Israel pushes Gaza offensive, 67 dead
GAZA CITY: Israel has pressed ahead with a fierce military offensive in the Gaza Strip on Wednesday night, killing as many as 67 Palestinians, including 10 senior Hamas military figures, while seven Israelis have died so far.
The airstrikes toppled a pair of explosions across Gaza. Airstrikes high-rise towers housing Hamas continued throughout the day, filling facilities in a series of airstrikes. the sky with pillars of smoke. The Islamic militant group showed At nightfall, the streets of Gaza no signs of backing down and fired City resembled a ghost town as hundreds of rockets at Israeli cities. people huddled indoors on the
In just three days, this latest final night of Ramadan. The evening, round of fighting between the bitter followed by the Eid al-Fitr enemies has already begun to holiday, is usually a time of vibrant resemble — and even exceed — a nightlife, shopping and crowded devastating 50-day war in 2014. restaurants.
Like that previous war, neither side “There is nowhere to run. appears to have an exit strategy. There is nowhere to hide,” said
But there are key differences. Zeyad Khattab, a 44-year-old The fighting has triggered the worst pharmacist who fled with a Jewish-Arab violence inside Israel dozen other relatives to a family in decades. And looming in the home in central Gaza after background is an international bombs pounded his apartment war crimes investigation. building in Gaza City. “That terror
Israel carried out an intense barrage is impossible to describe.” of airstrikes just after sunrise, Gaza militants continued to striking dozens of targets in several bombard Israel with nonstop minutes that set off bone-rattling rocket fire throughout the day and into early Thursday. The attacks brought life to a standstill in southern communities near Gaza, but also reached as far north as the Tel Aviv area, about 70 kilometers to the north, for a second straight day.
The military said sirens also wailed in northern Israel’s Migdal HaEmek area, the farthest the effects of Gaza rockets have reached since 2014.
“We’re coping, sitting at home, hoping it will be OK,” said Motti Haim, a resident of the central town of Beer Yaakov and father of two children. “It’s not simple running to the shelter. It’s not easy with the kids.”
Gaza’s Health Ministry said the death toll rose to 67 Palestinians, including 16 children and five women. Islamic Jihad confirmed the deaths of seven militants while Hamas acknowledged that a top commander and several other members were killed.
A total of seven people have been killed in Israel including four people who died on Wednesday. Among them were a soldier killed by an anti-tank missile and a sixyear-old child hit in a rocket attack.
The Israeli military claims the number of militants killed so far is much higher than Hamas has acknowledged.