Violence flares as Netanyahu warns ‘we will increase the strength of our attacks as much as necessary’

This article is more than 2 years old

This article is more than 2 years old

Israel’s military carried out its largest airstrike campaign in Gaza since the 2014 war on Saturday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said, as Hamas militants launched more than 200 rockets and mortars before announcing a ceasefire.



Two Palestinian teenagers were killed in an strike in Gaza City, while three Israelis were wounded from a rocket that landed on a residential home.

Israel said its attacks were focused on hitting militant targets and warned Gaza civilians to keep their distance from certain sites. The tit-for-tat air strikes and projectile barrages marked a significant flare-up after a long period of a generally low-level, simmering conflict.

“The Israeli army delivered its most painful strike against Hamas since the 2014 war and we will increase the strength of our attacks as much as necessary,” Netanyahu said.

Late on Saturday, Hamas and Islamic Jihad militants in Gaza announced that they had agreed to a ceasefire brokered by Egypt. Israel lifted restrictions on its communities near the Gaza frontier, reopening a popular beach and ending a temporary ban on large gatherings that it feared might be hit by explosives.

However, sirens warning of incoming rockets still wailed in southern Israel early Sunday and it was unclear if the ceasefire would hold. Two more Palestinians were killed and one wounded in an Sunday morning explosion in a building in Gaza, although the cause was not immediately known.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest A Palestinian with a slingshot in one of the near-weekly protests at the border. Photograph: APAImages/REX/Shutterstock

Lieutenant Colonel Jonathan Conricus said one Israeli sortie on Saturday had struck some 40 Hamas targets including tunnels, logistical centres and a Hamas battalion headquarters. He said the escalation was the result of the sustained Hamas rocket attacks, violence along the frontier and its campaign of launching incendiary kites and balloons that have burnt Israeli farmlands and nature reserves.

“Our message to Hamas is that we can and will enhance the intensity of our effort if needed,” he said. “What Hamas is doing is pushing them ever closer to the edge of the abyss.”

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Witnesses reported that Israeli warplanes dropped four bombs on an unfinished building near a Hamas police and security compound in Gaza City, reducing the old structure to rubble. The four-story building is adjacent to a public park. Gaza’s Health ministry said two teenagers were killed in the strike and 10 others injured.

Striking in the heart of Gaza City is typically only seen during full-blown conflicts, three of which have been fought between Hamas and Israel during the pass decade.

Israeli medical officials said three Israelis were wounded from a rocket that landed on a house in southern Israel. It said paramedics in the southern city of Sderot were treating a 52-year-old man with a chest wound, a 17-year-old girl with a face wound and a 20-year-old woman with injuries to her limbs.

While Israel has been focused on rising tension along its northern border in its efforts to prevent Iran from establishing a permanent military foothold in war-torn Syria, it has been wary of escalating hostilities in Gaza. But Netanyahu has also come under pressure to act from southern Israeli communities, who have once again found themselves under rocket and mortar fire from Gaza in addition to contending with the daily field fires.

In a relatively rare admission, Hamas said it fired the rockets to deter Israel from further action. Most of the recent rockets from Gaza have been fired by smaller factions but Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhoum said it was an “immediate response” that was meant to “deliver the message”.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Balloons loaded with incendiaries fly towards Israel during a confrontation between Palestinian demonstrators and Israeli troops. Photograph: Mahmud Hams/AFP/Getty Images

On Friday, thousands of Palestinians gathered near the Gaza border for their near-weekly protest. A 15-year-old Palestinian who tried to climb over the fence into Israel was shot dead. Later the military said an Israeli officer was moderately wounded by a grenade thrown at him.

The Islamist militant group Hamas that rules Gaza has backed frontier protests aimed in part at drawing attention to the Israeli-Egyptian blockade imposed after Hamas took control of Gaza in 2007, which has caused widespread economic hardship.



Over 130, mostly unarmed, Palestinians have been killed by Israeli fire since demonstrations began on March 30.

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Israel says it is defending its sovereign border and accuses Hamas of using the protests as cover for attempts to breach the perimeter fence and attack civilians and soldiers. Last week, Israel intensified the blockade by shutting Gaza’s main commercial crossing to all by humanitarian assistance and limiting the Palestinian coastal enclave’s fishing zone.

The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report

