GAZA/JERUSALEM (Reuters) – Israel launched more than 30 air attacks in Gaza yesterday, killing nine Palestinians, and militants fired rockets at Israel as the conflict entered a second month, defying international efforts to revive a ceasefire.
The violence seemed at risk of jeopardising talks brokered by Egypt aimed at securing a permanent truce. The Palestinian delegation in Cairo threatened to walk out today unless Israel showed up. Previously, an Israeli official who asked not to be named said Israel had no plans to send negotiators back to Cairo “as long as the shooting goes on”.
Medical officials in Gaza said two Palestinians were killed when their motorcycle was bombed, and the bodies of three others were found beneath the rubble of one of three bombed mosques.
Two Palestinians were killed in an air strike on a car in the southern town of Rafah, Gaza medics said. A 13-year-old girl and a man were killed in other air assaults, hospital officials said.
An Israeli military statement said four of the Palestinians targeted yesterday were Hamas militants.
Another attack reduced a security complex belonging to Hamas to a huge cloud of smoke, but there were no casualties. Elsewhere, three houses were bombed, and fighter planes strafed open areas, officials said.
The Israeli military said that since midnight it had struck more than 30 sites in the coastal enclave, without specifying the targets. Gaza militants fired 30 rockets into southern Israel on Saturday, setting off sirens but causing no damage, the military said.
Since the end of a 72-hour truce on Friday, Gaza militants have fired more than 100 rockets at Israel, military officials said. Two Israelis were hurt by a mortar attack on Friday.
Israeli air strikes killed five Palestinians on Friday, among them a 10-year-old boy near a mosque in Gaza City. Egypt, backed by American and European mediators, has made no visible progress towards restoring the ceasefire that had halted fighting for three days.
There was no sign of diplomatic progress in Egypt yesterday. The head of the Palestinian delegation, Azzam Ahmed said “we will leave Cairo tomorrow if it is confirmed to us that they (Israelis) will not return” unconditionally.
