Israel strikes Gaza, Hamas hits back

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas demands Israel “immediately stop” its air campaign and calls on the international community to pressure the Jewish state

AFP

Jerusalem

 Hamas militants in the Gaza Strip fired missiles at Jerusalem and Tel Aviv yesterday after Israel killed 21 Palestinians on the first day of a major campaign to stamp out rocket fire.

It was the most serious flare-up over Gaza since November 2012 and came as Israel was struggling to contain a wave of violence at home over the grisly murder of a Palestinian teenager by Jewish extremists. 

After a day in which Israel staged multiple air strikes on Gaza, leaving 17 people dead and more than 100 wounded, militants from Hamas hit back with rocket fire on Israel’s major population centres in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv. 

As sirens wailed across the Holy City, three loud explosions were heard and a series of flashes lit up the sky to the southwest. 

A tweet from the Israeli military said “Confirmed: A rocket fired from Gaza hit Jerusalem, Israel’s capital city.”

“Until now, one hit has been identified in an open area near Ramat Raziel,” police spokeswoman Luba Samri said, adding there were no reports of injuries of damage anywhere in the Jerusalem area.

The attack was claimed by the Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of Hamas, which said it had fired “four M75 rockets” at Jerusalem, which lies 65km from the Palestinian enclave. 

It also claimed to have launched a rocket at Haifa, 165km away, although there was no confirmation of anything hitting the northern port city. 

Hamas also claimed firing four rockets at Tel Aviv, which lies 60km north of Gaza, with sirens wailing across the city.

Earlier, another rocket aimed at the coastal city was shot down by the Iron Dome anti-missile defence system. 

There were no immediate reports of casualties. 

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has demanded Israel “immediately stop” its air campaign and called on the international community to pressure the Jewish state. 

But after nearly four weeks of intensifying rocket fire, Israel appeared bent on dealing the Islamist Hamas movement a heavy blow, with the cabinet authorising the call-up of some 40,000 reservists. 

In the worst strike of the day, a missile slammed into a house in the southern Gaza city of Khan Younis killing eight people and wounding 25, emergency services spokesman Ashraf al-Qudra said. 

Witnesses said an Israeli drone fired a warning flare, prompting relatives and neighbours to gather at the house as a human shield. 

But an F-16 warplane fired a missile that levelled the building. 

Hamas denounced the attack as “a horrendous war crime” and said it would retaliate against “all Israelis”.

Shortly afterwards, troops killed four Hamas militants who reached the Israeli coast by sea and attacked an army base near Zikim, a military official said. 

“A number of terrorists came out of the ocean and attacked... with Kalashnikov rifles and hand grenades,” said Lieutenant Colonel Peter Lerner, who said they were all killed. 

The attack was claimed by the Qassam Brigades.

Hamas militants also claimed to have fired 10 rockets at two army bases. 

Several hours earlier, two people were killed in a strike east of Gaza City, the emergency services said. 

Two more people died in separate strikes, one of which hit a motorised rickshaw in the northern town of Beit Lahiya, while a second killed a 16-year-old boy in Gaza City. 

Earlier, three people were killed in a strike on a car in central Gaza City. Relatives said all three were Hamas militants, with one identified as a senior figure responsible for the armed wing’s naval unit.

Another man was killed in central Gaza, with witnesses saying he was also a Hamas militant.

Meanwhile, the military was preparing all options to stamp out rocket fire from Gaza, “including an invasion or a ground operation”, a senior Israeli official said. 

Military spokesman General Moti Almoz confirmed preparations for a possible ground offensive, telling army radio “we have been instructed by the political echelon to hit Hamas hard”.  

“All options are on the table; all these steps are being considered,” he said indicating that two brigades were already stationed around Gaza, with more to join them in the coming days. 

Also yesterday, the army said the cabinet approved the call-up of 40,000 reservists. 

“We are preparing for a campaign against Hamas, which will not end in just a few days,” Defence Minister Moshe Yaalon said in a statement. 

Since June 12, when the current round of tit-for-tat violence began, more than 250 rockets have hit southern Israel, with another 40 intercepted by Iron Dome. 

So far no Israelis have been killed. 

The US State Department said it “strongly condemns” the rocket fire, and backed “Israel’s right to defend itself against these attacks”, a spokeswoman said.

And the EU ambassador to Israel, Lars Faaborg Andersen, expressed “unreserved solidarity” with Israelis living in the south. 

British Foreign Secretary William Hague also urged Hamas to halt its attacks, while Turkey called for an immediate end to the Israel assault.

Arab League seeks urgent UN Security Council meeting

The Arab League called yesterday for the UN Security Council to hold an urgent meeting to discuss the deadly Israeli air campaign against Gaza, Secretary General Nabil al-Arabi said.

An official from the pan-Arab bloc told AFP Arabi had “instructed the Arab League’s UN representative to initiate urgent consultations within the Arab group calling for an emergency security meeting of the Security Council”.

Earlier, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas asked the international community to “immediately intervene to halt this dangerous escalation which would lead the region to more destruction and instability”.

Arabi said he had been “in touch with president Abbas to follow the latest developments in the Gaza Strip” while also continuing “consultations with Arab foreign ministers on this subject”.

He denounced the “dangerous Israeli escalation” and warned against its humanitarian consequences in Gaza.

“The continued attacks on Palestinian civilians by Israel is a flagrant violation of international humanitarian law, the Geneva Convention and international resolutions on occupied Palestine,” said the Arab League chief.

Meanwhile, the 57-member Organisation of Islamic Co-operation (OIC) announced it would hold an “extraordinary” ministerial meeting tomorrow in the Saudi city of Jeddah to discuss the “intensifying and fierce Israeli campaign against Palestine”.