By The Associated Press
Israeli troopers are battling Hamas fighters within the streets of southern Israel and launching airstrikes on Gaza, a day after an unprecedented shock assault by Hamas fighters.
In northern Israel a short alternate of strikes with Lebanon’s Hezbollah militant group raised fears of a broader battle. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has declared that Israel is “at war.”
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In the southern Gaza city of Rafah on Sunday, residents heard a loud explosion, apparently from an Israeli airstrike that hit a goal near the borders with Egypt. It was not instantly clear what was focused. Residents stated a home within the space had been evacuated.
Israel carried out dozens of airstrikes in Rafah in a single day. One of the strikes hit three properties in one of the crucial crowded refugee camps, Shaboura, killing 19 members of the identical household, in line with a member of the family who posted their names on his social media. Surviving relations and neighbors stuffed al-Farouk mosque, holding funeral prayers because the our bodies of these killed wrapped in white shrouds lined the ground. The crowd then marched to the close by cemetery for burial, some carrying the our bodies.
Also on Sunday, loudspeakers from mosques and shifting vehicles in Rafah blared with condolences and reward for fighters from Hamas, believed to be natives of Rafah, who have been killed throughout the assault on Israel.
Pope Francis on Sunday expressed “apprehension and pain at what is happening in Israel, where violence is again exploding even faster, causing hundreds of deaths and injuries.”
Speaking to the trustworthy in St. Peter’s Square, the pope provided prayers for the victims and their households “and for all those who are experiencing hours of terror and anguish.” The pontiff known as on the assaults by either side to cease. “Terrorism and war don’t bring solutions, only death. War is a defeat. Every war is a defeat.”
The world’s largest bloc of Muslim international locations has condemned what it refers to as “Israeli military aggression” amid ongoing combating between Israel and the Palestinian militant group Hamas.
The Saudi-based Organization of Islamic Cooperation stated Sunday that it’s “greatly concerned about the developments on the ground and the dangerous Israeli escalation in the occupied Palestinian territory.”
The 57-member bloc went on to sentence “the Israeli military aggression that led to the fall of hundreds of martyrs and wounded among the Palestinian people.”
The newest spherical of violence started with an unprecedented shock assault by which Hamas militants raced into Israel, killing a whole bunch of individuals and taking captives again to Gaza.
Israel responded by speeding troops to the border space and launching airstrikes throughout the blockaded territory. Palestinian officers say greater than 300 Gazans have been killed.
Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency says Hezbollah fighters have arrange a tent in a disputed space alongside the nation’s tense southern border hours after an Israeli drone destroyed one other one in the identical place.
Hezbollah initially erected the tent over the summer time in a disputed space alongside Lebanon’s border with Syria’s Israeli-occupied Golan Heights that Lebanon claims is Lebanese territory.
That has led to tensions with Israel over the previous months and the U.N. has been working to steer Hezbollah to take away the tent.
Earlier Sunday, Hezbollah fired dozens of rockets and shells at three Israeli positions within the disputed space of Chebaa Farms and Kfar Chouba hills and Israel’s navy fired again utilizing armed drones.
Romania’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs says that 346 Romanian residents and different foreigners have been repatriated from Israel in a single day on two separate flights.
The ministry stated Sunday {that a} cellular consular group was despatched to Ben Gurion Airport from the Romanian Embassy in Tel Aviv and Romania’s consultant workplace in Ramallah to offer consular help.
On Saturday, the ministry “strongly condemned” Hamas’ rocket assaults towards Israel, “including against the civilian population, terrorist infiltrations and hostage-taking.” It stated Israel has a sovereign proper to defend itself.
An Egyptian policeman opened fireplace on Israeli vacationers Sunday within the Mediterranean metropolis of Alexandria, killing not less than two Israelis and one Egyptian, native media reported.
Extra News tv channel, which has shut ties to Egyptian safety businesses, quoted an unidentified safety official as saying that one other individual was injured within the assault which came about within the Pompey’s Pillar vacationer web site in Alexandria. The suspected assailant was detained, it reported.
Israel’s Zaka rescue service reported two folks killed in Alexandria.
China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs stated the nation is “deeply concerned over the current escalation of tensions and violence between Palestine and Israel.”
“The recurrence of the conflict shows once again that the protracted standstill of the peace process cannot go on,” the assertion stated. “The fundamental way out of the conflict lies in implementing the two-state solution and establishing an independent State of Palestine.”
The Chinese international ministry stated China would proceed to work with the worldwide group to discover a technique to result in peace, and urged the group to behave with better urgency and assist “facilitate early resumption of peace talks between Palestine and Israel.”
An Egyptian official says Israel has sought assist from Cairo to make sure the security of kidnapped Israelis, and Egypt’s intelligence chief had contacted Hamas and the Islamic Jihad militant group to hunt info.
According to the official, Palestinian leaders claimed that they don’t but have a “full picture” of hostages, however stated those that have been delivered to Gaza have been taken to “secure locations” throughout the territory.
“It’s clear that they have a big number — several dozens,” stated the official, who requested to not be recognized as a result of he was not approved to temporary media.
Egyptian intelligence additionally spoke with either side a few potential cease-fire, he added, however Israel was not open to a truce “at this stage.”
— By Sam Magdy in Cairo.
An Israeli navy official says “hundreds of terrorists” have been killed and dozens captured in combating with Hamas militants in Gaza and southern Israel.
Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari spoke to reporters on Sunday, greater than 24 hours after the Palestinian militant group launched an unprecedented assault into Israel, killing a whole bunch of individuals, firing 1000’s of rockets and taking captives again into blockaded Gaza.
