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Israel-Gaza conflict: Leaflets dropped on northern Gaza ordering 100,000 to evacuate amid fears of ground incursion Israel-Gaza conflict: Four boys killed while playing football on beach after Israeli warships open fire
(about 5 hours later)
As Israel moved a step closer to ground incursions and ordered thousands to evacuate from north-eastern Gaza, ongoing missile strikes have today killed more than a dozen Palestinians - including four children. Four young boys – members of the same family – playing football and hide and seek on the beach were killed today by what is believed to have been gunfire from Israeli warships carrying out a blockade of Gaza.
Hamas officials say at least 211 people have died in the Israeli offensive, the BBC reported, including another 10 overnight and the children later today. The attack on the fishing port in Gaza City came at just after four o’clock on a sunny and clear afternoon with good visibility. The group of cousins, aged between nine and 11, were around what looked like a derelict shed when they were hit by a shell from the direction of the sea.
The Israeli Defence Force has dropped leaflets across the Shijaiyah and Zeitoun districts and also issued a series of recorded phone calls with the message to evacuate, adding: “Failure to comply will endanger your lives and the lives of your family.” Three of them managed to run to the terrace of a hotel, where their injures were treated by staff and journalists who have been staying there.
The region is home to more than 100,000 people and lies just across the border from Israel. Its wholesale evacuation means overland raids could be about to follow, Israeli experts said. Of the four others, who had more severe wounds, one died at the scene, the other three after arriving at the hospital.
This afternoon Hamas confirmed what had been evident from its actions over the past 24 hours, informing the Egyptian government that it officially rejected proposals for a ceasefire. “The kids were playing football on the beach. They were all... under the age of 15,” said witness Ahmed Abu Hassera, 22.
The escalation in the wake of the failed attempt to halt hostilities has been authorised by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and came as the ninth day of “Operation Protective Edge”. All the victims were sons of fishermen. Ismael Mohammed Bakr, nine, Zakaria Ahed Bakr and Ahed Atif Bakr, both 10, and Mohammed Ramiz Bakr, were the dead. There was grief and rage with an uncle, Abdel Kareem Bakr, accusing the Israeli forces of “cold blooded massacre”.
While Israel said it provides warnings before its attacks – which have included the controversial “knock on the roof” missile – to save civilian lives, they have the additional effect of spreading fear, anger and uncertainty among Gazans, many of whom feel they have nowhere left to go. “It’s a shame they didn’t identify them as just kids with all the advanced technology they had been using,” he said. “I don’t know what justification they will use for what they did, but our boys are now gone.”
Channel 4 News' Jonathan Miller reported on Twitter that Israeli bombs had now struck the Wafa hospital in the Shijaiyah neighbourhood, after its director Basman Ashi said he received an order to evacuate. Nine days of violence has cost 213 lives and led to more than 1,200 injuries in Gaza. The overwhelming number of civilian dead, including children, have come from air strikes. The Israeli military have, however, repeatedly targeted the port, destroying a number of buildings as well as vessels.
The centre cares for 15 disabled and elderly patients and specialises in victims of brain and spinal trauma. Mr Ashi said the second floor of the building had already suffered damage but that he won't evacuate because nowhere else can take his patients. The fishermen who are based there strenuously deny that any arms, including rocket launchers have been based there.
Experts said they predicted a shift to targeted ground incursions into northern Gaza because a series of underground command bunkers and tunnels have allowed the out-gunned Hamas militants to continue their rocket attacks despite the face of a prolonged air and naval barrage. Mohammed Fares, a 33-year-old waiter at al-Deira Hotel, watched what happened from the terrace.
The IDF said another 26 rockets were fired by Hamas today, including some aimed at the city of Tel Aviv a good 50 miles to the north of Gaza. They were all either shot down by the Iron Dome defence system or struck without causing casualties. “We often see boys playing on the beach, this is quite common. Suddenly there was an explosion and I could see a group of them fall. Some people working in cafes on the beach came out to help,” he said. “As they trying to look after the kids there was another explosion, it must have been aimed at them.
