2023-05-11 00:17:48
- Writing
- BBC News World
image source, EPA
Rocket fire from Gaza.
Violence between Israel and Palestinian militants reached its highest level in nine months on Wednesday.
Israel assured that more than 460 rockets were launched in the last hours against its territory from the Gaza Strip and that its Defense Forces hit 130 targets of Palestinian armed groups.
Six Palestinians died y 45 turned out herdsos and Gazaas reported by local doctors.
The outbreak of violence comes a day after Israeli attacks on Gaza will kill 15 people, including a three Islamic Jihad leaders.
Islamic Jihad is the second largest Palestinian armed group in Gaza – after Hamas – and has vowed to avenge the deaths of its leaders.
image source, Reuters
Funeral in Gaza of one of the young women who died in the Israeli bombardments.
Cease fire?
In a televised address Wednesday night, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned that Israel’s “campaign is not over.” “We have dealt Islamic Jihad the biggest blow it has ever suffered,” he said, referring to to the death of the three commanders of that group in the early hours of Tuesday.
Hours before Netanyahu’s speech, the Egyptian press reported that the Egyptian government had succeeded in negotiating a ceasefire, but neither party immediately confirmed that information and another rocket fired from Gaza into southern Egypt shortly after. Israel and new attacks on Gaza.
“If Israel increases its aggression, dark days lie ahead”warned an organization representing armed Palestinian groups in Gaza.
Benjamin Netanyahu said he was “ready for the possibility of an extended campaign and heavy attacks against Gaza.”
attacks in various places
The Palestinians said that hostilities began with several loud explosions in southern Gazawhich caused large columns of smoke.
image source, Reuters
The Israeli military claims to have attacked places from which Islamic Jihad fires rockets into Israel.
The Israel Defense Forces said a plane attacked Islamic Jihad operatives who were traveling in a vehicle to a hidden rocket launcher in the Khan Younis area.
An hour later, they announced that they had launched attacks against rocket launchers hidden underground throughout Gaza belonging to Islamic Jihad, in order to prevent planned attacks from coming to fruition.
Palestinian media reported attacks in and around Gaza City, in the city of Rafah (south) and in the cities of Beit Lahiya and Beit Hanoun (north).
The Palestinian Health Ministry in Gaza reported that one person was killed in the initial Israeli attack on Khan Yunis and five others were killed in subsequent attacks in the north and south of the Strip.
Four of the dead were members of the military wing of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, as confirmed by that group.
A 10-year-old girl was also killed in Gaza City under unclear circumstances.
As Israeli aircraft attacked Gaza, Palestinian militants began firing barrages of rockets that set off alarm bells in communities in southern Israel.
Later, they fired rockets into central Israel, setting off sirens in Tel Aviv, 80 km from Gaza. In a video filmed in Old Jaffa, explosions could be heard as two rockets appeared to be intercepted in midair.
According to Israeli officials, a rocket hit an empty house in the town of Sderot, located just 1 km from Gaza. Another hit the roof of a nursery in the southern kibbutz of Nirim, but no one was injured.
A hospital in the city of Ashkelon said it treated eight people injured as they ran to a bomb shelter and three others who suffered from anxiety attacks.
The Israel Defense Forces said four of the rockets fired from Gaza fell short and fell inside the Strip.
image source, Reuters
According to Israel, the Iron Dome intercepted 163 rockets.
They assured that the Israeli anti-aircraft defense system, known as the Iron Dome, intercepted 153 rockets, three of which hit urban areas of Israel and the rest fell on open fields.
The Joint Operations Room of the Gaza armed groups, which includes Islamic Jihad and Hamas, said in a statement that they had fired the rockets.
“Damage to the homes of civilians and faction fighters is a red line and we will respond strongly to it. The resistance forces are prepared for all options,” they stated in the text.
Israel launched Operation Shield and Arrow early Tuesday with several waves of strikes in Gaza that killed 13 Palestinians.
Three of them were Islamic Jihad commanders who Israel says had been involved in recent attacks on Israeli civilians and were planning more.
But the other 10 dead were civilians, including four women and four children.
Two other Palestinians were killed Tuesday afternoon in an attack the Israeli government says targeted militants planning to fire anti-tank missiles.
The attacks were the deadliest since three days of hostilities between Israel and Islamic Jihad last August, which killed 49 Palestinians in Gaza..
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