Palestinian militants yesterday kept up their most intense rocket fire on Israel since the 2014 Gaza war, drawing Israeli airstrikes against Hamas’ TV station and other targets.
The flare-up, in which five Palestinians, four of them militants, and a civilian in Israel were killed, threatened to derail efforts by the UN, Egypt and Qatar to broker a long-term truce and head off another major conflict in the impoverished enclave.
Hamas, Gaza’s dominant Islamist movement, and other armed factions launched more than 400 rockets or mortar bombs across the border after carrying out a surprise guided missile attack on Monday on a bus that wounded an Israeli soldier, the Israeli military said.
Photo: EPA-EFE
Hamas said that it was retaliating for a botched Israeli commando raid in Gaza that killed one of its commanders and six other gunmen.
An Israeli colonel was also killed in the raid.
Sirens in southern Israeli towns and the port of Ashkelon sent residents rushing to bomb shelters, while several homes were hit.
The military said Israel’s Iron Dome anti-rocket system intercepted more than 100 rockets and mortar bombs.
Israel responded with dozens of airstrikes against Gaza buildings, including a Hamas intelligence compound and the al-Aqsa TV studios, whose employees had received advance warnings from the military to evacuate.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu yesterday convened his security Cabinet to discuss Israel’s next moves, and the military said it had sent infantry and armored reinforcements to the Gaza border.
A statement issued by militant groups in Gaza said Ashdod, a major Israeli port, and Beersheba, the biggest city in southern Israel, would be hit next if Israel did not cease fire.
Egypt urged Israel to back down. The US, whose peace mediation has been stalled since a seven-week war in 2014, condemned Hamas.
“The escalation in the past 24 hours is EXTREMELY dangerous and reckless,” UN Middle East envoy Nickolay Mladenov said on Twitter. “Rockets must STOP, restraint must be shown by all!”
Israeli military spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Jonathan Conricus said the military estimated that Hamas and the Islamic Jihad group have more than 20,000 rockets and mortars of varying calibers and ranges that are capable of reaching Israel’s main cities of Tel Aviv and Jerusalem.
Violence has simmered since Palestinians launched weekly border protests on March 30 to demand the easing of a blockade on Gaza and rights to lands lost in the 1948 war of Israel’s founding.
Israeli troops have killed more that 220 Palestinians during the confrontations, which have included border breaches.
A Qatari cash infusion of US$15 million last week appeared to dampen Gazan anger.
On Sunday, Netanyahu said he hoped to reach an “arrangement” to avoid another Gaza war and ease Palestinian economic hardship.
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