Rocket fire, air strikes continue between Palestinians, Israelis

DEVELOPING STORYDEVELOPING STORY,

This week’s battles began when Israel launched simultaneous air strikes that killed three Islamic Jihad commanders along with some of their wives and children as they slept in their homes.

Israeli fighter jets pounded targets in the Gaza Strip and more rockets were launched into Israel by Palestinians as the deadly confrontation continued for a fourth straight day.

There were no immediate reports of casualties on either side on Friday as foreign mediators pressed ahead with efforts to reach a ceasefire.

Al Jazeera’s Willem Marx, reporting from the Israeli town of Ashkelon, said sirens were sounding throughout the area, warning residents of incoming fire.

“Possibly about two dozen rockets were fired from Gaza – among the more than 800 launched this week,” said Marx. “The Israeli military has confirmed to us it is moving residents away from these areas to get them to places less likely to be hit by this heavy rocket fire.”

Fighter jets were heard flying over the region, indicating Israeli raids were continuing. The past few days of fighting have killed 31 Palestinians in Gaza and a 70-year-old man in central Israel.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met army and intelligence officials early Friday. “That will indicate how the Israeli military will proceed over the coming hours,” said Marx.

‘We were shocked’

During a lull in the fighting, Palestinians surveyed the wreckage wrought by Israeli attacks.

“The dream that we built for our children, for our sons, has ended,” said Belal Bashir, a Palestinian living in Deir al-Balah in central Gaza, whose family home was reduced to a heap of rubble in an air strike late Thursday.

He and his family would have been killed in the thundering explosion if they had not ran outside when they heard shouting, he said.

“We were shocked that our house was targeted,” he added as he pulled his young children’s dolls and blankets from a bomb crater.

The cross-border exchanges this week have pitted Israel against Islamic Jihad, the second-largest armed group in Gaza after the territory’s Hamas rulers.

Since Tuesday, Israel says its strikes have killed five senior Islamic Jihad figures. Islamic Jihad has retaliated with hundreds of rockets fired towards densely populated parts of Israel.

Israel’s military said it has used air strikes to hit at least 215 targets in Gaza, including rocket and mortar launch sites.

Ceasefire talks

Egypt, Qatar, and the United Nations have been working to broker a ceasefire.

Hamas officials told local media early Friday that Egypt was ramping up its diplomatic efforts to stop the fighting through “intensive contacts” with both Hamas and Islamic Jihad.

Islamic Jihad figures have sent mixed signals about the ceasefire talks.

Senior official Ihasan Attaya complained early Friday the mediators “have been unable to provide us with any guarantees”. A sticking point has been Islamic Jihad’s demands that Israel cease its policy of targeted killings, Attaya said.

This week’s battles began when Israel launched, on Tuesday, simultaneous air strikes that killed three Islamic Jihad commanders along with some of their wives and children as they slept in their homes.

Israel said it was retaliating for a barrage of rocket fire launched last week by Islamic Jihad following the death of one of its West Bank members, Khader Adnan, from a hunger strike while in Israeli custody.