Israel is battling militants within the south and launching airstrikes throughout Gaza which have leveled buildings.
A U.N. peacekeeping power deployed alongside Lebanon’s southern border known as for “everyone to exercise restraint” and make use of the power’s “liaison and coordination mechanisms to de-escalate” and forestall a quick deterioration of the safety state of affairs. It stated it had detected a number of rockets fired from southeast Lebanon towards “Israeli-occupied territory,” adopted by artillery fireplace from Israel towards Lebanon.
The assertion got here shortly after Hezbollah stated it fired at Israeli positions within the disputed Chebaa Farms alongside the border with Syria’s Israeli-occupied Golan Heights. The power often known as UNIFIL stated it’s in touch with authorities on either side of the border in any respect ranges “to contain the situation and avoid a more serious escalation.”
Lebanon’s Hezbollah militant group fired dozens of rockets and shells on Sunday at three Israeli positions in a disputed space alongside the nation’s border with Syria’s Israeli-occupied Golan Heights.
Hezbollah stated in a press release that the assault utilizing “large numbers of rockets and shells” was in solidarity with the “Palestinian resistance.” It stated the Israeli positions have been immediately hit.
Israel’s navy fired again on the Lebanese areas, however there was no instant phrase on casualties.
At least 26 Israeli troopers have been killed in an assault by the Hamas militant group on the nation’s south, Israel’s navy stated Sunday.
The determine is a part of a dying toll of greater than 250 folks within the deadliest assault towards Israelis in a long time.
An Israeli navy spokesperson stated Sunday morning that two hostage conditions had been “resolved,” however didn’t say whether or not all of the hostages had been rescued alive.
Hamas militants had taken hostages throughout their shock assault on Saturday as Israel’s navy scrambled to muster a response. Gun battles continued nicely after dusk, and militants held hostages in standoffs in two cities. Militants occupied a police station in a 3rd city, the place Israeli forces struggled till Sunday morning to lastly reclaim the constructing.
On Sunday, Israel was combating Hamas incursions in eight locations, the Israeli navy stated.
Before dawn on Sunday, militants fired extra rockets from Gaza, hitting a hospital within the Israeli coastal city of Ashkelon. The hospital sustained harm, stated senior hospital official Tal Bergman.
Video offered by Barzilai Medical Center confirmed a big gap punched right into a wall and chunks of particles scattered on the bottom of what seemed to be an empty room and a hallway. There was no report of casualties.
Israeli airstrikes in Gaza had intensified after dusk, flattening residential buildings in big explosions, together with a 14-story tower that held dozens of flats in addition to Hamas workplaces in central Gaza City. Israeli forces fired a warning simply earlier than.
Around 3 a.m., a loudspeaker atop a mosque in Gaza City blared a stark warning to residents of close by residence buildings: Evacuate instantly. Just minutes later, an Israeli airstrike diminished one close by five-story constructing to ashes.
After one Israeli strike, a Hamas rocket barrage hit 4 cities, together with Tel Aviv and a close-by suburb. Throughout the day, Hamas fired greater than 3,500 rockets, the Israeli navy stated.
A Cambodian scholar and a Thai nationwide died within the violence in Israel, their governments stated on Sunday.
Thailand’s Foreign Minister Parnpree Bahiddha-Nukara stated he additionally obtained reviews that eight Thais have been injured and 11 have been kidnapped throughout the assault by Hamas militants. Thai authorities have been working to confirm the knowledge with Israeli authorities, he added. Thai Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin has put the nation’s air power on standby to evacuate its residents if wanted. Thousands of Thai residents work in Israel, a lot of them within the agriculture sector.
Cambodia has some 450 college students in Israel, a press release from its Foreign Ministry stated.
Israel will cease supplying electrical energy, gasoline and items to Gaza, in line with a press release from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s workplace Saturday evening. Much of Gaza was already thrown into darkness by dusk after electrical provides from Israel, which provides virtually all the territories’ energy, have been lower off earlier within the day.
Netanyahu additionally stated the “first phase” of the counter operation had ended, and that Israel had fought off nearly all of Hamas militants.
He vowed to proceed the offensive “without reservation and without respite.”
The announcement got here after a shock assault by Hamas militants into Israel on Saturday morning.
Airlines canceled greater than 80 flights to and from Tel Aviv by Saturday night — roughly 14% of all flights scheduled — due to the unprecedented assault in Israel by the militant group Hamas, in line with FlightAware.
Delta Air Lines and American Airlines canceled flights Saturday evening and Sunday evening from New York’s JFK Airport to Tel Aviv, though a Delta return flight was in a position to depart Tel Aviv Saturday evening. United Airlines additionally canceled a Saturday flight from San Francisco. An earlier United flight rotated over Greenland and returned to San Francisco.
German service Lufthansa canceled a number of flights between Frankfurt and Tel Aviv.
Israeli media, citing rescue service officers, stated not less than 250 folks have been killed and 1,500 wounded, making Saturday’s shock early morning assault by Hamas the deadliest assault in Israel in a long time. At least 232 folks within the Gaza Strip have been killed and not less than 1,700 wounded in Israeli strikes, the Palestinian Health Ministry stated.
Hamas fighters took an unknown variety of civilians and troopers captive into Gaza, a deeply delicate situation for Israel, in harrowing scenes posted on social media movies.
Among these killed in Israel was Lt. Col. Jonathan Steinberg, a senior officer who commanded the navy’s Nahal Brigade, a outstanding infantry unit.
Source: www.bostonherald.com”