Politics

Israel and Hamas bombing blitz sees 58 children killed in carnage as Gaza suffers ‘deadliest day’ yet

A BOMBING blitz between Israel and Hamas has resulted in 58 children being killed in the carnage as Gaza suffers its “deadliest day”.

Dozens of air strikes have been launched as deadly fighting in the Middle East begins for a second week.

Fire and smoke rise above buildings in Gaza City as Israeli warplanes target the Palestinian enclave[/caption]

Dozens of air strikes have been launched as deadly fighting in the Middle East begins for a second week[/caption]

A streak of light appears as Israel’s Iron Dome anti-missile system intercepts rockets launched from the Gaza Strip[/caption]

A ball of fire and a plume of smoke rise above buildings in Gaza City[/caption]

A young girl being carried out of the wreckage of a house in Gaza[/caption]

An Israeli tank parked outside the Gaza strip[/caption]

Rescuers carry Suzy Eshkuntana from the rubble of a building in Gaza City[/caption]

A Palestinian girl, who was wounded in overnight Israeli air strikes on the Gaza Strip, receives treatment at Al-Shifa Hospital[/caption]

Mohammed al-Hadidi holds his baby who was pulled alive from under rubble[/caption]

Palestinian firefighters douse a huge fire at the Foamco mattrss factory east of Jabalia[/caption]

Smoke rises as a result of Israeli air strikes against Hamas targets[/caption]

Overnight, 42 Palestinians are reported to have died following an airstrike that crushed three buildings.

The Gaza Health Ministry has put the death toll since the violence erupted at 197 – including 58 children and 34 women.

Meanwhile in Israel, ten people – including two children – have been killed.

The Israeli Air Force claims around 3,150 rockets have been fired from the Gaza Strip at Israel.

The Israeli military said the fighter jets hit “terror targets” in Gaza overnight in retaliation to rockets being fired at Beersheba and Ashkelon in Israel just after midnight.

They said civilian deaths were not intentional and that jets targeted a system of tunnels used by militants.

Hamas claimed the strikes were a “pre-meditated killing”.

The UN Security Council met yesterday to discuss diplomatic efforts to end the violence after last night’s attack – the deadliest since fighting broke out a week ago.

Meanwhile, Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu said in a televised speech: “Our campaign against the terrorist organisations is continuing with full force.

“We are acting now, for as long as necessary, to restore calm and quiet to you, Israel’s citizens. It will take time.”

Harrowing pictures show children being pulled from what remains of destroyed buildings.

A Palestinian dad was pictured frantically rushing his daughter away from rubble as blood ran down her face.

Meanwhile a Palestinian girl, who was wounded in overnight Israeli air strikes on the Gaza Strip, was pictured receiving treatment at Al-Shifa Hospital.

Netanyahu has said that military operations in Gaza will continue with “full force”[/caption]

Israeli police inspect the site of a car-ramming attack in the Sheikh Jarrah neighbourhood[/caption]

Six police officers were injured with two of them moderate and four others lightly[/caption]

Israeli soldiers fire a 155mm self-propelled howitzer towards the Gaza Strip[/caption]

A Palestinian father evacuates his wounded daughter from a destroyed house[/caption]

Israel has vowed to continue air strikes on Palestine[/caption]

Israeli soldiers gather along the border with the Gaza Strip[/caption]

The rubble of a destroyed building in Gaza City’s Rimal residential district[/caption]

Palestinians protesting Israeli attacks on Gaza Strip carry a wounded protester[/caption]

Palestinian civil defense search for people between the rubble of destroyed houses[/caption]

The Gaza Health Ministry said at least 26 people were killed in Israeli air strikes this morning, while a further 50 were injured.

It comes as Israel destroyed the home of a top Hamas leader, with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowing to continue with a series of air strikes.

The Israeli military said it struck the homes of Yehiyeh Sinwar, the most senior Hamas leader inside the territory, and his brother Muhammad, another senior Hamas member.

