GAZA/JERUSALEM: Israeli planes struck in Gaza and Palestinians fired rockets deep into Israel on Saturday, a day after an Israeli operation against the Islamic Jihad militant group sparked a cross-border outbreak that ended more than a year of relative calm.
Islamic Jihad fired salvoes of rockets into Israel’s commercial center of Tel Aviv, after Israel killed one of the group’s senior commanders in a surprise daytime airstrike on a tower in the city of Tel Aviv. Gaza on Friday.
Israel struck more Islamic Jihad militants and weapons depots hidden in residential areas on Saturday, the army said. The shelling of at least five homes sent huge clouds of smoke and debris into the air as explosions rocked Gaza and ambulances rushed through the streets. Israeli strikes killed 15 Palestinians, including at least four other Islamic Jihad militants and three civilians, including a child, the Palestinian Ministry of Health said. He added that dozens more were injured.
Palestinian militants fired at least 200 rockets into Israel – most of them intercepted, setting off air raid sirens and sending people running towards bomb shelters. No serious casualties were reported, the Israel Ambulance Service said. Egypt said it was engaged in intensive talks to calm the situation.
Further escalation would largely depend on the willingness of Hamas, the Islamic militant group that controls Gaza, to join the fighting. An Egyptian intelligence delegation led by Major General ahmed abdelkhaliq arrived in Israel on Saturday and would travel to Gaza for mediation talks, two Egyptian security sources said. They hoped to secure a one-day ceasefire in order to complete the talks, the sources added. Islamic Jihad has signaled that no ceasefire is imminent. “Now is the time for resistance, not a truce,” a group official told Reuters. The group did not say how many of its members have been killed since Friday.
Around 2.3 million Palestinians are crammed into Gaza’s narrow coastal strip, with Israel and Egypt severely restricting the movement of people and goods in and out of the enclave and imposing a naval blockade , citing security concerns.
Israel halted the planned transport of fuel to Gaza shortly before it struck on Friday, crippling the territory’s only power plant and reducing electricity to about 8 hours a day and drawing warnings from health officials that the hospitals would be badly affected within days.
The border has been largely quiet since May 2021, when 11 days of fierce fighting between Israel and militants left at least 250 dead in Gaza and 13 in Israel. Tensions rose this week after Israeli forces arrested an Islamic Jihad commander in the occupied West Bank, prompting threats of reprisals from the group. The military said it apprehended 19 other members of the group there on Saturday.
Islamic Jihad fired salvoes of rockets into Israel’s commercial center of Tel Aviv, after Israel killed one of the group’s senior commanders in a surprise daytime airstrike on a tower in the city of Tel Aviv. Gaza on Friday.
Israel struck more Islamic Jihad militants and weapons depots hidden in residential areas on Saturday, the army said. The shelling of at least five homes sent huge clouds of smoke and debris into the air as explosions rocked Gaza and ambulances rushed through the streets. Israeli strikes killed 15 Palestinians, including at least four other Islamic Jihad militants and three civilians, including a child, the Palestinian Ministry of Health said. He added that dozens more were injured.
Palestinian militants fired at least 200 rockets into Israel – most of them intercepted, setting off air raid sirens and sending people running towards bomb shelters. No serious casualties were reported, the Israel Ambulance Service said. Egypt said it was engaged in intensive talks to calm the situation.
Further escalation would largely depend on the willingness of Hamas, the Islamic militant group that controls Gaza, to join the fighting. An Egyptian intelligence delegation led by Major General ahmed abdelkhaliq arrived in Israel on Saturday and would travel to Gaza for mediation talks, two Egyptian security sources said. They hoped to secure a one-day ceasefire in order to complete the talks, the sources added. Islamic Jihad has signaled that no ceasefire is imminent. “Now is the time for resistance, not a truce,” a group official told Reuters. The group did not say how many of its members have been killed since Friday.
Around 2.3 million Palestinians are crammed into Gaza’s narrow coastal strip, with Israel and Egypt severely restricting the movement of people and goods in and out of the enclave and imposing a naval blockade , citing security concerns.
Israel halted the planned transport of fuel to Gaza shortly before it struck on Friday, crippling the territory’s only power plant and reducing electricity to about 8 hours a day and drawing warnings from health officials that the hospitals would be badly affected within days.
The border has been largely quiet since May 2021, when 11 days of fierce fighting between Israel and militants left at least 250 dead in Gaza and 13 in Israel. Tensions rose this week after Israeli forces arrested an Islamic Jihad commander in the occupied West Bank, prompting threats of reprisals from the group. The military said it apprehended 19 other members of the group there on Saturday.
