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Israel’s Deadly Assault on Gaza Enters Second Week: 200 Palestinians Killed and Media Attacked

HeadlineMay 17, 2021

Israel’s assault on Gaza has entered its second week, with air raids pounding the besieged territory overnight. Sunday marked the deadliest day so far, with at least 42 people killed. The Palestinian death toll has reached nearly 200, more than a quarter of those children. Over 1,300 have been wounded, and 40,000 Gazans have lost their homes. Gatherings for Eid al-Fitr over the weekend turned into a tragedy for some families.

Mohammad Al-Hadidi: “They targeted the house they were in. There were no rockets there, just women and children; no rockets, just peaceful children celebrating Eid. What have they done to deserve this? A rocket hit their house, over their heads, without warning or communication. Three whole floors fell over them, and we had to recover their body parts.”

The executive editor of the Associated Press is calling for an independent investigation after Israeli strikes flattened a building in Gaza City Saturday which housed the offices of Al Jazeera and the AP, but which Israel said also housed members of Hamas. Rights groups are asking the International Criminal Court to investigate the likely war crime. The Israeli army also is targeting underground tunnels they say are used by Hamas. Rockets fired into Israel have killed at least 10 civilians. One Israeli soldier has also been killed.

As the U.N. and others are calling for an immediate ceasefire, massive protests took place around the globe this weekend, including in Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories. In East Jerusalem’s Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood, where Palestinian families are fighting Israeli attempts to expel them from their homes, protesters marked al-Nakba — the 1948 expulsion of nearly 800,000 Palestinians from their homes.

Muna Jurd: “There is another wall where they will draw Palestine’s map, and inside of it is Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood, where, from it, the fire started in all of Palestine. Today, on Nakba’s 73rd anniversary, we do not want to say that Nakba is still ongoing. But we want to say today, on Nakba’s anniversary, that it is time for this Nakba to stop, after this popular outburst, after this revolution that Palestine is going through from sea to river.”

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