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An Israeli soldier walks past a house damaged by a missile fired from the Gaza Strip in the Israeli city of Ashkelon (south of the country), Monday, November 12, 2018. From Palestinian militants bombed Israel with dozens of rockets and mortar shells on Monday as Israeli fighter planes targeted targets across the Gaza Strip in what appeared to be the most intense firefight since the war of 2014. (AP Photo / Tsafrir Abayov) The Associated Press
by ARON HELLER and FARES AKRAM, Associated Press
JERUSALEM (AP) – Gaza militants fired dozens of rockets on southern Israel Tuesday, killing A man attacking a residential building and warning that they would step up their attacks if Israel continued bombing targets in the Gaza Strip.
The cross-border attacks, which were sparked by Israel's Hamas-led underground raid on Gaza late Sunday, was marked by the worst escalation since the war between Israel and Hamas in 2014.
International mediators have called for restraint, hoping to avoid another war.
The Israeli army announced that some 400 rockets and mortar shells had been launched from Gaza Since the beginning of the round, Monday afternoon, a hundred of them were intercepted by the system of Israeli Defense Iron Dome.
Israel has hit more than 100 targets that would be linked to militants in Gaza, including a hit on the Hamas television channel, the Islamist militant group that runs Gaza. According to Palestinian officials, at least four people, including two militants, were killed. In Israel, at least 20 people were also injured, several seriously.
The military said jet aircraft had hit several "strategic" Hamas targets, including military bases, rocket launch stations, and part of its extensive network of underground tunnels. A Gaza City building serving Hamas military and intelligence forces housing an ammunition depot was also targeted.
The armed wing of Hamas threatened to intensify its attacks and fire rockets farther north towards the Israeli cities of Ashdod and Beersheba if Israel continued.
The spokesman for the Hamas military wing, identified under the sole name of Abu Obeida, said that the deadly attack on the coastal city of Ashkelon showed that the "entered the firing zone in response to bombing of buildings in Gaza". . "He added that Ashdod and Beersheba would be the next targets if the enemy continued to bomb civilian buildings."
Schools were canceled in large parts of southern Israel and Local elections have been postponed due to the threat of future attacks.
Over the past few months, the parties have repeatedly approached a major escalation, to then afford to give a chance at a long-term Egyptian mediated truce.
However, the current level of escalation and angry rhetoric, including warnings from Hamas to strike deeper inside the country. Israel could make it more difficult to restore calm.
The Israeli Security Cabinet began to meet to discuss next steps, while the United Nations called for calm.
The deadly strike on the ro It came before dawn in the Israeli coastal city of Ashkelon. Medical Service Magen David Adom said that a man in his 40s had been found dead under the rubble of a building in Ashkelon
. He was the first casualty in Israel of the current wave. The man was later identified as being a man from Hebron, the largest Palestinian city in the West Bank.
The eruption of fighting casts doubt on recent agreements negotiated with the Egyptian and US authorities to reduce tensions. Earlier this week, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu defended these agreements, saying he was doing everything possible to avoid another war. But it will now be under intense pressure to retaliate given Hamas' continuing rocket dams.
Rocket fire was triggered by a botched Israeli military raid in Gaza on Sunday. Infiltration troops, apparently on a reconnaissance mission, were discovered inside Gaza, triggering a battle that claimed the lives of seven militants, including a Hamas commander and a senior official in charge of the Gaza Strip. 39, Israeli army. Hamas then fired a guided missile that struck a bus from which the soldiers had just disembarked, improving its typical inaccurate projectiles.
The strike fired the bus, sending a large plume of black smoke into the area. A 19-year-old soldier was seriously injured. Rocket fire ensued and retaliation fired quickly.
Air strikes and rocket fire resumed Tuesday at dawn, after almost two hours of calm.
Colonel Jonathan Conricus, an army spokesman, said that Israeli fighter planes, tanks and warships were involved in strikes against military bases, police stations, and military personnel. observation and weapons installations belonging to the two main militant groups in Gaza responsible for the attacks – Hamas and Islamic Jihad. [19659005] He stated that the Israeli army had reinforced its deployment along the border but had not yet mobilized its reserves. He added that militant groups in Gaza would have an arsenal of more than 20,000 rockets and mortars of different caliber and range.
Israel and Hamas have waged three wars since the Islamic militant group took control of Gaza from the Palestinian Authority backed by the international community. In 2007, during the last war, more than 2,200 Palestinians were killed, more than half of them civilians and tens of thousands homeless. Seventy-three people, most of them soldiers, were killed on the Israeli side.
Israel and Egypt maintain the blockade imposed on Gaza since the takeover of Hamas. The blockade has devastated Gaza's economy.
In recent weeks, Egyptian and UN mediators appeared to be making progress in negotiating informal agreements to calm the situation.
Last week, Israel allowed Qatar to pay $ 15 million to Gaza. Hamas runs out of money to pay the salaries of thousands of civil servants. At the same time, Hamas has reduced the intensity of its border demonstrations in recent weeks.
Netanyahu interrupted his visit to Paris because of the outbreak of violence and returned to Israel on Monday for consultations with top security officials. Akram reported in Gaza City, Gaza Strip.
Copyright 2018 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, disseminated, rewritten or redistributed.
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