JERUSALEM: Israel and Hamas exchanged heavy fire on Tuesday, with at least 26 Palestinians killed in Gaza, in a dramatic escalation between the bitter foes sparked by unrest at Jerusalem’s flashpoint Al-Aqsa Mosque compound.
Nine children were among those killed in the blockaded Gaza Strip that is controlled by Hamas and 125 people there were wounded, local health authorities said.
At least 30 Israelis have been injured — including two women in critical condition in the southern community of Ashkelom, according to the emergency response service Magen David Adom.
More than 300 rockets have been fired by Hamas towards Israel since Monday, with over 90 per cent intercepted by the Iron Dome missile defence system, army spokesman Jonathan Conricus said.
Israel fighter jets and attack helicopters have carried out more than 130 strikes on military targets in the enclave, said Conricus. They have killed 15 Hamas commanders, he added, while the group Islamic Jihad confirmed two of its senior figures were also killed.
More rockets were launched from the coastal enclave on Tuesday, as Hamas’ armed wing the Qassam Brigades vowed to turn the southern Israeli community of Ashkelon into “a hell”.
Loud booms again rocked the town on Tuesday, where a rocket had ripped a gaping hole into the side of an apartment block, an AFP reporter said.
Qassem Brigades said it had fired 137 rockets towards Ashkelon and nearby Ashdod within five minutes on Tuesday afternoon.
Conricus said Israel had no confirmation its strikes had impacted Gaza civilians, or whether the casualties there were caused by Palestinian rockets misfiring. Defence Minister Benny Gantz authorised an army request to mobilise 5,000 reservists if necessary.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said “all sides need to de-escalate, reduce tensions, take practical steps to calm things down”. He strongly condemned the rocket attacks by Hamas, saying they “need to stop immediately”.
Diplomatic sources told AFP that Egypt and Qatar, who have mediated past Israeli-Hamas conflicts, were attempting to calm tensions.
Arab League Secretary General Ahmed Aboul Gheit condemned Israel’s Gaza strikes as “indiscriminate and irresponsible ... and a miserable display of force at the expense of children’s blood”. Hamas had on Monday warned Israel to withdraw all its forces from the mosque compound and the east Jerusalem district of Sheikh Jarrah, where looming evictions of Palestinian families have fuelled angry protests.
Sirens wailed across Jerusalem just after the 1500 GMT deadline set by Hamas as people in the city, including lawmakers in the Knesset legislature, fled to bunkers for the first time since the 2014 Gaza conflict.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Hamas had “crossed a red line” by targeting Jerusalem and vowed that the Jewish state would “respond with force”.
Hamas’ Qassam Brigades said “this is a message that the enemy must understand well: if you respond we will respond, and if you escalate we will escalate”.
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