Smoke rises over Gaza City on a second day of Israeli air strike
The fighting has killed at least 13 Palestinians and wounded scores of others
Smoke rises over Gaza City on a second day of Israeli air strikes.
Israeli aircraft struck Gaza while Palestinians fired rockets at Israel, on Saturday, after an Israeli operation against the Islamic Jihad militant group in the Gaza Strip ended more than a year of relative calm along the border.
The Israeli strikes, which started on Friday, have killed 13 Palestinians, including an Islamic Jihad commander and a child, and wounded at least 114 people, the Palestinian Health Ministry said.
On Saturday, Israel said it struck Islamic Jihad militants preparing to launch rockets. Additional bombings aimed at three houses, witnesses said, flattening at least one as the sounds of more explosions rocked Gaza City.
Twelve Palestinians killed as Israel’s Gaza offensive enters second day
Palestinian news agency Wafa said air strikes destroyed two buildings on Saturday — one in Gaza City and another to the west — leaving more than 100 people homeless. Warnings were given to the residents shortly before both attacks, it said.
Targets in Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip were also hit, Wafa said.
The Israeli army said it was prepared for a “week of fighting” against Islamic Jihad in the Gaza Strip.
The military said it apprehended 19 Islamic Jihad militants in overnight raids in the occupied West Bank and it was aiming at the group’s rocket manufacturing sites and launchers in Gaza.
Palestinian militants fired at least 160 rockets across the Gaza border on Saturday, setting off air raid sirens and sending people running to bomb shelters as far away as the central Israeli city of Modiin, between Tel Aviv and Jerusalem.
Islamic Jihad said it had aimed at Israel’s main international gateway, Ben Gurion Airport, but the rocket fell short near Modiin, about 20 kilometres away. Israel’s Civil Aviation Authority said the airport was operating as usual with flight routes adjusted.
Air raid sirens also sounded in the southern city of Sderot and several other towns near the border with the Gaza Strip, Israeli media reported.
Most of the missiles were intercepted and there were no reports of serious casualties, according to the Israeli ambulance service.
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