 |
Palestinians buries a 7-month-old toddler killed by Israel.(Reuters) |
GAZA CITY — Israeli occupation forces killed more than 28 Palestinians, including children, in the isolated Gaza Strip in less than 24 hours.
A 75-year-old Palestinian woman was killed when an Israeli artillery shell slammed into her home near the Jabaliya refugee camp in the northern Gaza Strip, hospital officials told Agence France-Presse (AFP).
Two civilians, a 16-year-old boy and 23-year-old man, were also killed in an Israeli air strike in east of Gaza City. Nineteen other Palestinians were also wounded.
Palestinian security forces told AFP that Israeli tanks had entered areas east of the densely-populated Jabaliya refugee camp.
Thursday's killings came a few hours after 24 Palestinians, including a seven-month baby, two three-year-old girls and a 17-year-old boy, were killed in Israeli air strikes and artillery shelling of the strip.
At least 143 Palestinians have died since Israel launched a massive onslaught in late June on the pretext of seeking the release of a soldier taken prisoner by Palestinian groups.
The new fatalities bring to 5,287 the number of people killed since the start of Al-Aqsa Intifada in September 2000, most of them Palestinians, according to an AFP count.
Aid
Meanwhile, the European Commission began sending aid to the Palestinian Authority under a new aid mechanism for the Palestinians who have been suffering an international aid freeze.
"Today we started giving money to the health sector, that means giving allowances for the people working in the medical sector from doctors to nurses and to all people there," External Affairs Commissioner Benita Ferrero-Waldner told AFP.
The aid is being distributed under a mechanism that funnels much-needed funds to the Palestinians, bypassing the Hamas-led government.
The European Commission said the aid includes deliveries of fuel for hospital generators, water pumps and water treatment plants to make up for Israel's destruction of Gaza's only power plant.
"The delivery of fuel has allowed the continued provision of essential health services to over 90,000 patients and access to water for some 1.2 million people in Gaza," it added.
On June 18, the diplomatic quartet on Middle East peace endorsed a European Union proposal for a temporary mechanism to funnel aid to the Palestinians without the money going to the government.
The EU, the biggest aid donor to the Palestinians with some 500 million euros a year, has joined the US in suspending aid to the Palestinians after the new government took office in April.
Israel has also suspended the monthly payment of customs duties, worth more than 50 million dollars, it collects on behalf of the Palestinian Authority on goods that transit through its territory.
This has affected the livelihoods of around one million people or a quarter of the population of the Gaza Strip and West Bank.
|
