Dozens dead as Gaza buildings destroyed
ISRAELI airstrikes on Gaza City flattened three buildings and killed at least 42 people yesterday, according to reports, as Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu signalled that fighting with the territory’s Hamas rulers would continue despite international efforts to broker a ceasefire.
Mr Netanyahu said the attacks were continuing at “full force” and would “take time”.
Israel “wants to levy a heavy price” from Gaza’s militant Hamas rulers, the prime minister said, flanked by his defence minister and political rival, Benny Gantz, in a show of unity.
The Israeli air assault early yesterday was the deadliest single attack since heavy fighting broke out between Israel and Hamas a week ago, marking the worst fighting since the devastating 2014 war in Gaza. The airstrikes hit a city centre street, with residential properties and shops along it, over the course of five minutes just after midnight, destroying two adjacent buildings and one about 45 metres down the road.
The Gaza health ministry said 16 women and 10 children were among those killed, with more than 50 people wounded, and that rescue efforts were continuing.
Earlier, the Israeli military said it had destroyed the home of Gaza’s top Hamas leader, Yahiyeh Sinwar, in a separate strike in the town of Khan Younis. It was the third such attack on the homes of senior Hamas leaders, who have gone underground, in the past two days.
Israel appears to have stepped up strikes to inflict as much damage as possible on Hamas, as international mediators work to end the fighting. But targeting the group’s leaders could hinder those efforts.
A US diplomat is in the region to try and de-escalate tensions, while the UN Security Council was also meeting yesterday.
Israel has levelled a number of Gaza City’s tallest office and residential buildings in its airstrikes, alleging they contain Hamas military infrastructure. Among them was the high-rise property housing the Associated Press office and those of other media outlets.
The latest outbreak of violence began in east Jerusalem last month, when Palestinian protests and clashes with police broke out in response to Israeli police tactics during Ramadan and the threatened eviction of dozens of Palestinian families by Jewish settlers.
Hamas fired rockets toward Jerusalem last Monday, triggering the Israeli assault on impoverished Gaza, which has been under an Israeli and Egyptian blockade since Hamas seized power from rival Palestinian forces in 2007.
At least 188 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza, including 55 children and 33 women, with 1,230 people wounded. Eight people in Israel have been killed, including a five-year-old boy and a soldier.