Israel warns Gazans to leave homes as Hamas urged to accept cease-fire

Israel warned thousands of Palestinians living in the Gaza Strip Wednesday to “evacuate immediately” or face danger as its military continued its aerial offensive against Hamas, a day after the militant group rejected a cease-fire plan proposed by Egypt.

The website of the Gaza Interior Ministry said Israel warplanes carried out dozens of air strikes before dawn Wednesday, targeting 30 houses, including those of senior Hamas leaders Mahmoud Zahar, Jamila Shanti, Fathi Hamas and Ismail Ashkar.

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 Israeli military had warned thousands of Palestinians living in the eastern and northern parts of Gaza to leave their homes by 8 a.m. Wednesday local time (1 a.m. ET).

An Israeli military spokeswoman told The Wall Street Journal that residents of Beit Lahiya, a town of approximately 70,000 people in northern Gaza, as well as the Zeitoun and Shijaiyah neighborhoods of Gaza City had been warned by telephone.

The Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported that 100,000 automated calls had been made to Gaza residents, but that number was not confirmed by the military.

The warnings were also delivered by text message and by leaflets dropped from planes. The Israeli military said in its message that large numbers of rockets were launched from these areas and that Israel plans to bomb these locations.

"Whoever disregards these instructions and fails to evacuate immediately, endangers their own lives, as well as those of their families," the message said.

Gaza residents told The Wall Street Journal that most of Beit Lahiya had already emptied out even before the latest warnings. But many residents in other parts of northern Gaza have decided to stay.

The Wafa Rehabilitation Center in Shijaiyah, which cares for 15 disabled and elderly patients, received several calls demanding the patients evacuate, director Basman Ashi told the Associated Press. He said an Israel shell hit near the building, causing damage to the second floor, but no injuries. Ashi added that he wouldn't evacuate his elderly patients, claiming they had nowhere to go.

An Israeli military spokesman told the Associated Press that the hospital's residents "have been asked repeatedly to leave."

"There is a rocket launching site in the area," the spokesman said, adding that Gaza militants are using the center to hide "behind civilians."

Four foreign volunteers -- from England, the U.S., France and Sweden -- have set up camp at the rehabilitation center to deter the military from targeting it.

English volunteer Rina Andolini, 32, said the patients range in age from 12 to over 70 and none can walk or move without assistance. She said there are also 17 Palestinian staff members.

Andolini said the patients are living in a constant state of fear, intensified by the Israeli tank shelling from across the border.

Gaza health officials say that 204 Palestinians have died in the nine days since the fighting began. However, it is not clear how many of the dead are civilians and how many are Hamas militants.

Hamas has come under pressure from the international community to reverse its initial rejection of the Egyptian cease-fire proposal, which would have gone into effect Tuesday morning had both sides agreed. Instead, Hamas announced its rejection of the proposal moments after Israel announced that its Security Cabinet had accepted it.

"I cannot condemn strongly enough the actions of Hamas in so brazenly firing rockets in multiple numbers in the face of a goodwill effort to operate a cease-fire," U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said Tuesday.

"I hope the Hamas leadership now understand the best thing to do is to call a halt, have the negotiation, discussion, and sit down with everybody to work out a long-term, viable plan for Gaza," former British Prime Minister and Middle East peace envoy Tony Blair told Sky News.

http://news.sky.com/story/1301728/palestinians-urged-to-leave-homes-as-truce-fails

Egyptian officials told The Wall Street Journal they were still confident a truce deal could be reached and were keeping up their efforts. President Abdel Fattah Al Sisi planned to host Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in Cairo on Wednesday. Abbas has expressed support for the Egyptian proposal.

Meanwhile, Israel's decision to accept the cease-fire exposed fault lines in Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government. Late Tuesday, Netanyahu dismissed his deputy defense minister, Danny Danon, after he said Netanyahu had made a mistake in accepting the cease-fire.

Other members of Netanyahu's government, like Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman, have advocated for a ground invasion of the territory, with Lieberman telling a press conference "The Israel Defense Forces must finish this operation in control of the entire Gaza Strip."

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