Israel has killed a Hamas commander and vowed not to let up in its Gaza barrages as Palestinian militants rained rockets far across the border, but US President Joe Biden says he expects their fiercest hostilities in years might end soon.
At least 67 people have been killed in Gaza since violence escalated on Monday, according to the enclave’s health ministry. Seven people have been killed in Israel, medical officials said.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the Gaza City brigade commander was among about 30 Gaza fighters that Israel believes it has killed in air strikes.
“This is just the beginning. We’ll hit them like they’ve never dreamed possible,” Mr Netanyahu said on Wednesday.
After nightfall, Israeli strikes hit a Hamas-linked bank, as well as three roads in the enclave.
Hamas confirmed the death of the commander and of “other leaders and holy warriors”. Its chief Ismail Haniyeh added: “The confrontation with the enemy is open-ended.”
Hamas and allied group Islamic Jihad fired rockets at the Tel Aviv area and the cities of Ashdod, Ashkelon and Sderot, with the salvos resuming early on Thursday after a brief lull.
Israel launched its offensive after Hamas fired rockets in retaliation for Israeli police clashes with Palestinians near al-Aqsa mosque in East Jerusalem during Ramadan.
These escalated ahead of a now-postponed court hearing that could lead to the eviction of Palestinian families from East Jerusalem homes claimed by Jewish settlers.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said a senior aide, Hady Amr, would be sent to urge Israelis and Palestinians to seek calm.
“My expectation and hope is this will be closing down sooner than later, but Israel has a right to defend itself,” Mr Biden told reporters after speaking with Mr Netanyahu.
Mr Biden did not explain the reasons behind his optimism.
Mr Netanyahu’s office said he told the US president that Israel would “continue acting to strike at the military capabilities of Hamas and the other terrorist groups active in the Gaza Strip”.
A Palestinian source said truce efforts by Egypt, Qatar and the United Nations had made no progress to end the violence.
Hours earlier, Israel pledged to keep pummelling Hamas in what has been the heaviest fighting since a 2014 Gaza war.
The fighting has touched off strife within Israel, where some in the Arab minority mounted violent pro-Palestinian protests.
Media reported spreading street attacks by Jews on Arab passers-by in ethnically mixed areas on Wednesday.
In Gaza, two multi-storey residential buildings and a tower housing media outlets, including one linked to Hamas, collapsed after Israel urged occupants to leave in advance of its air strikes, and another structure was heavily damaged.
The military said its strikes were targeting rocket launch sites, Hamas offices and the homes of Hamas leaders.
Many in Israel also holed up in shelters as waves of rockets hit its heartland, some blown out of the sky by Iron Dome interceptors.
Along the Gaza border, an Israeli soldier was killed by an anti-tank missile, the military said. Two people were killed by a rocket in Lod, a mixed Arab-Jewish town near Tel Aviv.
After a synagogue was torched in Lod, police deployed paramilitary reinforcements and announced a curfew.
In northern Acre, a Jewish motorist was beaten by Arab residents, and in Bat Yam, a Tel Aviv suburb, Jewish youths ransacked stores and beat an Arab, Israeli media reported.
The conflict has led to the freezing of talks by Mr Netanyahu’s opponents on forming a governing coalition to unseat him after Israel’s inconclusive March 23 election.
Violence also flared in the occupied West Bank. Medical sources said a 16-year-old Palestinian was killed in clashes with Israeli forces on Wednesday.
Another Palestinian was killed after wounding two people in a gun attack, the military said.
Gaza’s health ministry said 17 of the people killed in the enclave were children.
The Israeli military said on Thursday that some 350 of 1500 rockets fired by Gaza factions had fallen short, potentially causing some Palestinian civilian casualties.
Six of the fatalities in Israel were civilians, including two children and an Indian worker, medical officials said.
-AAP
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