Gaza/Jerusalem - Rockets and missiles from
Gaza killed three civilians in Israel while Israeli strikes
killed 12 Palestinians, most of them militants, in surging
cross-border fighting on Sunday, according to Gazan officials
and the Israeli military.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he ordered
the military to continue "massive strikes" against Gaza's ruling
Hamas group and Islamic Jihad, in the most serious border
clashes since a spate of fighting in November.
Israel's military said more than 600 rockets and other
projectiles - over 150 of them intercepted by its Iron Dome
anti-missile system - have been fired at southern Israeli cities
and villages since Friday.
It said it attacked more than 260 targets belonging to Gaza
militant groups. Gaza officials said Israeli air strikes and
artillery fire killed 20 people including eight civilians since
Friday.
A rocket that hit a house in Ashkelon on Sunday killed a
58-year-old man, police said. He was the first such Israeli
civilian fatality since the seven-week-long Gaza war in 2014.
Another rocket strike in Ashkelon killed a factory worker, a
hospital official said. The military said a third civilian was
killed by an anti-tank missile fired at his car from Gaza near
the border.
In Gaza, Islamic Jihad identified seven fighters killed in
Israeli strikes, while medical officials said three civilians
also died.
In what it said was a separate, targeted attack, Israel's
military killed Hamed Ahmed Al-Khodary, a Hamas commander. The
military said he was responsible for transferring funds from
Iran to armed factions in Gaza. Hamas confirmed Khodary had been
killed.
The attack on his car was the first such killing by Israel
of a top militant since the war five years ago. Israel had
suspended what Palestinians call an assassination policy in a
bid to lower tensions.
The sounds of sirens and explosions reverberated on both
sides of the frontier, fraying nerves and keeping schools
closed.
The latest round of violence began two days ago when an
Islamic Jihad sniper fired at Israeli troops, wounding two
soldiers, according to the Israeli military.
Islamic Jihad accused Israel of delaying implementation of
previous understandings brokered by Egypt aimed at ending
violence and easing blockaded Gaza's economic hardship.
This time, Israeli strategic affairs analysts said, both
Islamic Jihad and Hamas militants appeared to believe they had
some leverage to press for concessions from Israel, where
independence day celebrations begin on Wednesday.
In two weeks Israel is also hosting the Eurovision Song
Contest in Tel Aviv, the target of a Gaza rocket attack in
March. That attack caused no damage. On Sunday sirens sounded in
the city of Rehovot, 17 km (10.5 miles) southeast of Tel Aviv.
In a statement announcing that Israel would press on with
its attacks, Netanyahu, who doubles as defence minister, also
ordered forces around the Gaza Strip to be "stepped up with
tanks, artillery and infantry".
For residents in Gaza, the escalation comes a day before the
Muslim holy month of Ramadaan begins in the territory on Monday.
It is traditionally a time for prayer, family feasts to break a
daylight fast and shopping.
Among the eight Gazan civilians killed since Friday were a
14-month-old baby and the baby's aunt, according to the health
ministry. Israel's military said the intelligence information
showed they were killed by a misfired Palestinian rocket.
In Gaza, two Palestinian human rights groups described the
cause of their deaths as an explosion whose source was still
undetermined.
A U.N. envoy said it was working with Egypt to try to end
the fighting. Iran condemned what it called Israel's "savage"
attack on Gaza, and blamed "unlimited U.S. support" for Israel.
Israeli bombings in Gaza destroyed two multi-storey
structures. Witnesses said the Israeli military had warned
people inside to evacuate the buildings, which it alleged housed
Hamas security facilities, before they were hit.
Saeed Al-Nakhala, owner of a clothing store in one of the
buildings, said he had had no time to save his merchandise.
"I was together with my son in the shop, there was a big
noise and then another and people started to run. We left
everything behind and escaped," said Nakhala.
Some 2 million Palestinians live in Gaza, whose economy has
suffered years of Israeli and Egyptian blockades as well as
recent foreign aid cuts and sanctions by the Palestinian
Authority, Hamas's West Bank-based rival.
Unemployment in Gaza stands at 52 percent, according to the
World Bank, and poverty is rampant.
Israel says its blockade is necessary to stop weapons
reaching Hamas, with which it has fought three wars since the
group seized control of Gaza in 2007, two years after Israel
withdrew its settlers and troops from the area.