Israeli airstrikes flattened homes in Gaza on Saturday and rocket fire continued in southern Israel, raising fears of an escalation in a conflict that Israeli and Palestinian officials say has killed at least 15 people on the coastal strip.
The clashes began with Israel’s killing of a senior commander of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad militant group in a wave of attacks on Friday that Israel said were aimed at preventing an imminent attack. A five-year-old girl and two women are among those killed in the strikes.
So far, Hamas, the largest militant group that rules Gaza, has appeared to stay out of the conflict, keeping its intensity somewhat contained. Israel and Hamas fought a war just over a year ago, one of four major conflicts and several smaller battles over the past 15 years that have taken a staggering toll on the impoverished territory’s two million Palestinian residents.
On Saturday afternoon, Israeli warplanes stepped up attacks with strikes on four residential buildings in Gaza City, all locations apparently linked to Islamic Jihad militants. The destruction was the heaviest yet in the current exchange in the densely packed city, but there were no reports of casualties. In each case, the Israeli military warned residents before the attacks.
Palestinians inspect a damaged residential building after it was hit by Israeli airstrikes in Gaza on Saturday. (Fatima Shbair/The Associated Press)
Another attack on Saturday hit a car, killing a 75-year-old woman and wounding six others, Palestinian officials said.
They said that in one of the strikes, after warnings, fighter jets dropped two bombs on the house of an Islamic Jihad member. The blast flattened the two-story structure, leaving a large debris-filled crater and surrounding homes heavily damaged.
Women and children ran out of the area.
“We were warned? They warned us with rockets and we ran away without taking anything,” said Huda Shamalakh, who lived next door. He said 15 people lived in the targeted home.
Gaza’s only power plant shut down at midday on Saturday due to a lack of fuel, as Israel has kept crossing points into Gaza closed since Tuesday. With the new outage, Gazans can only get four hours of electricity a day, increasing their reliance on private generators and deepening the territory’s chronic electricity crisis amid the summer heat.
Israel uses an air defense system
Throughout the day, Gazan militants regularly fired rounds of rockets into southern Israel, but there were no reports of casualties. Most of the bombardments were intercepted by Israel’s Iron Dome missile defense system, hit in empty areas or fell short of Gaza. Shrapnel from rockets damaged the roof of a house in the city of Sderot, but the family was in a shelter.
On Friday evening, Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid said in a televised speech that “Israel is not interested in a wider conflict in Gaza, but it will not shy away from it either.”
A missile from Israel’s Iron Dome air defense system, designed to intercept and destroy short-range rockets and artillery shells, is launched from the southern Israeli city of Sderot on Saturday. (Jack Guez/AFP/Getty Images)
“This government has a zero-tolerance policy for any attempted attack, of any kind, from Gaza into Israeli territory,” he said. “Israel will not stand idly by when someone tries to harm its civilians.”
The violence marks an early test for Lapid, who assumed the role of interim prime minister ahead of November elections, when he hopes to retain the post.
Hardly any rebuilding since the last war
Lapid, a former TV presenter and centrist author, has experience in diplomacy having served as foreign minister in the outgoing government, but has scant security credentials. A conflict with Gaza could harden his position and give him a boost as he faces off against former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, a security hawk who led the country through three of its four wars with Hamas.
Relatives react as they wait at the hospital to see the body of Taiseer al-Jabari of Islamic Jihad, who was killed during Israeli airstrikes at his apartment in Gaza City on Friday. (Fatima Shbair/The Associated Press)
Hamas also faces a dilemma over whether to join a new battle barely a year after the last war caused widespread devastation. Since then, there has been almost no reconstruction, and the isolated coastal territory is mired in poverty, with unemployment hovering around 50 percent. Israel and Egypt have maintained a strict blockade on the territory since Hamas took over in 2007.
Egypt stepped up efforts to prevent the escalation on Saturday, communicating with Israel, the Palestinians and the United States to prevent Hamas from joining the fighting, an Egyptian intelligence official said. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media.
Israel says 15 dead were fighters
The Palestinian Ministry of Health put the death toll at 15 and said more than 80 were injured. The ministry did not differentiate between civilians and militants. The Israeli military said initial estimates were that around 15 fighters were killed.
People are seen running for shelter as explosions and rocket sirens are heard in the southern Israeli city of Ashkelon on Friday night. (Reuters)
The latest round of violence between Israel and Gaza stemmed from the arrest earlier this week of a senior Islamic Jihad leader in the West Bank, part of a month-long Israeli military operation in the territory . A teenage member of Islamic Jihad was also killed in the shooting.
Israel then closed roads around Gaza and sent reinforcements to the border, warning of retaliation. On Friday, it killed the commander of Islamic Jihad in northern Gaza, Taiseer al-Jabari, in an attack on an apartment building in Gaza City.
LOOK | Israel launches deadly round of airstrikes:
Israeli airstrikes kill Palestinian militants and civilians in the Gaza Strip
Israel launched a deadly round of airstrikes, killing a senior Palestinian Islamic Jihad commander in the Gaza Strip. Nine other people, including civilians, were also killed.
An Israeli military spokesman said the strikes were in response to an “imminent threat” from two militant squads armed with anti-tank missiles.
Other Israeli strikes overnight largely hit the outskirts of Gaza City or rural areas, targeting what Israel said were rocket launchers, rocket construction sites and Islamic Jihad camps.
The UN envoy calls for an end to rocket launches
The UN’s special envoy to the region, Tor Wennesland, said: “The rocket fire must stop immediately and I call on all parties to avoid further escalation.”
Defense Minister Benny Gantz approved an order to call up 25,000 reserve troops if necessary, while the military announced a “special situation” on the home front, with schools closed and limits on activities in communities within 80 kilometers of the border
Hamas defeated rival faction Fatah in Palestinian Legislative Council elections in early 2006 and consolidated its power in Gaza the following year, two years after Israel withdrew from the coastal strip in 2005.
The Islamic militant group’s most recent war with Israel was in May 2021. Tensions rose again earlier this year after a wave of attacks in Israel, near-daily military operations in the West Bank and tensions in a holy of Jerusalem
The Iranian-backed Islamic Jihad is smaller than Hamas, but shares much of its ideology. Both groups oppose Israel’s existence and have carried out dozens of deadly attacks over the years, including firing rockets at Israel.