Destruction of a civil administration building from an Israeli bomb in Gaza. Photograph by iFalasteen
Israel hit over 200 sites across Gaza overnight, as the violence continues to escalate in the region after Israel assassinated the Hamas military leader Said Khalil al-Jabari on Wednesday.
The Israeli strikes from air and sea have targeted a number of political and military locations of the Gaza ruling Hamas party, including one strike on the offices of Prime Minister Ismail Haniya. Meanwhile, Khaled Meshaal has held talks with the leaders of Egypt, Qatar and Turkey.
More than 40 Palestinians and three Israelis have been killed so far since Israel responded to the ongoing Hamas rockets, which are often Iranian manufactured, on Wednesday with the strike on Jabari.
Israel has a defensive system know as “Iron Dome” that is intended to intercept Palestinian rockets being fired over the border which is being heralded as a success, intercepting a quarter of rockets, but a number of rockets have landed on Israeli soil, with air sirens being heard form Jerusalem to Tel Aviv. However, there have been few Israeli casualties to date – the three casualties from a building in the southern town of Kiryat Malachi, which was hit by a rocket on Thursday.
In contrast to the relatively crude rockets being fired by the Palestinians, Israel has been making use of more technologically advanced military equipment such as unmanned drones, as well as strikes from aircraft and military ships off the coast. Israel has commented that it does not see a distinction between the military and political wings of Hamas, the Sunni group that won the democratic Palestinian legislative election in 2006.
Israel has said it is targeting rocket launchers, weapons storage facilities and smuggling tunnels on the border with Egypt in southern Gaza, with 90% of Hamas’ long-range rocket-launching facilities destroyed. However a number of civilians are amongst those Palestinians killed by Israeli strikes, with some missiles hitting residential areas.
Israel has now put 75,000 reservists on stand-by, on top of the 16,000 called up in recent days, as they leave the option open for a ground offensive in Gaza – threatening to launch such an invasion if Hamas do not stop firing rockets across the border.
