Israel hits symbols of Hamas rule; scores killed

By KARIN LAUB and PETER ENAV1 hour ago

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip (AP) — Israel escalated its military campaign against Hamas on Tuesday, striking symbols of the militant group's control in Gaza and firing tank shells that Palestinian officials said shut down the strip's only power plant in the heaviest bombardment in the war so far.

Hours after the power plant was hit, thick black smoke still rose from the plant's burning fuel tank. The station's shutdown was bound to lead to further serious disruptions of the flow of electricity and water to the 1.7 million people packed into the narrow Palestinian territory.

The heavy strikes were a new blow to international efforts to reach a sustainable truce in the fighting, now in its fourth week.

At least 100 Palestinians were killed Tuesday, including 36 who died in airstrikes and tank shelling on five homes, according to Palestinian health officials and the Palestinian Red Crescent. In one strike Tuesday afternoon, 10 members of one family were killed and 50 people were wounded in tank shelling in the northern Gaza town of Jebaliya, the officials said.

That pushed the overall death toll since the conflict began on July 8 to at least 1,156, according to Gaza Health Ministry spokesman Ashraf al-Kidra.

Israel has reported 53 soldiers and three civilians killed.

In the West Bank, a top PLO official offered a 24-hour truce Tuesday, saying he also spoke in the name of Hamas, but the Islamic militants said they want to hear from Israel first. Israeli government spokesman Mark Regev declined comment.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday warned of a "prolonged" campaign against Hamas.

But it was not clear if Netanyahu has decided to expand the Gaza war into an all-out effort to topple Hamas or planned to limit Israel's operation to the previously stated goal of ending Hamas rocket fire and destroying Hamas's sophisticated network of cross-border tunnels.

View gallery

A Palestinian firefighter participates in efforts to put out a fire at Gaza's main power plant, …

Already, the intensity and the scope of the current Gaza operation is on par with an invasion five years ago, which ended with a unilateral Israeli withdrawal after hitting Hamas hard.

On Tuesday, Israeli warplanes carried out dozens of attacks, leveling the home of the top Hamas leader in Gaza, Ismail Haniyeh, and damaging the offices of the movement's Al-Aqsa satellite TV station, a central mosque in Gaza City and government offices.

Haniyeh's house, in a narrow alley of the Shati refugee camp, was reduced to rubble but no one was hurt. Residents placed a large framed portrait of Haniyeh atop the wreckage and draped it with green Hamas flags and Palestinian national banners.

Israel has targeted several homes of Hamas leaders but none has been killed — presumably because they have kept a low profile. Haniyeh said in a statement Tuesday that "destroying stones will not break our determination."

The scene at the Gaza power plant after two tank shells hit one of three fuel tanks was daunting. "We need at least one year to repair the power plant, the turbines, the fuel tanks and the control room," said Fathi Sheik Khalil of the Gaza Energy Authority. "Everything was burned."

He said crew members who had been trapped by the fire for several hours were evacuated.

Even before the shutdown, Gaza residents only had electricity for about three hours a day because fighting had damaged power lines. Most of the power lines from Israel that provided electricity for payment were previously damaged in the fighting.

This means most of Gaza will now be without power. The lack of electricity will also affect water supplies, since power is needed to operate water pumps.

Massive Blaze Engulfs Gaza Power Plant After Attac …Play Video

Lt. Col. Peter Lerner, an Israeli military spokesman, did not comment on the explosion at the plant, but told The Associated Press that Israel's latest strikes signal "a gradual increase in the pressure" on Hamas.

Israel is "determined to strike this organization and relieve us of this threat," Lerner said.

International calls for an unconditional cease-fire have been mounting in recent days, as the extent of the destruction in Gaza became more apparent.

The house of the mayor of the Bureij in central Gaza was hit in an airstrike, and five bodies were pulled from the rubble, the Red Crescent said. Those killed included the mayor, 50-year-old Anas Abu Shamaleh, his 70-year-old father and three relatives.

In the southern town of Rafah, seven members of one family were killed in an airstrike and seven members of a second family were killed when tank shells hit their home, according to the Rafah office of the Palestinian Center for Human Rights, which keeps a casualty count.

In central Gaza, seven people, including five members of one family, where killed by tank shelling on a home, the Red Crescent said.

Tens of thousands of Gazans have been displaced by fighting in the border areas, which have come under heavy tank fire. Late Monday, Israel urged residents of three large neighborhoods in northeastern Gaza to leave their homes and immediate head to Gaza City.

In the West Bank, Yasser Abed Rabbo, the secretary general of the Palestine Liberation Organization, called for a 24-hour cease-fire and said the offer was made after consultations with Hamas and the smaller Islamic Jihad group.

However, Izzat Rishq, a senior Hamas official in exile, said his group wanted to hear from Israel first.

