Issue link: http://www.epageflip.net/i/367522
ByIbrahimBarzak The Associated Press GAZA CITY, GAZA STRIP Hamas' shadowy military chief escaped an apparent Israeli assassination at- tempt that killed his wife and infant son, the mili- tant group said Wednesday as Israel's prime minister warned that the bombard- ment of Gaza will continue until rocket fire out of the Palestinian territory stops. The airstrike on a home where Mohammed Deif's family members were stay- ing — and the tough talk from Prime Minister Benja- min Netanyahu — came af- ter the collapse of cease-fire talks in Cairo on Tuesday. In a nationally televised address, Netanyahu showed little willingness to return to thenegotiatingtableaftersix weeks of war with Hamas. "We are determined to continue the campaign with all means and as is needed," he said, his defense minis- ter by his side. "We will not stop until we guarantee full security and quiet for the residents of the south and all citizens of Israel." More than 2,000 Pales- tinians have been killed in the fighting, most of them civilians, according to U.N. and Palestinian medical officials. Sixty-seven peo- ple have died on the Israeli side, all but three of them soldiers. A six-day temporary truce collapsed into heavy fighting after Egyptian-me- diated talks broke down without an agreement on an extended cease-fire. Hamas has demanded an end to an Israeli-Egyptian blockade of Gaza. Israel has demanded that Hamas dis- arm. Palestinian militants launched dozens of rock- ets into Israel, while Israel carried out numerous air- strikes across Gaza. One airstrike on a Gaza City house killed Deif's 7-month- old son and one of his wives. After remaining quiet for most of the day Wednesday, Hamas officials announced that Deif was not in the tar- geted home at the time and was still alive. Deif has sur- vived multiple assassina- tion attempts, lives in hid- ing and is believed to be paralyzed from previous attempts on his life. Abu Obeida, the spokes- man for Hamas' military wing, said Israel was "un- able to get to our com- mander Deif," adding that he will "lead the army that will enter to liberate the holy al- Aqsa mosque" in Jerusalem. Asked whether Deif had been targeted, Netanyahu said: "The leaders of ter- ror organizations are legit- imate targets. No one is im- mune." The house belonged to a family of known Hamas supporters. In footage taken after the strike, res- cue workers were seen searching for survivors in the rubble where the build- ing once stood. Thousands of people at- tended the funeral for Deif's family, with a relative car- rying the body of his son, shrouded in a white burial cloth. Mourners chanted "revenge" during the pro- cession. In a televised statement, Abu Obeida also warned in- ternational airlines against flying into Israel start- ing Thursday. Earlier in the conflict, airlines sus- pended flights into Israel after a rocket landed in a town near Israel's main in- ternational airport. Since the truce collapsed, at least 22 Palestinians have been killed and more than 120 wounded, Gaza Health Ministry official Ashraf al- Kidra said. The Israeli military said that it carried out nearly 100 airstrikes on Gaza tar- gets, and that Palestin- ians had fired more than 140 rockets at Israel since the truce fell apart. About 2,000 reserve soldiers who had been sent home two weeks ago were called up for duty again Wednesday, the military said. MIDEAST CONFLICT Airstrikekillswife,childofHamasfigure THEASSOCIATEDPRESS Smoke and dust rise a er an Israeli strike hit Gaza City in the northern Gaza Strip, Wednesday. ABBAS DULLEH ‑ THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Liberian Police dressed in riot gear deploy at a MSF, 'Doctors Without Borders', Ebola treatment center as they provide security in the city of Monrovia, Liberia on Monday. By Jonathan Paye- Layleh The Associated Press MONROVIA, LIBERIA Riot police and soldiers act- ing on their president's or- ders used scrap wood and barbed wire to seal off 50,000 people inside their Liberian slum Wednesday, trying to contain the Eb- ola outbreak that has killed 1,350 people and counting across West Africa. Hundreds of slum res- idents clashed with the gunmen, furious at being blamed and isolated by a government that has failed to quickly collect dead bod- ies from the streets. One 15-year-old boy was injured trying to cross the barbed wire as security forces fired into the air to disperse the crowd. The World Health Orga- nization said the death toll is rising most quickly in Li- beria, which now accounts for at least 576 of the fatal- ities. At least 2,473 people have been sickened across West Africa, which is now more than the caseloads of all the previous two-dozen Ebola outbreaks combined. The U.N. health agency also warned of shortages of food, water and other es- sential supplies in West Af- rica's population centers. And if it's bad in these capitals, it's much worse in- side West Point, a densely populated slum surrounded by floating sewage that oc- cupies a half-mile (kilome- ter) long peninsula in Libe- ria's seaside capital. West Point suffers from government neglect even in the best of times, and mis- trust of authorities is ram- pant. Open defecation is a major problem. Drink- ing water is carted in on wheelbarrows, and people depend on a local market for their food. Now many of the market's traders are stuck inside, prices have doubled and "the commu- nity is in disarray," slum resident Richard Kieh said. "Why are you ill-treating people like this? How can we take this kind of gov- ernment to be peaceful? It is not fair — We are human," complained another resi- dent, Mohamed Fahnbulleh. Ebola is only spread through direct contact with the bodily fluids of sick people experiencing symptoms. Those at great- est risk are doctors and nurses and people who handle the dead. Still, vic- tims often suffer gruesome deaths, bleeding from the eyes, mouth and ears, and the fatality rate of about 50 percent has provoked wide- spread panic. West Point has been a flash point. Days ear- lier, residents ransacked a screening center where people in contact with Ebola victims were being monitored. They dragged out sheets and