Eight Killed and Seven Wounded in Israeli Air Strike on Gaza; Al Mezan Condemns IOF Escalation and Calls for International Urgent Intervention to protect Civilians

The Israeli occupation forces (IOF) further escalated its attacks on the Gaza Strip today, launching dozens of air and artillery strikes on various locations around the Strip.
Nine Palestinians were killed and seven wounded in these attacks.
Of the wounded, four were children and two were women.
Al Mezan Centre for Human Rights strongly condemns the IOF attacks, which failed to comply with international law and calls on the international community to swiftly intervene to prevent further escalation and provide due protection for civilians in the occupied Palestinian territory (oPt).
  According to information collected by Al Mezan, at approximately 11:10 pm an Israeli warplane fired a missile at a gathering of men who were in an olive orchard southwest of the Al-Bureij refugee camp in the Middle Gaza district.
Two of the men were killed: Mazen Al-Jarba, 29, and Marwan Isleem, 24; both were residents of the refugee camp.
A third man was moderately injured.
  In another attack, an IOF warplane fired a missile at about 1:30 pm on Monday, 7 July 2014, at a training site for Palestinian armed resistance in the An-Nasser village north of the southern Gaza strip town of Rafah.
One armed man was lethally injured and was announced dead at 3 am.
He was identified as Ibrahim Abdeen, 39.
  During the past two days IOF warplanes launched several airstrikes on a tunnel near the Gaza International Airport southeast of Rafah, destroying it completely this morning.
As a result, five men were announced dead inside the tunnels.
Civil defence crews found the bodies of five of the men, while work to locate the other two was still on-going when this press release was published.
Those whose bodies were found were identified as: -          Khalid Abu Morr, 21; -          Mustafa Abu Morr, 21 -          Jum'a Abu Shalouf, 26; -          Ibrahim Al-Bal'awi, 24; and -          Abdel-Rahman Al-Zamli, 22.
  A fifth man was rescued and has been reported to be in a critical condition.
The six are members of the military wing of the Hamas Movement.
  In a series of airstrikes on different locations of the Gaza Strip, IOF fired rockets on an empty field near the Islamic Society in the Sabra neighbourhood in the south of Gaza City and a security post in the west of Beit Lahiya town in the north of the Gaza Strip.
Seven civilians, including four children and two women, were injured in two attacks.
They were identified as: Sulaiman Abu Qleeq, 12; Ibtisam Al-Ghorra, 15; Do'aa Al-Ashi, 12; Yomna Al-Ashi, 6; Rizqa Al-Ghorra, 21; and Myasar Al-Ghorra, 58.
In another airstrike on a farm in Jabalia five sheep were killed.
  The Al Mezan Centre for Human Rights strongly condemns the Israeli aggression against the Gaza Strip especially the deliberate and disproportionate attacks on civilians and civilian objects, which seriously violate international law.
Al Mezan is gravely concerned by the rapid escalation in IOF attacks which could represent the start of yet a new large military operation.
Recalling the recent history of such operations in Gaza, Al Mezan is concerned by the implications on the civilian population resulting from unlawful IOF military attacks.
  Al Mezan therefore calls on the international community, especially the High Contracting Parties to the Fourth Geneva Convention, to swiftly intervene to provide due protection for civilians and ensure Israel's compliance with its obligations under the Convention.
The silence of the international community as the situation escalates and civilians are hurt sends a dangerous message to Israel and allows for serious violations of international law to occur.
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