Yesterday it destroyed the home of Khalil al-Hayeh, a senior figure in Hamas political branch.

Brig. Gen. Hidai Zilberman confirmed the strike on Sinwar’s house in the southern Gaza town of Khan Younis to army radio.

The army spokesman said the home of Sinwar’s brother, who is in charge of Hamas’ “logistics and personnel,” was also destroyed.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the air strikes will continue as long as they are required.

Hamas’ upper echelon has gone into hiding in Gaza, and it is unlikely any were at home at the time of the strikes.

The group’s top leader, Ismail Haniyeh, divides his time between Turkey and Qatar, both of which provide political support to the group.

Hamas and the Islamic Jihad militant group have acknowledged 20 fighters killed since the fighting broke out Monday, while Israel says the real number is far higher.

The latest round of fighting the worst since the 2014 Gaza war has killed at least 145 Palestinians in Gaza, including 41 children and 23 women.

Eight Israelis have been killed, including a 5-year-old boy and a soldier.

People search for survivors under the rubble of a destroyed building in Gaza[/caption]

Fire erupts from the Andalus Tower as it is destroyed by an Israeli airstrike in Gaza[/caption]

A Palestinian protester hurls stones during clashes with Israeli troops at Huwwara checkpoint near the West Bank City of Nablus[/caption]

Palestinian paramedics search for survivors under a destroyed building in Gaza[/caption]

More than 150 people were injured after a grandstand collapsed at an uncompleted West Bank synagogue[/caption]

One of the injured being led out on a stretcher[/caption]

Hamas and other militant groups have fired some 2,900 rockets into Israel since Monday, when tensions over a flashpoint holy site in Jerusalem and the threatened eviction of dozens of Palestinian families boiled over.

About half of those projectiles have fallen short or been intercepted, according to the Israeli military, but rockets have reached major cities and sown widespread panic.

Israel has carried out hundreds of airstrikes across the impoverished and blockaded territory, which is home to more than two million Palestinians, and brought down a number of high-rise buildings.

Early on Sunday, Israeli warplanes struck several buildings and roads in central Gaza City.

Photos circulated by residents and journalists showed the airstrikes punched a crater that blocked one of the main roads leading to Shifa hospital, the largest medical center in the strip.

The Health Ministry said the latest airstrikes left at least two dead and 25 wounded, including children and women.

There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military.

AIR STRIKES

Since the conflict began, Israel has levelled a number of Gaza City’s tallest office and residential buildings, alleging they house Hamas military infrastructure.

On Saturday, it turned to the 12-story al-Jalaa Building, where the offices of the Associated Press, the TV network Al-Jazeera and other media outlets are located, along with several floors of apartments.

Netanyahu alleged that Hamas military intelligence was operating inside the building.

Israel routinely cites a Hamas presence as a reason for targeting certain locations in airstrikes, including residential buildings.

The military also has accused the militant group of using journalists as human shields, but provided no evidence to back up the claims.

President Joe Biden spoke with Netanyahu and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, whose authority is confined to parts of the occupied West Bank, on Saturday.

The Biden administration has affirmed its support for Israel while working to de-escalate the crisis.

US diplomat Hady Amr has been dispatched to the region as part of efforts to broker a truce, and the UN Security Council is set to meet today.

The tensions began in east Jerusalem earlier this month, when Palestinians protested attempts by settlers to forcibly evict a number of Palestinian families from their homes and Israeli police measures at Al-Aqsa Mosque, a frequent flashpoint located on a mount in the Old City revered by Muslims and Jews.

Hamas fired rockets toward Jerusalem late Monday, triggering the Israeli assault on Gaza.

The turmoil has also spilled over elsewhere, fuelling protests in the occupied West Bank and stoking violence within Israel between its Jewish and Arab citizens, with clashes and vigilante attacks on people and property.