News Desk :Israel is massing its troops on the Gaza border in preparation for a possible ground attack – just hours after its airforce struck a mosque that was allegedly being used to hide Hamas’s weapons. Israeli lorries are pictured transporting tanks on a road leading to Gaza on Saturday.Meanwhile a ceaseless Israeli bombing with air strikes every five minutes, has turned the frenetic hub of the Gaza Strip into a virtual ghost town, emptying streets, closing shops and keeping hundreds of thousands of people close to home where they feel safest from the bombs.Residents said a mosque in the central Gaza Strip was bombed to rubble. The Israeli military said the mosque had housed a weapons cache.Eight other mosques have been damaged from bombing and 537 Gaza houses have either been destroyed or damaged, according to the Gaza-based Al-Mezan Association for Human Rights.In Israel, hundreds of rockets fired by Gaza militants also send civilians running into bomb shelters and staying close to home. However, there have been no fatalities there, while the death toll in Gaza topped 120 on Saturday from the five-day offensive.In Gaza, residents remain torn between fear for their safety and sadness over the loss of a normal Ramzan, usually a time of deep spirituality leavened by great joy and celebration.”The situation is very bad and not usual at all,” housewife Umm Al-Abed said. “People in the month of Ramzan used to visit each other and go to buy things that are only sold during Ramzan. But now because of the atmosphere of war, people are afraid to go out and there are no salaries for anyone.”As she spoke, she searched in vain for open Israel massing shops on Omar Mukhtar, one of the city’s main thoroughfares, where she had hoped to buy special foods for the holiday.”The economy is very bad and as you can see the shops are all closed and the people are all in their homes,” she said.At least 127 Palestinians have been killed since Israel began its operation five days ago, Palestinian sources say.The UN says three-quarters of those are civilian deaths.There is no sign of both sides agreeing on a ceasefire, despite intense diplomacy at the United Nations.Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Friday that his country will resist foreign pressure to halt its operations.”The objective is to restore quiet to the cities of Israel, and I intend to achieve this objective,” he said.Thousands of Israeli troops have massed along the border with Gaza amid warnings by Israel that it is prepared to launch a ground offensive.To the outside world the Gaza rockets may seem ineffective – partly because many are homemade and partly because they’re hopelessly overmatched by Israel’s Iron Dome anti-missile defence system.But Israeli civilians judge the rockets by the intent behind them and not by their military effectiveness. They are grimly familiar with the ritual of running for shelter with their children when they hear a 15-second warning. They expect their government to put a stop to it.The problem is that there’s no easy way of doing that.Even if you believe in the myth of the accuracy of modern weapons systems, you have to accept that air raids are going to kill innocent people.The Palestinian health ministry says in addition to those killed, at least 940 people – mainly civilians – have been injured in Israel’s Operation Protective Edge since it began on Tuesday.The UN Office for the Co-ordination of Humanitarian Affairs said earlier that 77% of the people killed in Gaza had been civilians.Israel said on Saturday morning it had hit over 60 “terror targets” overnight and had carried out 1,160 strikes since the start of its offensive. It said Hamas had fired 689 rockets in the first four days.The rockets have caused damage and some injuries in Israel.A senior Arab league official said Arab foreign ministers will hold an emergency meeting in Cairo on Monday to discuss the continued Israeli offensive and measures to urge the international community to pressure Israel.Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas requested the meeting, which was approved by several Arab foreign ministers in coordination with the Arab League. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to brief journalists.Meanwhile, the Palestinians and their international supporters are discussing a United Nations draft resolution that would condemn all violence against civilians in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and call for “an immediate, durable and fully respected cease-fire.” However, the Palestinian draft makes no mention of the firing of hundreds of rockets into Israel by Hamas, likely making it unacceptable to the United States if it was introduced in the UN Security Council.
