Naim: Israeli air strikes on Gaza kill 300 Palestinians, wound 1000 others

GAZA, (PIC)-- Palestinian health minister Dr. Basim Naim has affirmed that the brutal Israeli air strikes on Gaza Strip reaped more than 300 Palestinian lives, and wounded close to 1000 others, scores of them in critical conditions. Israeli warplanes of all kinds were used in attacking the densely populated Gaza Strip, and unleashed tens of missiles against Palestinian police headquarters and civilian buildings, increasing the death toll. In a press conference he held Sunday evening, Naim underlined that bodies of tens of civilians were still under the rubble of the destroyed buildings, adding that Gaza sky was covered with smoke and occupation warplanes. He said that blood and chopped limbs were seen everywhere on the streets. But Naim highlighted that the most serious obstacle facing Palestinian doctors was the severe shortage in medicine and medical equipment to treat the growing number of injuries among the Palestinians. He added that almost half of the ambulance vehicles in Gaza Strip were out of work due to lack of spare parts as a result of the Israeli economic blockade on Gaza, adding that Gaza hospitals urgently need electricity generators to help run the remaining equipments. "This brutal Israeli aggression is carried out amidst awful Arab silence, and clear international connivance", stressed Naim, pointing out that the Israeli warplanes have indiscriminately bombed civilian and security buildings in the Strip, and that it was calling owners of Palestinian homes to vacate their housed in preparation to flatten them. Moreover, Naim called on Arab health ministers to dispatch medical teams to the "steadfast" Strip, and to send medicine and ambulances equipped with intensive care equipments. He also shrugged off statements of Ahmad Abu Al-Ghait, Egypt's foreign minister, alleging that Hamas was blocking wounded Palestinians from passing into Egypt, explaining that Egypt is still sealing off the Rafah crossing point, in addition to the fact that many of the wounded Palestinians were in serious conditions and "transporting them could jeopardize their lives". "We still remember the six wounded Palestinians who were martyred after transferring them to Al-Areesh (in Egypt)", underscored Naim, disclosing that the PA government in Gaza had requested Egyptian ambulances to come into the Strip and to carry the wounded Palestinians, but, he added, Egypt refused our request in addition to preventing hundreds of Arab volunteer doctors from helping their comrades in Gaza. In this regard, Naim urged the Egyptian regime to allow Arab medical assistance into the Strip through the Rafah border terminal, saying that Egypt was still blocking such medical aid from passing on to the Palestinians. In Damascus, Dr. Sami Abu Zuhri, the spokesman of Hamas, rejected Abul Ghait's fabrications on opening the Rafah crossing before the wounded Palestinians, asserting that the ongoing Israeli war on Gaza was declared from Cairo. "It is clear that those statements were meant to cover up positions of certain Arab parties involved in the conspiracy against Gaza", asserted Abu Zuhri in a press release Sunday and a copy of which was obtained by the PIC. He also lashed out at PA chief Mahmoud Abbas and Abul Ghait for "trying to justify the Israeli massacre in Gaza, accusing them of attempting to exploit the precious Palestinian blood for mean political goals".