And a Hamas statement said the Israeli bombardment last night included attacks on the homes of four top Hamas leaders: Mahmoud Zahar, Jamila Shanti, Fathi Hamas and Ismail Ashkar. “Three of the kids started running towards us and we dragged them up on to the terrace where the journalists and others gave them medical help. Of course the ones left on the beach were much more badly hurt and they died. It is very, very sad.”
Zahar was a key figure in Hamas' violent takeover of Gaza in 2007, while the other three were members of the Palestinian parliament elected in 2006. Many Hamas leaders have gone into hiding since the beginning of the Israeli offensive. The beach attack took place on a violent day as Benjamin Netanyahu’s government ratcheted up the offensive. It had threatened in retaliation for the refusal of Hamas to agree to a ceasefire agreement proposed by Egypt.
Yesterday saw the volunteer civilian Dror Khenin, 37, identified as the first Israeli fatality in the conflict. He had been travelling to distribute food to troops at a Gaza border crossing when he was caught by mortar fire. Around 30 houses were targeted including those of senior Hamas leaders Mahmoud Zahar, Jamila Shanti, Fathi Hamas and Ismail Ashkar. Mr Zahar was a key figure in Hamas’ violent takeover of Gaza from Fatah in 2007: the other three were members of the Palestinian parliament elected in 2006.
In an evening address live on TV, prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that with Hamas continuing to launch missiles, Israel had “no choice” but to respond more forcefully. The Israeli military also ordered more than 100,000 residents of the northern town of Beit Lahiya and the Zeitoun and Shijaiyah neighborhoods of Gaza City, all near the border with Israel, to evacuate their homes by 8am, the calls to evacuate came in the form of automated phonecalls, text messages and leaflets dropped from planes.
“Hamas chose to continue fighting and will pay the price for that decision,” he said. “When there is no ceasefire, our answer is fire.” Palestinian children run to collect leaflets dropped by Israeli Defense Forces over the Shujaiyya neighbourhood in east Gaza City  
An Israeli official, speaking after the security cabinet met overnight, said: “The direction now is to continue air strikes and, if need be, enter with ground forces in a tactical, measured manner.” Although many fled their homes, adding to the thousands who had become internal refugees, many others refused to move. At Zeitun, Ahmed Abdullah Rahimi declared that his extended family of 18 would await “bombs, or soldiers, or whatever they have got planned for us”. He said: “This is our land, if they burn down our home, we will build again. Some people had left this area in the past, but they came back when the Israelis did not invade. Maybe they will invade this time, hey may kill people around here, but we are not afraid.”
It came after hopes were briefly raised yesterday of a ceasefire, proposed by Cairo and accepted by Israel. Late in the afternoon, as the sun was setting, 32-year-old Dia Bakr was on the beach where four of his younger cousins had died. “We are a large family and we spend a lot of time together. I taught some of them football on this beach, we used to even have picnics here when there was peace. No one thought they would be in any danger here, in daytime, at a place where they had played all their lives. There are so many hotels here. People staying here can see what’s going on. We thought they would be safe because they were just children of fishermen. We thought they were safe because they were children. Surely whoever did the firing could see that?”
But Hamas continued firing, saying it was never consulted on terms and instead heard about them through the media. It does not consider Egypt's current rulers to be fair peace-brokers, after Egypt's pro-Palestinian government was deposed a year ago.
In Washington, the US State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said Israel had the right to defend itself but “no one wants to see a ground war”.
“Our effort remains focused on seeing if we can return to a ceasefire,” she said.
The current conflict has been the deadliest since a major Israeli military offensive in the winter of 2008-09. The previous outbreak of cross-border violence, in 2012, eventually ended with the help of Egypt, at the time seen as a trusted broker by Hamas.
Speaking about what it would take to have Hamas accept a ceasefire, top official Moussa Abu Marzouk said: “The siege on Gaza must be broken and the people of Gaza should live freely like other people of the world. There should be a new equation so that we will not have a war on Gaza every two years.”