Israeli air strike destroys 12-storey building in Gaza

JERUSALEM: Israel unleashed new airstrikes on Gaza, killing a number of militants and civilians, while militants barraged southern Israel with hundreds of rockets, killing two Israeli citizens.

A 12-storey building in Gaza where several top Hamas commanders had offices collapsed after being hit by an Israeli air strike on Tuesday. The building located near the seafront was completely destroyed following the strike

At least 28 Palestinians – including 10 children and a woman – were killed in Gaza, most by air strikes, health officials said. Two women were killed by rockets fired from Gaza that hit their homes in the southern city of Ashkelon – the first Israeli deaths in the current violence. At least 10 other Israelis have been wounded

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said officials decided to “increase both the strength and rate of the strikes” against Hamas and Islamic Jihad in the Gaza Strip. “Hamas will receive blows now that it didn’t expect,” he said.

Even before the two Israeli deaths, the Israeli military said it was sending troop reinforcements to the Gaza border and the defence minister ordered the mobilisation of 5,000 reserve soldiers.

The barrage of rockets and airstrikes was preceded by hours of clashes between Palestinians and Israeli security forces, including dramatic confrontations at Jerusalem’s Al-Aqsa Mosque compound.

The current violence, like previous rounds, including the last intifada, or uprising, has been fuelled by conflicting claims over Jerusalem, In a sign of widening unrest, hundreds of residents of Arab communities across Israel staged overnight demonstrations denouncing the recent actions of Israeli security forces against Palestinians.

Israel and Hamas have fought three wars and numerous skirmishes since the militant group seized control of Gaza in 2007. Israel carried out dozens of air strikes, including two that targeted high-rise apartment buildings where militants were believed to be hiding.

At midday, an airstrike hit an apartment building in central Gaza City, sending terrified residents running into the street, including women and barefoot children.

The Islamic Jihad militant group confirmed that the strike killed three of its commanders. An earlier air strike struck another high-rise in the city as people were conducting dawn prayers, killing a woman, her 19-year-old son and another man.

Lieutenant Colonel Jonathan Conricus, an Israeli military spokesman, said Gaza militants fired more than 500 rockets at Israel, with about one-third falling short and landing in Gaza.

The rocket fire was so intense that Israel’s Iron Dome rocket-defence system appeared to be overwhelmed. At midday, a barrage of some 10 rockets whizzed above the southern city of Ashdod, filling the skies with streaks of white smoke.

A rocket that hit an apartment building in the coastal Israeli city of Ashkelon injured six people, A building in Ashdod was also hit, lightly wounding four, Israeli police said. Lt Col Conricus said the military hit 130 targets in Gaza, including two tunnels militants were digging under the border with Israel.

In Gaza, most of the deaths were attributed to air strikes. However, seven of the deaths were members of a single family, including three children, who died in an explosion in the northern Gaza town of Beit Hanoun.

Israel struck scores of Gaza homes in its 2014 war with Hamas, arguing it was aiming at militants, but also killing many civilians. The practice drew broad international condemnation at the time. Israel’s tactics in Jerusalem have drawn angry reactions from the Muslim world.