Israeli aircraft pummelled rocket-launching operations of Gaza militants on Friday, and as troops, tanks and armoured personnel carriers massed near the Palestinian territory, signalling a ground invasion might be growing near.
Fighting between the two sides escalated sharply on Thursday with a first-ever militant attack on the Tel Aviv area, menacing Israel’s heartland. No casualties were reported, but three people died in the country’s south when a projectile slammed into an apartment building.
The death toll in the densely populated Palestinian territory climbed to 19, including five children according to Palestinian health officials, as waves of Israeli fighter planes and drones sent missiles hurtling down on suspected weapons stores and rocket-launching sites.
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Early Friday, 85 missiles exploded within 45 minutes in Gaza City, sending black pillars of smoke towering above the coastal strip’s largest city. The military said it was targeting underground rocket-launching sites.
One missile hit the Interior Ministry, a symbol of Hamas power.
The Israeli military reported early Friday that its aircraft had struck more than 350 targets since the beginning of its operation against Hamas’ rocket operations.
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On Thursday, Israeli warplanes struck dozens of Hamas-linked targets, sending loud booms echoing across the narrow Mediterranean coastal strip at regular intervals, followed by gray columns of smoke. After nightfall, several explosions shook Gaza City several minutes apart, a sign the strikes were not letting up. The military said the targets were about 70 underground rocket-launching sites.
The onslaught has not deterred the militants from striking back with more than 400 rockets aimed at southern Israel. For the first time, they also unleashed the most powerful weapons in their arsenal Iranian-made Fajr-5 rockets capable of reaching Tel Aviv.
The two rockets that struck closest to Tel Aviv appear to have landed in the Mediterranean Sea, defence officials said, and another hit an open area on Tel Aviv’s southern outskirts.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the Army was hitting Hamas hard with what he called surgical strikes, and warned of a “significant widening” of the Gaza operation. Israel will “continue to take whatever action is necessary to defend our people,” said Netanyahu.