'Terrifying night' as Israel and Hamas trade airstrikes and rocket attacks
Palestinian militants in Gaza have fired more than 180 rockets and mortars into southern Israel and the Israeli military has launched 150 airstrikes as weeks of on-off violence came to a head, stymying hopes of a truce.
Three Palestinians were killed, including a pregnant woman, a toddler and a Hamas fighter. Several Israelis were wounded, along with a 30-yearold Thai woman living in Israel.
The Hamas-run ministry of health in Gaza named two of the dead as Enas Khammash, 23, who was pregnant, and her 18-month-old daughter Bayan. It said 12 others were injured.
The Israeli army said it had targeted “strategic military sites” including Hamas weapons manufacturing and training locations.
The bloodshed on Thursday was the third severe flare-up during the past two months, which have seen the two sides trade their most intense attacks since the 2014 war, and which have led to warnings of a possible fourth conflict.
Since late March, Palestinians have been protesting near the frontier, in part against an Israeli-imposed blockade that severely limits the movement of people and goods in and out of the enclave. The response to these mass gatherings at the perimeter fence has caused a global outcry, with snipers shooting dead more than 150 Palestinians, including children, medics and journalists. Thousands more have been wounded.
Israel says the movement is being orchestrated by Hamas as a cover for attacks and points to shootings along the frontier that have killed one soldier. Palestinians have in the past few weeks begun to launch “flaming kites” into Israel, torching huge swathes of farmland.
In Gaza overnight, explosions could be seen as bombs landed. Hanan Qishawi, 32, said she and her three children were up all night in “constant terror”.
“I do not remember experiencing such a terrifying night since the end of the 2014 war. When it was quiet, I fell asleep, and suddenly a big boom woke me up. I was waiting for daylight.”
In the Israeli city of Sderot, explosions smashed up cars and motorbikes, dented pavements and pockmarked buildings with shrapnel. Sirens sounded into Thursday morning, sending residents to bomb shelters.
Oshrit Sabag, a resident from the Israeli community of Nahal Oz, a few hundred metres from the Gaza fence, said she spent much of the night in her children’s bedroom, which doubles as the family’s bomb shelter.
“We’re mostly scared that there will be another war,” she said by phone. “We’ve had tens of fires. Houses were burnt. Now rockets and mortar bombs. It’s chaos.”
Nickolay Mladenov, the UN envoy for the Middle East conflict, called on all sides to “step back from the brink”.
“Our collective efforts have prevented the situation from exploding until now. If the current escalation, however, is not contained immediately, the situation can rapidly deteriorate with devastating consequences for all people,” he said in a statement.
UN officials, along with Egypt, which works as an intermediary between both parties to the conflict who will not speak directly, have sought to secure a long-term truce.
Israel hoped a lasting agreement might end the months of protests and deadly attacks. Hamas has sought to alleviate the decade-long Israeli-Egyptian blockade of Gaza.
The latest round of attacks followed the killing of two Hamas fighters on Tuesday in what the Israeli army said was an act of retaliation for a shooting attack on its forces. The militant group said the two were involved in a training exercise, not an attack, and promised to retaliate in turn.
Asked about the incident, an Israel Defence Forces spokesman, Lt Col Jonathan Conricus, said: “Hamas operatives, terrorists, were in a known Hamas position and fired weapons in a general direction towards the fence.
“I won’t go into further details on whether we understand it was an exercise or it wasn’t. But I can say that our mission is to defend Israeli civilians and of course if our soldiers are fired upon, we respond.”
Reuters and Agence France-Presse contributed to this report