mattresses covered with blood and fe- ces, accusing the govern- ment of bringing sick peo- ple into their neighbor- hood. Dozens of potential carriers were taken else- where in the city. President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf responded by im- posing a nighttime curfew and ordering "quarantines" of West Point and Dolo Town, another densely populated slum outside the capital. She also ordered movie theaters, nightclubs and other gathering places shut, stopped ferry service to the peninsula and de- ployed a coast guard boat to patrol the surrounding waters. Liberia seals off slums as E bo la s et s re co rd DISEASE OUTBREAK By Nataliya Vasilyeva The Associated Press DONETSK, UKRAINE After days of street battles and weeks of shelling, Ukrai- nian troops made a signif- icant push Wednesday into rebel-held territory, claim- ing control over a large part of the separatist stronghold of Luhansk and nearly en- circling Donetsk, the larg- est rebel-held city. The advance of the Ukrainian army against pro-Russian separatists comes as the civilian death toll is mounting from sus- tained artillery strikes and rebel cities are slipping into a humanitarian di- saster. At least 52 deaths were reported Wednesday, along with 64 wounded — and due to the dangers of the war zone in eastern Ukraine, no deaths were reported from Luhansk, meaning the actual toll could be even higher. Ukrainian troops have been trying for weeks to drive the rebels out of Lu- hansk and cut off Donetsk, a city of 1 million that has shrunk by a third as fright- ened residents fled. In the last few days, several neigh- borhoods in Donetsk have been hit with sustained ar- tillery fire and fighting on the city's outskirts has be- come more intense. The death toll mounted quickly on Wednesday. In the Donetsk region, 43 lo- cals were killed and 42 wounded in less than two days, including in two deadly artillery attacks Wednesday afternoon in the capital of Donetsk, lo- cal authorities said. In ad- dition, nine troops died and 22 were wounded in fight- ing in a town outside Do- netsk. Luhansk city authorities reported running battles between the two sides. By early evening, government forces took control of "sig- nificant parts" of Luhansk, an eastern city just 20 kilo- meters (12 miles) from the Russian border, said An- driy Lysenko, a spokesman for Ukraine's National Se- curity Council. A Ukrainian SU-25 plane was also shot down near Luhansk, Lysenko told TV station 112 late Wednesday. He said the location of the pilot was still unknown. Hard-hit Luhansk has been without electricity, running water or phone connections for 18 days due to the fighting. Russia has sent a massive aid convoy to help residents there but it is still stuck at the border, not yet approved by Kiev because its proposed route lies through rebel-held ter- ritory. Ukraine has accused Russia of arming and sup- porting the separatists, a charge Russia denies. Ukraine and the West fear the massive aid convoy — over 200 trucks — will be used in some way to help the separatist militia. Donetsk, meanwhile, has come under daily shelling attacks from all sides. On Wednesday morning, rock- ets slammed into residen- tial areas, including the Do- netsk suburb of Makiivka. More rockets hit in the af- ternoon. "I was with my grand- mother in the bathroom, because there is a bearing wall in there," said Anna Zyukova, 22. "And then all of sudden, bam-bam." Many Donetsk residents have been taking refuge in improvised bomb shelters in the basements of apart- ment buildings. SEPARATIST STRONGHOLD Ukrainian troops take over much of Luhansk By Frank Jordans The Associated Press BERLIN Humans and Ne- anderthals may have coex- isted in Europe for more than 5,000 years, provid- ing ample time for the two species to meet and mix, ac- cording to new research. Using new carbon dating techniques and mathemati- cal models, researchers ex- amined about 200 samples found at 40 sites from Spain to Russia, according to a study published Wednes- day in the journal Nature. They concluded with a high probability that pockets of Neanderthal culture sur- vived until between 41,030 and 39,260 years ago. Although this puts the disappearance of Neander- thals earlier than some sci- entists previously thought, the findings support the idea that they lived along- side humans, who arrived in Europe about 45,000- 43,000 years ago. "We believe we now have the first robust time- line that sheds new light on some of the key questions around the possible inter- actions between Neander- thals and modern humans," said Thomas Higham, an ar- chaeologist at the University of Oxford who led the study. While it's known that Neanderthal genes have survived in the DNA of many modern humans to this day, suggesting that at least some interbreed- ing took place, scientists are still unclear about the extent of their contact and the reasons why Neander- thals vanished. "These new results con- firm a long-suspected chronological overlap be- tween the last Neanderthals and the first modern hu- mans in Europe," said Jean- Jacques Hublin, director of the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany. NEW RESEARCH Neanderthals had 'ample time' to mix Deli-TastyBurgers-Wraps NewTo-GoSection Thursday, Friday & Saturday Lunch & Dinner Buffet Happy Hour with Cocktails, Food & Entertainment Saigon Bistro 723 Walnut St. Red Bluff 528-9670 STOVEJUNCTION The TheNorthState'spremiersupplierofstoves 22825 Antelope Blvd., Red Bluff 530-528-2221 • Fax 530-528-2229 www.thestovejunction.com Over 25 years of experience Tues-Sat9am-5pm• ClosedSun&Mon Now Carrying! GreenMountainGrills & Accessories Serving Butte, Glenn & Tehama Counties Smog Check (MOST CARS & PICK-UPS) 527-9841 • 195 S. Main St. starting at $ 29 95 + $ 8 25 certificate SERVICESATLOWERPRICES All makes and models. We perform dealer recommened 30K, 60K, 90K MembersWelcome RUNNINGS ROOFING SheetMetalRoofing ResidentialCommercial • Composition • Shingle • Single Ply Membrane Ownerisonsiteoneveryjob ServingTehamaCounty 530-527-5789 530-209-5367 NoMoney Down! "NoJobTooSteep" " No Job Too Flat" FREE ESTIMATES CA. LIC#829089 THURSDAY, AUGUST 21, 2014 REDBLUFFDAILYNEWS.COM | NEWS | 3 B