Israel’s army and Gaza fighters traded heavy cross-border fire yesterday, with 22 Palestinians killed over two days amid the worst escalation of violence to hit the coastal territory in months.
Sirens in the Tel Aviv area and Israel’s south warned of incoming rockets in a fresh evening salvo, with an AFP reporter in Gaza observing dozens of launches as Israeli officials said Egypt was working on a possible truce with the Islamic Jihad group.
Earlier in the day, smoke billowed from the densely populated coastal enclave after Israel announced it was targeting rocket launch sites of the Islamic Jihad. Gaza’s health ministry said seven people were killed, a day after Israeli strikes on the Palestinian territory left 15 dead.
In a joint statement Palestinian factions said “hundreds of rockets” were fired, while the Israeli army reported over 270 launches from Gaza prior to the latest salvos.
Four of those killed yesterday were fighters with the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, the group said in a statement. The fatalities also included a 10-year-old girl, whose body was seen by an AFP journalist in Gaza City’s Shifa hospital. Israel’s Magen David Adom emergency service said it had received no immediate reports of casualties.
Israel’s Iron Dome air defence system intercepted rockets above the coastal city of Ashkelon and elsewhere in the south, AFP photographers witnessed. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel was “ready for the possibility of an expanded campaign and harsh strikes against Gaza,” in a meeting with local leaders near the coastal territory.
Later in the day, an Israeli official said on condition of anonymity that Egypt was “trying to facilitate a ceasefire,” which would be evaluated “based on acts on the ground and not Islamic Jihad declarations”.
Sources in Gaza close to the Islamic Jihad and Hamas confirmed Egyptian efforts to secure a truce, without providing further details. The latest violence comes a day after Israeli strikes on Gaza killed three top Islamic Jihad fighters and 12 others, including four children, according to a health ministry toll.
Ahead of yesterday’s exchange of fire, Gaza’s usually bustling shops were closed. People in Gaza “expect the worst”, said resident Monther Abdullah. “Everyone feels anxious and people aren’t on the street much. I definitely feel like there’s a war coming,” the 50-year-old said.
Speaking in Ashkelon before the rocket fire, resident Amos Gueta, 58, said there was a feeling of both “anxiety and satisfaction that something is being done” against Palestinian fighters.
Activists raise placards as they demonstrate near the Israeli defence ministry in Tel Aviv, in support of the Gaza strip, yesterday.
