Israel-Gaza fighting rages as diplomacy yet to gain traction
GAZA, May 15, ( Reuters) - Israel pounded Gaza with air strikes and Palestinian militants launched rocket salvoes at Tel Aviv and other cities on Saturday, with no sign of an end to almost a week of fighting.
The death toll is rising from the worst escalation since 2014 and diplomacy has so far failed to quell it.
Israel's military destroyed a tower block in Gaza City on Saturday that housed the US Associated Press and Qatarbased Al-Jazeera media operations, as well as other offices and apartments.
Israel gave advance warning of the strike so it could be evacuated, saying the target contained military assets of Hamas, the Islamist group that runs Gaza.
In Tel Aviv, residents fled for cover amid wailing sirens as Hamas militants fired barrages of rockets. One hit a residential block in the Ramat Gan suburb, killing a 50-year old man, medics said. The group said the salvoes responded to overnight strikes on Gaza's Beach refugee camp, where a woman and four of her children were killed when her house was hit. Five others died, medics said. Israel said it targeted an apartment used by Hamas.
Palestinians say at least 139 people, including 39 children, have been killed in Gaza since the conflict erupted on Monday.
Israeli medics have reported 10 dead, including two children, and said six people were in critical condition.
Hamas launched Monday's assault after tensions over a court case to evict several Palestinian families in East Jerusalem and in retaliation for Israeli police clashes with
Palestinians near the city's al-Aqsa Mosque, Islam's third holiest site. Strikes have lit up Gaza's night sky since the fighting began.
Akram Farouq, 36, dashed out of his home overnight with
his family after a neighbour told him they had received a call from an Israeli officer saying their building would be hit - a familiar pattern for attacks on what Israel deems military sites. “We haven't slept all
night because of the explosions, and now I am out in the street with my wife and children, who are weeping and trembling,” Farouq said.
Regional and international diplomatic efforts have yet to show any signs of halting hostilities. Egypt, which shares a border with Gaza and has led regional diplomatic efforts, has been pushing for a ceasefire so talks could start.
Hostilities between Israel and Gaza have been accompanied by violence in Israel's mixed communities of Jews and Arabs. Synagogues have been attacked, Arab-owned shops vandalised and street fights have broken out. Israel's president has warned of civil war.