More than 40 victims of Israel's raid on the Shati refugee camp, near Gaza City, in an attempt to kill a top Hamas commander, Raad Saad, head of the faction's operations department and one of the key figures of the military deployment in the strip.
In the attack, which also involved the nearby neighborhood of Tuffah, at least 42 people were killed - according to Ismail Al-Thawabta, director of the government press office run by Hamas. So far the IDF has not confirmed the death of the senior Hamas member nor provided information on the raids. He limited himself to announcing them in an unusual statement in which he noted that two Hamas military positions in Shati and the suburb of Tuffah had been hit.
Another episode also causes concern. The Red Cross in fact stated that its office in the humanitarian area of Mawasi, in the south of the Strip, " was damaged by large-caliber bullets that fell nearby" . Office around which hundreds of displaced Palestinians have been camping in tents for weeks." Immediately after the bombing - added the Red Cross - "25 bodies and 45 wounded were taken to the nearby Red Cross field hospital". Hamas' health ministry later reported at least 50 injured. The Red Cross also harshly condemned the incident. Denouncing that "shooting so dangerously close to humanitarian facilities puts the lives of civilians and humanitarian workers at risk." The accusation was, however, rejected by the IDF which denied any blame for the attack.
(Unioneonline/ss)
