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A father lays to rest his toddler who was killed in an Israeli air strike. (Reuters) |
CAIRO — As the world looks the other way on Lebanon, Israel is launching a "hidden" war in Gaza, killing as many as of the Palestinians and turning life there into a hell with the blessing of the Bush administration, The Independent said Saturday, July 29.
"It is a war of containment and control that has turned the besieged Strip into a prison with no way in or out, and no protection from an fearsome battery of drones, precision missiles, tank shells and artillery rounds," the daily said in an editorial.
Israel killed more than 29 Palestinians, including children, in northern Gaza in less than 24 hours as of Wednesday, July 26.
The dead Palestinians included a 12-year-old boy, Anas Zumlut, who was killed while standing on the roof of his house.
"His body was wrapped in a funeral shroud, just like those of the two sisters, a three-year-old and an eight-month-old baby, who were killed three days ago in the same area of Jablaya," the daily added.
A seven-month baby and two three-year-old girls were among 24 Palestinians killed in Israeli air strikes and artillery shelling of the strip on Wednesday.
At least 143 Palestinians have died since Israel launched a massive onslaught in late June to release a soldier taken prisoner by Palestinian groups.
The Palestinians and rights activists, however, see Israel's excessive and brutal use of force is aimed at toppling the Hamas-led Palestinian government.
The daily raised suspicions that the Gaza offensive has been the testing ground for the military strategy now unfolding on the second front in Lebanon.
Up to 600 Lebanese, mostly children and civilians, have been killed in a relentless Israeli offensive in Lebanon after the capture of two Israeli soldiers by Lebanese resistance group Hizbullah.
The hard-won infrastructure of the Arab country has been left in ruins, with Israel knocking out Beirut international airport, bombing ports, destroying bridges, setting power stations ablaze and reducing houses to rubble.
"Laughter Therapy"
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| "Every time there was a shell, I would burst out laughing and she would laugh with me," Shaath said. |
Over the relentless Israeli offensive, former Palestinian deputy prime minister Nabil Shaath, said the situation has become unbearable for Gazans.
The paper said that Israel's Gaza offensive was a "collective punishment" of Gaza's 1.4 million residents, targeting the strip's civilian infrastructure, water mains and the strip's sole power plant.
Israel knocked down Gaza's only power plant at the beginning of its offensive and sealed off all the strip's crossings, turning the area into an open-air prison.
Living conditions for the Gazans have badly deteriorated since the West suspended direct aid to the Palestinians.
Palestinian families in Gaza are now borrowing to the hilt, selling their jewellery and even throwing themselves on the mercy of shopkeepers in a bid to overcome their hardships, the paper said.
Shaath tried "laughter therapy" with his five-year-old daughter, Mimi, in northern Gaza.
"Every time there was a shell, I would burst out laughing and she would laugh with me," Shaath said.
"But then the Israelis occupied everything around us, and there were tanks, and shrapnel in the garden, and she saw where the shells were coming from, and she was terrified. So Mimi now gets angry when I laugh."
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