2 Palestinians killed in Israel raid as Gaza attacked for 5th day
DEVELOPING STORYDEVELOPING STORY,
Israel strikes several cities across the Gaza Strip while sirens sound in southern Israel for a fifth consecutive day.
Israeli forces shot dead two Palestinians and wounded three others in the occupied West Bank as air strikes hit the Gaza Strip for a fifth-straight day.
The Palestinian health ministry said the Israeli attack on Saturday occurred in the Balata refugee camp in the northern West Bank city of Nablus.
Both men – identified as Adnan Wasim Yousef al-Araj, 19, and Saed Jihad Shaker Mashah – were killed by gunshots to the head, it said.
The deadly raid on Nablus is the latest in a series of incursions in the occupied West Bank since the start of the year. There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military.
In Gaza, meanwhile, Israel carried out air strikes for a fifth day while sirens sounded in southern Israel after rockets were launched from the besieged territory.
“We witnessed an other night full of bombardments and the launching of rockets has intensified in the early morning of Saturday,” said Al Jazeera’s Youmna El Sayed, reporting from the enclave.
Israeli strikes targeted several cities across the strip, including two neighbourhoods of Gaza city that were completely destroyed, she said.
Israeli military said it struck command centres belonging to the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) armed group and rocket launchers in its pre-dawn operations. Grainy black and white aerial footage it released showed explosions and clouds of smoke rising from bombed sites.
A few hours later, rockets were fired from Gaza, setting off sirens and sending Israelis in border communities running to bomb shelters.
While no casualties have been reported from both sides on Saturday, at least 33 Palestinians have been killed and more than 110 wounded since bombardments started on Tuesday. The death toll includes at least six children.
Six PIJ leaders have been killed since the latest violence erupted after Israeli forces launched an assassination campaign against the group. Simultaneous air raids on Tuesday killed Islamic Jihad commanders along with at least 10 civilians – some of their wives, children and neighbours – as they slept in their homes.
Islamic Jihad, the largest armed group in Gaza after the ruling Hamas, has since fired almost 1,000 rockets, some deep into Israel. At least two Israelis have died.
Intense bombardment
Israel said it was retaliating for a barrage of rocket fire launched last week by Islamic Jihad after the death of one of its occupied West Bank members, Khader Adnan, from a hunger strike while in Israeli custody.
The latest fire exchange comes as Egypt and the United Nations are seeking to secure a ceasefire.
“Until last night people were hopeful as Egyptian and local sources talked about a humanitarian ceasefire,” El Sayed said, adding the truce would have allowed the entrance of crucial medical supplies and fuel into the Gaza Strip where hospitals are now overwhelmed.
“All these hopes of a ceasefire were blown away with the intensity of the exchange of bombardment on both sides,” she said.
Hamas officials told local media on Friday that Egypt was ramping up its diplomatic efforts to stop the fighting through “intensive contacts” with both Hamas and PIJ.
PIJ figures have sent mixed signals about the talks.
Senior official Ihasan Attaya complained on Friday the mediators “have been unable to provide us with any guarantees”. A sticking point has been PIJ’s demands that Israel cease its policy of targeted killings, Attaya said.
