Gaza: Israeli aircraft attacked Hamas security compounds across Gaza on Saturday, killing at least 120 people and causing widespread panic and confusion, according to Hamas and Israeli officials.
In one of the compounds, the bodies of more than a dozen uniformed security officers were seen lying on the ground. One officer who survived raised his index finger in a show of Muslim faith and defiance. Gaza health official Moawiya Hassanain said 120 people were killed in the strikes. Among the dead was Gaza police chief Maj Gen Tawfiq Jaber, witnesses said. The Israeli military confirmed it attacked Hamas security compounds with air strikes and residents reported hearing two waves of explosions. In the first wave, there were at least 15 blasts, they said. Civilians rushed to the targeted areas, trying to move the wounded in their cars to hospitals. There was no sign of an accompanying Israeli ground offensive. In recent days, Israel has warned it would strike back hard for renewed rocket attacks on Israeli border towns from inside Gaza. In the West Bank, moderate Hamas rival Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said in a statement he "condemns this aggression" and called for restraint, said an aide, Nabil Abu Rdeneh. Many of the Hamas security compounds are in residential areas and the air strikes took place as children were leaving school. Plumes of black smoke rose over Gaza City, sirens wailed through the streets and women frantically looked for their children. Israel has targeted Gaza in the past, but the number of simultaneous attacks was unprecedented. One man sat in the middle of a Gaza City street close to a security compound alternately slapping his face and covering his head with dust from the bombed-out building. "My son is gone, my son is gone," said Sadi Masri, 57. The shopkeeper said he sent his son out to purchase cigarettes minutes before the airstrikes began and now could not find him. "May I burn like the cigarettes, may Israel burn." A six-month truce expired last week in Gaza. About a dozen rockets and mortar bombs were fired from Gaza on Friday. One accidentally struck a northern Gaza house killing two Palestinian sisters, aged five and 13, and wounding a third, Palestinian medics said.
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