 3 days of mourning; UN chief on regional tour for peace plan

The death toll in Gaza passed 400 on Sunday as Israel pressed its biggest offensive in the enclave in five years, Palestinian health officials said.

"410 people have been killed since the war started, and more than 3,020 people have been injured, most of them civilians," Deputy Health Minister Yussef Abu Rish told reporters at Shifa hospital in Gaza City.

Most of those killed on Sunday were in the Shejaiya neighborhood between Gaza City and the Israeli border, where more than 50 people were died in a blistering bombardment that began overnight, medics said.

Following a request by the Red Cross, Israel and Hamas said they agreed to a brief, local cease-fire to enable rescue services to attend to the dead and wounded. The truce did not last for the designated period, and each side blamed the other for violating it.

The mass casualties in Shejaiya, in northeast Gaza, were the heaviest since Israel launched its offensive on the Palestinian territory on July 8 after cross-border rocket strikes by militants intensified.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, who is based in the occupied West Bank, accused Israel of carrying out a massacre and declared three days of mourning.

The Israeli military said on Sunday that Hamas had deployed rockets and built tunnels and command centers in Shejaiya.

"Two days ago, residents of Shejaiya received recorded messages to evacuate the area in order to protect their lives," an Israeli military spokeswoman said.

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 Shejaiya gathered in family groups, seeking safety. Inside, bodies and wounded lay on bloodstained floors.

Elderly men there said the Israeli attack was the fiercest they had seen since the 1967 Middle East war, when Israel captured Gaza.

Shifa hospital's director, Naser Tattar, said 17 children, 14 women and four elderly were among the 50 dead, and about 400 people were wounded in the Israeli assault.

On Israel's side, two civilians have been killed by cross-border fire and five soldiers have died in fighting. More than 50 Israeli troops have been wounded, hospital officials said.

Egypt's proposal

UN chief Ban Kimoon will meet with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi in Cairo on Monday to discuss an Egyptian proposal to end the deadly conflict in Gaza, the Egyptian Foreign Ministry said.

Talks between Ban, Sisi and other senior officials will "focus on the deteriorating situation in Gaza and the Egyptian initiative for a cease-fire", the Egyptian Foreign Ministry said.

Egypt, which has been a mediator in previous Israel-Hamas conflicts, had proposed a halt to the fighting but Hamas rejected the initiative saying it had not been consulted. Israel initially accepted Cairo's plan. Ban's visit to Egypt is part of a regional tour to express "solidarity" with Israelis and Palestinians, his office said.

The UN chief plans to act "in coordination with regional and international actors, to end the violence and find a way forward", the statement said.

In an "effort to encourage a durable cease-fire", Ban will travel to Doha, then to Kuwait City, Cairo, Jerusalem, Ramallah and Amman, it added.

China's special envoy on Middle East affairs Wu Sike on Sunday called on Israel to immediately stop the military operations against the Gaza Strip and put an end to the blockage it imposes on the coastal enclave.

"We condemn the killing and the targeting of innocent civilians and we urge Israel and all parties involved to immediately cease fire," he said.

AFP - AP - Xinhua

(China Daily 07/21/2014 page12)