Israel on Tuesday stepped up its attacks on the Gaza Strip, flattening a high-rise building used by the Hamas militant group and killing at least three militants in their hideouts as Palestinian rockets rained down almost nonstop on parts of Israel.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed to expand the offensive, while Gaza militants unleashed a fierce late-night barrage of rockets that set off air-raid sirens and explosions throughout the densely populated Tel Aviv metropolitan area.
Netanyahu said that Hamas and the Islamic Jihad militant groups “have paid, and I tell you here, will pay a heavy price for their aggression.”
Photo: AFP
“This campaign will take time,” he said. “With determination, unity and strength, we will restore security to the citizens of Israel.”
Israeli Minister of Defense Benny Gantz said that there was more to come.
“There are lots of targets lined up. This is only the beginning,” Gantz said.
The military said that it was activating about 5,000 reservists and sending troop reinforcements to the Gaza border.
Just after daybreak yesterday, Israel unleashed dozens of airstrikes in the course of a few minutes, targeting police and security installations, witnesses said.
A wall of dark gray smoke rose over Gaza City.
Iyad al-Bozum, a spokesman for the Hamas-run Ministry of the Interior, said that airstrikes destroyed the central police headquarters in Gaza City, a compound with several buildings.
Five Israelis, including three women and a child, were killed by rocket fire on Tuesday and early yesterday, and dozens of people were wounded.
The death toll in Gaza rose to 35 Palestinians, including 10 children, the ministry said.
More than 200 people were wounded, it said.
In the West Bank, a 26-year-old Palestinian was killed during clashes with Israeli troops that entered al-Fawar refugee camp in southern Hebron, the ministry said.
In another sign of widening unrest, demonstrations erupted in Arab communities across Israel, where protesters set dozens of vehicles on fire in confrontations with police.
Palestinian militants in Gaza have fired more than 1,000 rockets toward Israel since Monday evening, the Israeli army said yesterday.
Army spokesman Jonathan Conricus told reporters that the figures related to the barrage that began at about 6pm on Monday, when Hamas Islamists launched rockets toward Jerusalem.
Since then, 850 rockets launched by armed groups in Gaza have landed in Israel or been intercepted by Israel’s Iron Dome air defense system.
Another 200 have landed inside Gaza, Conricus said.
The Israeli army also announced that it had intercepted a Hamas drone.
Conricus said that Israel is exclusively hitting military targets and that the army “goes to great lengths” to minimize the impact on civilians.
In the US, former US president Donald Trump on Tuesday accused US President Joe Biden of “weakness” and lack of support for Israel.
“Under Biden, the world is getting more violent and more unstable, because Biden’s weakness and lack of support for Israel is leading to new attacks on our allies,” Trump said in a statement.
Hailing his own administration as “the peace presidency,” Trump said that Israel’s adversaries knew there would be “swift retribution if Israel was attacked” when he was president.
“America must always stand with Israel and make clear that the Palestinians must end the violence, terror and rocket attacks, and make clear that the US will always strongly support Israel’s right to defend itself,” he said.
The Biden administration called for calm and restraint by Israel and the Palestinians, and urged both sides to avoid “deeply lamentable” civilian deaths.
“Israel does have a right to defend itself,” US Department of State spokesman Ned Price told reporters.
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