The largest group in the PLO is the Fatah movement of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, Hamas' main political rival. Hamas is not a member.

Despite appeals for a cease-fire, both sides have been holding out for bigger gains.

Hamas has said it will not stop fighting until it wins international guarantees that a crippling border blockade of Gaza will be lifted. Israel and Egypt had imposed the closure after Hamas seized Gaza in 2007, defeating forces loyal to Abbas. Over the past year, Egypt has further tightened restrictions, shutting down hundreds of smuggling tunnels under the Egypt-Gaza border that had provide crucial tax income to Hamas. The closure of the tunnels drove Hamas into a severe financial crisis.

Israel has said it is defending its citizens against attack from Gaza by hitting Hamas rocket launchers, weapons storage sites and military tunnels under the Gaza-Israel border.

Israel said its troops will not leave Gaza until they have demolished the tunnels which have been used by Hamas to sneak into Israel to try to carry out attacks.

__

Enav reported from Jerusalem. Associated Press writer Ibrahim Barzak in Gaza City contributed to this report.

A power plant, a mosque, a TV station, and a Hamas leader's home are hit by heavy Israeli attacks.
100 Palestinian killed in one day

Wochit

Official: Ebola Kills Senior Doctor In Liberia

MONROVIA, Liberia (AP) — Liberia's president has closed all but three land border crossings, restricted public gatherings and quarantined communities heavily affected by the Ebola outbreak in the West African nation.

President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf described the measures late Sunday after the first meeting of a new taskforce she created and is chairing to contain the disease, which has killed 129 people in the country and more than 670 across the region.

A top Liberian doctor working at Liberia's largest hospital died on Saturday, and two American aid workers have fallen ill, underscoring the dangers facing those charged with bringing the outbreak under control.

Last week a Liberian official flew to Nigeria via Lome, Togo and died of the disease at a Lagos hospital. The fact that the official, Patrick Sawyer, was able to board an international flight despite being ill raised fears that the disease could spread beyond the three countries already affected — Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone.

There is no known cure for Ebola, which begins with symptoms including fever and sore throat and escalates to vomiting, diarrhea and internal bleeding. The disease spreads through direct contact with blood and other bodily fluids as well as indirect contact with "environments contaminated with such fluids," according to the World Health Organization.

"No doubt, the Ebola virus is a national health problem," Sirleaf said. "And as we have also begun to see, it attacks our way of life, with serious economic and social consequences."

View gallery

Health workers wearing protective suits walk in an isolation center for people infected with Ebola a …

Sirleaf said all borders would be closed except for three — one of which crosses into Sierra Leone, one that cross into Guinea and another that crosses into both. Experts believe the outbreak originated in southeast Guinea as far back as January, though the first cases weren't confirmed until March. That country has recorded the most deaths, with 319. Sierra Leone has recorded more of the recent cases, however, and has seen 224 deaths in total.

Liberia will keep open Roberts International Airport outside Monrovia and James Spriggs Payne Airport, which is in the city.

Sirleaf said "preventive and testing centers will be established" at the airports and open border crossings, and that "stringent preventive measures to be announced will be scrupulously adhered to."

Other measures include restricting demonstrations and marches and requiring restaurants and other public venues to screen a five-minute film on Ebola.

Sirleaf also empowered the security forces to commandeer vehicles to aide in the public health response and ordered them to enforce the new regulations.

Ebola virusPlay Video

In Sierra Leone, President Ernest Bai Koroma announced Monday he was heading to the east of the country to visit the country's top Ebola doctor who became infected with the disease last week. Officials have said the doctor, Sheik Humarr Khan, has been responding well to treatment at a center run by Doctors Without Borders in the town of Kailahun. Khan has been described as a national hero for his work fighting the outbreak.

Koroma made the announcement at the National Stadium in Freetown, where he joined Muslims in prayers to mark the Eid el-Fitr holiday.

Health Minister Miatta Kargbo also left Monday morning for Kailahun, said Sidie Yayah Tunis, a ministry spokesman.

__

Associated Press writer Clarence Roy-Macaulay contributed reporting from Freetown, Sierra Leone.

Liberia tightens borders amid Ebola scare

Public gatherings are being restricted, and entire communities are quarantined.
2 American aid workers infected

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — Iran's supreme leader on Tuesday called on Muslims from around the world to help arm Gaza Palestinians in their fight against Israel.

The call by Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was his latest such message during the ongoing war between Gaza's Hamas rulers and Israel.

Khamenei claims that while Israel and America seek to disarm Hamas, Iran says "the opposite ... the Muslim World has a duty to arm the Palestinian nation by all means."

Iran, a staunch Hamas ally, does not recognize Israel and supports militant anti-Israeli groups such as the Palestinian Hamas and Lebanon's Shiite Hezbollah group.

