ISRAEL PLEDGES TO STEP UP AIRSTRIKES IN GAZA STRIP
Israel has vowed to “intensify” airstrikes in the Gaza Strip after dozens of Hamas rockets pummelled Israeli towns across the border, killing two women.
“We are in the midst of a campaign,” Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, said. “Since yesterday (Monday) afternoon, the Israel Defence Forces has carried out hundreds of strikes against Hamas and Islamic Jihad in Gaza. We've hit commanders and many high-quality targets.”
He was referring to Operation Guardians of the Wall, a major military offensive that has killed at least 31 people in Gaza and injured dozens of others, according to Palestinian reports.
The Israeli strikes were in retaliation for a rocket attack on Jerusalem on Monday. Hamas ordered the action after hundreds of Palestinians were injured in clashes with Israeli police.
The last major conflict between the warring factions was in 2014, when more than 2,000 Gazans and almost 70 Israelis were killed over seven weeks of intense fighting.
Many Israelis in Ashkelon, about 50 kilometres south of Tel Aviv, retreated to safe rooms as their neighbourhoods were hammered by rockets.
Hamas on Tuesday appeared to be focusing most of its firepower on the coastal city in an apparent attempt to overwhelm Israel's Iron Dome defence system. The Islamist group claimed it had fired a total of 137 rockets in just five minutes during the barrage of Ashkelon.
“First I heard distant explosions and then I heard one that was so strong I knew it was very close,” 50-year-old Igor Tsvitkoviz told The Daily Telegraph as explosions continued to echo around the city.
In nearby Ashdod, smoke billowed from the roof of an Israeli house that suffered a direct rocket hit. The property was empty at the time but a relative, Rachel Sharbit, said the family's children were sobbing uncontrollably each time they heard an air raid siren.
Asked how the Israeli government should respond to the ongoing assault, she said: “We must use force to make sure this will stop, it's impossible to continue our lives like this.”
Two Israelis were killed during the rocket barrage — an elderly woman and her caregiver. Media reports said they had not managed to reach a bomb shelter in time.
In the Gaza Strip, a 13-storey residential block collapsed on Tuesday night after being hit by an Israeli air strike, witnesses said, and three people were wounded in a retaliatory rocket attack from Gaza on Tel Aviv.
Video footage showed three plumes of thick, black smoke rising from the Gaza tower, its upper stories still intact as they fell. The building houses an office used by the political leadership of Hamas.
Electricity in the surrounding area went out, and residents were using flashlights.
Israel says it takes extreme care to avoid civilian casualties, while military officials suggested that some deaths may have been caused by Hamas rockets misfiring on home soil.
Shortly after the attack, Hamas and the Islamic Jihad group said they would respond by firing rockets at Tel Aviv.
Air raid sirens and explosions were heard around the city, and the skies were lit up by the streaks of multiple interceptor missiles launched towards the incoming rockets.
Pedestrians ran for shelter, and diners streamed out of Tel Aviv restaurants while others flattened themselves on pavements as the sirens sounded. Israeli television stations said three people had been wounded in the suburb of Holon.
The Israel Airports Authority said it had halted take-offs at Tel Aviv's Ben Gurion airport “to allow defence of (the) nation's skies.”
The International Committee of the Red Cross urged all sides to step back, and reminded them of the requirement in international law to try to avoid civilian casualties.
The United States said on Tuesday it was deeply concerned by the escalation between Israel and those launching rockets from Gaza and called on all sides to exercise restraint.
“We call for restraint and for calm. Israel has the right to defend itself and to respond to rocket attacks. The Palestinian people also have the right to safety and security, just as Israelis do,” State Department spokesman Ned Price said at his daily briefing, saying U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken spoke to Israeli Foreign Minister Gabi Ashkenazi on Tuesday.
On Tuesday night it was also reported that Egypt and Qatar, who have mediated past Israeli-Hamas conflicts, were attempting to calm tensions.
However, Sameh Shoukry, Egypt's foreign minister, told an Arab League meeting that although Cairo had “extensively reached out” to Israel and other concerned countries, “we did not get the necessary response.”