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An Israeli soldier passes 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. Palestinian militants have bombed Israel with dozens of rockets and air raids. Mortar shells, while Israeli warplanes targeted targets throughout the Gaza Strip, which appeared to be the most intense exchange of fire since the 2014 war. (AP Photo / Tsafrir Abayov) The Associated Press
By ARON HELLER and FARES AKRAM, Associated Press
JERUSALEM (AP) – Gaza militants on Tuesday fired dozens of rockets into southern Israel, killing a man during an attack on a residential building and warning that they would step up their attacks if Israel continued to bomb targets in the Gaza Strip.
The cross-border attacks, which were triggered by an Israeli clandestine raid in Hamas-dominated Gaza over the weekend, have been the most serious escalation since the war between Israel and Hamas in 2014.
International mediators have called for restraint, hoping to avoid another war.
The Israeli army has announced that some 400 rockets and mortar shells have been launched from Gaza since the beginning of the current round on Monday, after being intercepted by a hundred of them by the Israeli Iron Defense System. Dome.
Israel has hit more than 100 targets that would be linked to militants in Gaza, including a strike that destroyed the Hamas television channel, the Islamist militant group that runs Gaza. According to Palestinian officials, at least three people, including two militants, were killed. In Israel, at least 20 people were injured, many seriously.
The armed wing of Hamas has threatened to intensify its attacks and fire rockets farther north towards the Israeli cities of Ashdod and Beersheba if Israel continues its airstrikes.
The spokesman for the Hamas military wing, identified only as Abu Obeida, said that the deadly attack against the coastal city of Ashkelon showed that the city "has entered the firing zone in response to the bombing of buildings in Gaza ". He added that Ashdod and Beersheba are the next targets if the enemy continues to bomb civilian buildings.
The school was canceled in large parts of southern Israel and local elections postponed due to the threat of further attacks.
Over the last few months, the parties have come together several times for a major escalation, with the sole purpose of taking a step back to give a chance to a long-term Egyptian mediation truce.
However, the current level of escalation and angry rhetoric, including Hamas warnings to strike deeper inside Israel, could make it more difficult to restore calm.
In Jerusalem, the Israeli Security Cabinet began to meet to discuss next steps, with the United Nations calling for calm.
The deadly rocket strike took place before dawn in the Israeli coastal city of Ashkelon. Medical Service Magen David Adom said that a man in his forties had been found dead under the rubble of a building in Ashkelon.
He was the first victim 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 has cast doubt on recent agreements negotiated by 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 he will now be under intense pressure to retaliate, given the relentless rocket barrages of Hamas.
The rocket fire was triggered by a failed raid by the Israeli army 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, marking an upgrade from its generally inaccurate projectiles.
The strike set the bus on fire, sending a large plume of black smoke over the area. A 19-year-old soldier was seriously injured. Rocket fire and Israeli retaliation fired quickly.
The airstrikes and rocket dams resumed Tuesday at dawn after almost two hours of calm.
Lt. Col. Jonathan Conricus, an army spokesman, said that Israeli fighter jets, tanks and warships were involved in strikes against military complexes, police stations, and military operations. observation and weapons facilities belonging to the two main militant groups in Gaza at the origin of the attacks – Hamas and Islamic Jihad.
He added 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 calibres and ranges.
Israel and Hamas have waged three wars since the Islamic militant group took control of Gaza over the Palestinian Authority, backed by the international community, in 2007. During the last war, more than 2,200 Palestinians have been killed, more than half of whom are civilians and tens of thousands of others. left homeless. Seventy-three people, most of them soldiers, were killed on the Israeli side.
Israel and Egypt have maintained a blockade on Gaza since the takeover of Hamas. The blockade has devastated Gaza's economy.
In recent weeks, Egyptian and US mediators appeared to be making progress in negotiating informal settlements to calm the situation.
Last week, Israel allowed Qatar to pay $ 15 million to Gaza to allow Hamas run out of money to pay the salaries of thousands of government employees. At the same time, Hamas has reduced the intensity of its border demonstrations in recent weeks.
Netanyahu interrupted a visit to Paris because of the outbreak and returned to Israel on Monday for consultations with senior security officials.
Akram reported from Gaza City, Gaza Strip.
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