Israel maintains Gaza offensive as death toll mounts
Jerusalem, May 14 (EFE).- One hundred and nineteen people, including 31 children, have been killed in Gaza as Israeli Defense Forces continued its intensive bombardment of the enclave from the air and the ground in the early hours of Friday.
Over 800 people have been wounded, the Gazan health ministry said.
The Israeli army confirmed that it had not sent in ground troops into the Gaza Strip, but an army spokesman said it “intended to” and is “prepared” to do so.
Israel has stepped up its attack on Gaza despite international mediators trying to prevent another devastating war.
An Egyptian delegation working on a truce between Israel and Palestinian left Tel Aviv on Friday after Israel refused “all initiatives and mediation” for a ceasefire, Egyptian security forces told EFE.
“It is clear that Israel has specific objectives for the attack on the Gaza Strip that it wants to achieve before a ceasefire, such as destroying the military capabilities of the Palestinian resistance and targeting a number of Hamas leaders wanted by Israel,” an Egyptian source close to the delegation told EFE.
The Israeli army has bombed hundreds of militant targets in the Strip and carried out targeted attacks that it says have killed more than 30 members of the Islamist movements Hamas and Islamic Jihad.
Hamas have launched over 1,800 rockets into Israeli territory, at least 430 of which failed and landed in the enclave. In Israel, 9 people have been killed.
The UN Secretary General António Guterres proposed an urgent meeting of the Middle East Quartet (Russia, the US, the UN and the European Union), while the UN Security Council will hold an open meeting on the situation on Sunday. EFE
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