Dozens Killed in Israel’s Worst Bombardment of Gaza So Far

Dozens of Palestinian civilians have been killed in the most intensive 48-hour bombardment of Gaza so far. At least 50 Palestinians have died over the past day, bringing the death toll from Israel’s three-week assault to more than 1,250.

Earlier today, two bombs hit a school in the Jabaliya refugee camp used by the United Nations to house displaced Palestinians. Around 20 Palestinians were reportedly killed, including a medic and an infant. Scores were injured. The United Nations has accused Israel of bombing the school. It marks the sixth time a U.N. shelter has been attacked since Israel launched its offensive. A shelling of a U.N. school in Beit Hanoun last week killed at least 16 people and left more than 150 wounded. Other bombings today reportedly killed seven members of one family and 10 members of another.

On Tuesday, Israeli tank shells and airstrikes on Jabaliya killed 13 people. A neighbor at the scene said the majority of the victims were women.

Resident: “Rockets started falling on our houses. Our entire area is filled with civilians. There is no one from the resistance groups or anything. Rockets fell on the buildings next door, and one rocket fell here. As soon as that happened, we came running. We opened the door, came in. We saw people torn apart, severed heads, blood and limbs. Most of them were women. And the entire street was damaged.”

On Tuesday, most of Gaza’s already limited electricity supply was cut off after Israeli tank fire hit the fuel depot of the Strip’s only power plant. A Gazan Health Ministry official said the attack threatens to impact severely Gaza’s hospitals.

Dr. Yousef Abu El-Rish: “Power is expected to go out completely because the quantities we have will not suffice for a few days, which threatens various hospital departments, especially intensive care units, dialysis, pediatrics and surgery departments that are threatened with collapse.”

Protests against the assault on Gaza continue in the United States. In New York City, a group of demonstrators blocked traffic by laying down in the streets outside Israel’s Mission to the United Nations. Twenty-six people were arrested after refusing police orders to disperse. The action was organized by the author and scholar Norman Finkelstein.

Norman Finkelstein: “Well, I’ve been sitting in front of my computer for the past 21 days, morning and night, watching the horror unfold, and I felt I wasn’t doing enough, I wasn’t rising to the occasion, I wasn’t acting commensurate to the horror. So I decide it’s time to do something more, time to go past the computer, remove myself from the computer and get arrested.”

Tuesday’s act of civil disobedience comes one day after nine Jewish peace activists were arrested protesting the Israeli assault outside the office of the Conference of Presidents of Major Jewish Organizations. The group of mostly young activists are calling themselves “If Not Now, When?” In Seattle, peace activists held a “die-in” outside the headquarters of Boeing, which manufactures weapons supplied to the Israeli military.