Iran does not recognize Israel and has considered the Jewish state its archenemy since the 1979 Islamic Revolution that toppled the Western-backed monarchy and brought clerics to power

Khamenei spoke at a prayer ceremony in Tehran as Shiite Iranians marked the beginning of Eid al-Fitr holiday that follows the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan.

JERUSALEM (AP) — Hamas rulers have presented a list of demands to stop their fire on Israel in the Gaza war. Israel has said it doesn't want to reward Hamas for its rocket campaign, but has other reasons to oppose the demands — mostly based on security.

Here's a look at Hamas' list of demands and why Israel is unlikely to accept many of them:

___

View gallery

Smoke rises at the port in Gaza City, northern Gaza Strip, hit by an Israeli strike, Tuesday, July 2 …

View gallery

Smoke and flames rise from the Gaza power plant after it was hit by Israeli strikes, in the Nusseira …

END OF THE ISRAELI OFFENSIVE

Hamas is demanding an "immediate cessation" to Israel's war against it in Gaza, which has hit thousands of Hamas sites, according to the Israeli military. Israel has agreed to several temporary, humanitarian cease-fires but says it will not halt its fire before ending incessant rocket fire from Gaza and destroying Hamas' network of tunnels that have been used to infiltrate Israel and carry out attacks.

___

THE BLOCKADE

Breaking the seven-year blockade of Gaza imposed by Israel and Egypt is the primary Palestinian demand.

Hamas wants its crossings with Israel and Egypt reopened, demanding detailed assurances that the flow of goods and people will be resumed. Egypt has sharply restricted travel in and out of Gaza over the past year, following last year's military ouster of the Hamas-allied Muslim Brotherhood and Islamist President Mohammed Morsi. Hamas is wary of Egyptian assurances to ease the blockade. Such promises also were part of a truce that ended more than a week of fighting in 2012, but were not fully implemented.

While Israel has indicated a willingness to ease some of the restrictions, its main fear is that Hamas will use the free flow to rearm itself and restock its weaponry. Israel says construction material that it has allowed into Gaza was used by Hamas not for building schools and homes but rather to construct tunnels.

___

THE POWER OUTAGE

Even before Gaza's power plant was forced to shut down after it was struck by tank shells Tuesday, Gaza has only enjoyed sporadic power. Throughout the fighting Gazans receive electricity for about four hours a day, down from 12 hours before.

Israel already supplies Gaza with much of its power needs and though the Palestinians owe Israeli companies hundreds of millions of dollars for electricity, power and other services, this appears to be the area in which Israel would show the most flexibility and would not object to helping restore power.

___

FISHING RIGHTS

As part of its efforts to break out of its economic isolation, Hamas is demanding that its sea buffer of 3 nautical miles be removed and they be allowed to extend its fishing area to 12 nautical miles. Israel is unlikely to agree since it would have a hard time monitoring movement and preventing arms smuggling. Israel also is wary of allowing vessels from Gaza getting near its offshore oil drilling sites.

___

HAMAS PRISONERS

Hamas is demanding Israel release hundreds of Hamas prisoners it rounded up in its broad sweep of the West Bank last month during a search for three missing Israeli teens, whose bodies were found more than two weeks after they disappeared. Dozens had been released in a prisoner exchange in 2011 for captive Israeli soldier Gilad Schalit. Israel says those released in 2011 and later recaptured violated the terms of their release. It is unlikely Israel will release them again.

Washington (AFP) - Delaying efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions could cost the US $150 billion per year, the White House warned Tuesday in a report on the economic consequences of inaction on climate change.

"Although delaying action can reduce costs in the short run, on net, delaying action to limit the effects of climate change is costly," the report said.

"A delay that results in warming of 3 degrees Celsius (5.4 degrees Fahrenheit) above preindustrial levels, instead of 2 degrees, could increase economic damages by approximately 0.9 percent of global output," the report said.

That figure represents approximately $150 billion in terms of the estimated 2014 US GDP.

"These costs are not one-time, but are rather incurred year after year because of the permanent damage caused by increased climate change resulting from the delay," the report said.

The United States was 1.5 degrees Fahrenheit warmer during the last decade than the 1901-1960 average.

View gallery

Delaying efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions could cost the US $150 billion per year, the Whi …

It was also the warmest 10-year period on record both in the United States and worldwide, the report added.

President Barack Obama, who made the battle against climate change a core promise of his 2008 election campaign, has faced opposition from lawmakers.

In early June he announced a major initiative that aims to cut carbon emissions from power plants by 30 percent by 2030 from 2005 levels.

Climate change is a hot-button issue in American politics.

Republicans, who control the House of Representatives, are against any new law touching on it, with some even disputing the existence of global warming. Others cast doubt on whether humans are to blame for the phenomenon.

In 2009, Obama pledged to reduce the country's greenhouse gas emissions by 17 percent by 2020 compared to 2005 levels.

View Gallery