‘Humanitarian window’ requested in Gaza

The Israeli military on Sunday morning said it would not fire on an eastern Gaza neighborhood during a two-hour “humanitarian window” requested by the Red Cross.

“We opened this humanitarian window despite the threats emanating from Shuja’iya. Hamas places its rockets, tunnels & command centers there,” the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) tweeted.

{mosads}“Since July 8, Hamas has fired over 140 rockets at Israel from Shuja’iya,” the IDF said. Israeli soldiers found ten openings to tunnels in Shuja’iya “used to terrorize Israel,” the IDF added.

Witnesses and health officials told Reuters that at least 50 Palestinians were killed on Sunday by Israeli shelling in the neighborhood. Bodies were strewn in the street, the news service reported.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas accused Israel of carrying out a massacre, according to Reuters.

The IDF said it warned residents of the neighborhood to evacuate days ago, but Hamas told civilians to ignore the warnings and “encouraged them to be human shields.”

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon last week launched a ground operation in the Gaza Strip.

Tensions flared between Israel and Hamas several weeks ago when the bodies of three kidnapped Israeli teenagers were found. A Palestinian teenager was found dead shortly after in what is believed to be a retaliatory attack.