While dueling political leaders blame each other for the carnage in Gaza, residents in the besieged territory are grappling with a new, nightmarish life:<\/p>\n
Dozens of deaths reported each day. Dwindling fuel and water supplies. And now Gaza’s only power plant is off the grid after it was struck.<\/p>\n
The violence continued Wednesday morning, when Israeli forces shelled the Abu Hussein School in northern Gaza and killed at least 20 people, the Palestinian Health Ministry said.<\/p>\n
The Israeli military said it is investigating.<\/p>\n
The school was a U.N. facility based in Gaza’s Jebaliya refugee camp, the U.N. Relief and Works Agency said. Agency spokesman Gaza Adnan Abu Hasna said 19 people were killed and 126 were injured.<\/p>\n
Abu Hasna attributed the high number of casualties to the timing of the attack — when many had gathered for morning prayers.<\/p>\n
The daily bloodshed is now exasperated by crumbling infrastructure from the violence.<\/p>\n
Palestinian officials blamed an Israeli airstrike for the attack on Gaza’s only power plant. But Israel said it didn’t target the power plant.<\/p>\n
“I’ve gone through our air force, our navy, our ground forces on the ground. Haven’t been able to determine it was IDF activity,” Israel Defense Forces spokesman Peter Lerner said.<\/p>\n
Either way, residents must depend almost entirely on small generators for electricity. Clean water is inaccessible for most. And some 3,600 people have lost their homes.<\/p>\n
“We cannot supply electricity” for hospitals, sewage treatment or domestic use, said Fathi al-Sheikh Khalil, deputy chairman of the Palestinian Energy Natural Resources Authority in Gaza. “This is a disaster.”<\/p>\n
Salah Jarour owns a small convenience store in Gaza. He now runs the store in the dark.<\/p>\n
“This is not fair. We have children. Hospitals need power,” Jarour said. “The Israelis are not human.”<\/p>\n
Many roads in Gaza City are deserted, except for ambulances pre-positioned to assist in case of an Israeli airstrike.<\/p>\n
At least 1,242 people in Gaza have died and more than 7,000 have been wounded since the conflict between Israel and Hamas began, the Palestinian Ministry of Health in Gaza said.<\/p>\n
The number of militants killed is unclear, but the United Nations estimates that 70% to 80% of the dead are civilians.<\/p>\n
On the Israeli side, 53 soldiers have died since Operation Protective Edge began July 8, according to the Israel Defense Forces. Three civilians have been killed in Israel as well.<\/p>\n
No cease-fire, but lots of blame<\/strong><\/p>\n Hamas and Israel blamed one another for the lack of a cease-fire — raising questions about just what it will take to end the fighting in Gaza.<\/p>\n International efforts to broker a deal to end the violence failed again Tuesday, with Hamas rejecting a cease-fire proposal put forward by the Palestinian Authority that called for a 24-hour truce that could be extended to 72 hours.<\/p>\n The sticking points: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said any truce must allow for its protection against tunnels used by Palestinian militants in Gaza to make their way into Israel.<\/p>\n “Hamas is responsible for all deaths on their side and on our side because they are the ones who kept this conflict going,” Netanyahu spokesman Mark Regev told CNN.<\/p>\n “People are fighting and people are dying because Hamas said no to a cease-fire.”<\/p>\n But Hamas says any deal must include an end to Israel’s blockade of Gaza. On Hamas-run TV, Mohammed Deif, chief of the group’s military wing, said that “there is no middle ground” regarding a truce until Israel ends its “siege” of Gaza.<\/p>\n “The Israeli enemy will not have security as long as we don’t have security for our people,” he said.<\/p>\n Hamas wants Israel to lift a blockade it began on Gaza in 2007, a move Israel has said was necessary to stop Hamas and other allied militant group from bringing weapons into Gaza.<\/p>\n But Israel has been criticized for sealing the borders, with aid groups saying the blockade has cut off basic supplies and created a humanitarian crisis.<\/p>\n –<\/p>\n Source: CNN<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" While dueling political leaders blame each other for the carnage in Gaza, residents in the besieged territory are grappling with a new, nightmarish life: Dozens of deaths reported each day. Dwindling fuel and water supplies. And now Gaza’s only power plant is off the grid after it was struck. The violence continued Wednesday morning, when […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":20,"featured_media":35590,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[],"tags":[1824,1866,14,867],"yoast_head":"\n