Soldier killed as cabinet okays more attacks
1,200 rockets pound Israel • International community urges de-escalation
Rocket fire killed an IDF soldier and a six-year-old was critically injured in a direct strike on a building in Sderot on Wednesday as Gaza-Israel violence continued for the third straight day.
Israel continues to reject ceasefire offers, with a senior official saying that first Hamas must “pay a price” for the firing of more than 1,200 rockets into Israel since the wave of violence began on Monday.
The security cabinet held a meeting on Wednesday evening and okayed Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s plans of attack for the coming days, instructing an increase in IDF strikes on Gaza.
Since the violence began on Monday, hundreds of rockets and mortars have been fired toward Israeli territory, with 200 falling short into the Hamas-run coastal enclave. Several of the rockets fired made direct hits on buildings and cars in Israel, killing eight Israelis, including a child and teenager.
Another 46 Israelis have been injured during the rocket barrages, including several in serious condition.
Two victims were Khalil Awad, 52, and his daughter Nadin, 16, Arab-Israeli residents of a town near Lod, killed by a rocket that scored a direct hit on their car in Lod early Wednesday morning. The mixed Jewish-Arab city was shaken by violent riots throughout the night.
Two women were killed in Ashkelon on Tuesday afternoon; in the evening, two women were killed in Rishon Lezion, one by a rocket that struck outside her home and her neighbor by a heart attack following the attack.
A six-year-old boy was injured in Sderot after his family’s apartment sustained a direct hit on Wednesday evening. His mother was seriously wounded, and a third person was moderately wounded.
IDF soldier St.-Sgt. Omer Tabib was killed and three others were wounded after Hamas fired a Kornet antitank guided missile (ATGM) toward their jeep near the southern Israeli community of Netiv Ha’Asara on Wednesday morning.
The jeep, belonging to the 931st Nahal battalion, was inside the Netiv Ha’asara moshav just north of the Gaza Strip, at a spot where it was exposed to the missile. Mortars were then fired toward it in an attempt to prevent the wounded from being evacuated. The military extricated the wounded and took them to hospital, and struck back at the source of fire.
Shortly before the attack, the IDF warned residents of the Gaza border communities to remain at home, out of concern that Hamas might fire short-range mortars or ATGMs, or aim sniper fire at civilians in the area.
The Israeli military continued to execute waves of airstrikes against Hamas terrorists, including its senior commanders and their homes, as well as several high-rise buildings that housed infrastructure belonging to the terrorist group, such as military intelligence offices.
In response to the bombing of high-rise buildings in Gaza City, hundreds of rockets pounded Israel throughout Tuesday and Wednesday with sirens wailing throughout the center and south of the country, including Tel Aviv and Beersheba. In one of the strikes, senior Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad leaders were killed.
Speaking to reporters, IDF Spokesperson Brig.-Gen. Hidai Zilberman said that while they have so far taken down two high-rises, “there