Air strikes, rocket attacks push Israel, Gaza into second day of fighting

GAZA/JERUSALEM, Aug 6 (Reuters) – Israeli plane struck in Gaza and Palestinians fired rockets deep into Israel on Saturday, a day after an Israeli operation in opposition to the Islamic Jihad militant group set off a cross-border flare-up that ended greater than a yr of relative calm.

Islamic Jihad fired rocket salvoes so far as Israel’s business hub Tel Aviv, after Israel killed one of the group’s senior commanders in a shock daytime air strike on a Gaza City tower on Friday. learn extra

Israel struck extra Islamic Jihad militants and weapon depots hidden in residential areas on Saturday, the navy stated. Bombings of a minimum of 5 homes despatched big clouds of smoke and particles into the air, as explosions rocked Gaza and ambulances rushed by the streets.

The Israeli strikes have killed 15 Palestinians, together with a minimum of 4 different Islamic Jihad militants and three civilians, amongst them a baby, the Palestinian Health Ministry stated. It added scores extra had been wounded.

Palestinian militants fired a minimum of 200 rockets at Israel – most of them intercepted, setting off air raids sirens and sending folks working to bomb shelters. There had been no stories of critical casualties, the Israeli ambulance service stated.

Egypt stated it was engaged in intensive talks to calm the state of affairs. Further escalation would largely depend upon whether or not Hamas, the Islamic militant group which controls Gaza, would decide to affix the fighting.

An Egyptian intelligence delegation headed by Major General Ahmed Abdelkhaliq arrived in Israel on Saturday and can be travelling to Gaza for mediation talks, two Egyptian safety sources stated. They had been hoping to safe a day’s ceasefire with a view to perform the talks, the sources added.

Islamic Jihad signalled no ceasefire was imminent. “The time now is for resistance, not a truce,” a bunch official instructed Reuters. The group has not stated what number of of its members have been killed since Friday.

CONCERN

Around 2.3 million Palestinians are packed into the slim coastal Gaza Strip, with Israel and Egypt tightly proscribing motion of folks and items out and in of the enclave and imposing a naval blockade, citing safety issues.

Israel stopped the deliberate transport of gas into Gaza shortly earlier than it struck on Friday, crippling the territory’s lone energy plant and decreasing electrical energy to round 8 hours per day and drawing warnings from well being officers that hospitals can be severely impacted inside days.

The frontier had been largely quiet since May 2021, when 11 days of fierce fighting between Israel and militants left a minimum of 250 in Gaza and 13 in Israel lifeless.

U.N. and EU Mideast envoys expressed concern in regards to the violence and the Western-backed Palestinian Authority condemned Israel’s attacks. U.S. Ambassador to Israel Tom Nides stated on Twitter that “Israel has a right to protect itself.”

Gaza streets had been largely abandoned on Saturday afternoon. At the positioning the place high Islamic Jihad commander Tayseer al-Jaabari was killed, rubble, glass and furnishings had been strewn alongside the road.

In Israel, border city streets had been largely empty whereas brushfires sparked by rockets unfold by close by fields.

Islamic Jihad stated it had fired a missile at Israel’s fundamental worldwide gateway, Ben Gurion Airport, however the rocket fell quick round 20 kilometres (12 miles) away. The Civil Aviation Authority stated the airport was working usually.

Tensions rose this week after Israeli forces arrested an Islamic Jihad commander within the occupied West Bank, drawing threats of retaliation from the group. The navy stated it had apprehended 19 extra members of the group there on Saturday.

Israeli Defence Minister stated dozens of the group’s rocket services in Gaza had been destroyed. Prime Minister Yair Lapid stated the operation thwarted an imminent assault by Islamic Jihad, which is backed by Iran and designated as a terrorist organisation by the West. learn extra

Israeli political analysts stated the navy operation supplied Lapid with a chance to bolster his safety credentials forward of a Nov. 1 election.

Writing by Maayan Lubell, further reporting by Ahmed Mohamed Hassan in Cairo, Amir Cohen in Sderot and Eli Belzon in Ashkelon; enhancing by Robert Birsel, Jason Neely and Christina Fincher

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