Israel, hundreds of rockets from Gaza: 4 Israelis killed. Raid, 21 Palestinians dead

• Israeli raid on the Gaza Strip: tension along the border returns
• Rain of rockets from Gaza over Israel. EU calls for immediate stop

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The more hours pass, the more the crisis in Gaza risks turning into a real war. The budget is now heavy: the southern part of Israel has been submerged for almost two days by a rain of rockets , about 700, which are gradually spreading to other areas of the Jewish state and which have made a total of four victims: the number greater than losses from the 2014 war.

21 Palestinian deaths
In the Strip, hammered more and more by the Israeli response, the Hamas health ministry has counted 21 Palestinians killed and among them also another pregnant woman after yesterday's one on which, however, Israel has borne the responsibility to "defective weapons" of the Gaza militias.

Factory and hospital hit in Ashkelon
A rocket launched by the Palestinian enclave of Gaza fell on a factory in Ashkelon, in southern Israel. According to reports from Arutz Sheva, the two seriously injured on the spot did not make it: it is a 40 year old and a 22 year old, both affected by splinters and found unconscious. There would be other wounded, some serious. Israeli and Arab sites report it.

During the Palestinian bombings, a rocket also hit the Israeli Ashkelon hospital, causing damage to its oncology department. The media report it. However, part of that hospital operates underground. Inside, the doctors are doing their utmost to save the seriously injured.

Rocket on car, Israeli dies
A 35-year-old Israeli died after being hit by a rocket launched from Gaza and fallen to Ashdod.

#BREAKING: Video of fires at impact site in Ashdod where man is in critical condition after his car was struck by a rocket pic.twitter.com/XFrWMkhmJ1

Netanyahu: "Hamas will pay a very heavy price"
To better describe the possible developments is the decision of Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu to send the 7th Armored Brigade to the border with possible "offensive tasks" even beyond the Israeli territory, as the army explained. Beyond this elite unit, the army also deployed the Golani Infantry Brigade. "I have instructed the Armed Forces to continue the massive attacks against terrorist elements in Gaza," Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu said, stressing that "Hamas is responsible not only for its attacks, but also for those of Islamic Jihad." "He will pay - he warned - a very heavy price". Netanyahu's decision was also ratified by the Defense Council held today in Tel Aviv for 4 hours.

Rapid deterioration panel
The situation is therefore rapidly deteriorating, so much so that the UN envoy in the Middle East Nickolay Maldenov and the EU foreign minister Federica Mogherini condemning the launch of rockets in no uncertain terms have nevertheless called for a return to the agreements preceding the current blaze. Italian foreign minister Enzo Moavero Milanesi also supported Israel's right to self-defense by pressing for the arrest of weapons.

The situation on the field
To give the exact picture of the situation in the field, just mention two facts. The first: Israel killed Hamed al-Hudari, collector of the money Iran sends to the Hamas and Islamic Jihad Strips in Gaza in the first long-running execution. According to the military spokesman, al-Hudari represented "the spearhead of Iranian infiltration in Gaza". The second fact: the Israeli woman killed in her car near the Gaza border was hit by a guided antitank missile Kornet, a particularly sophisticated weapon that shows, according to analysts, the intention of Hamas to use the entire arsenal At your service.

Diplomacy at work
If diplomacy, UN and Egypt, seems to be working in Cairo in an attempt to overcome the impasse, on the field the escalation is visible. Israel, which is increasing the pressure, has hit over 250 targets in the Strip, largely targeting positions of Hamas and Islamic Jihad. After foiling a cyber attack by Hamas, it also centered the headquarters of the cyber war faction in Gaza City.

In Israel there are more than a million citizens forced to make up and down with the shelters to the sound of sirens. And they were also opened far from the Strip: for example in Netanyahu which is 25 kilometers north of Tel Aviv. Two of the three victims in Israel were killed by a rocket that hit a factory in Ashkelon, a city particularly targeted by rockets from the Strip and where the oncology department of the city hospital was also hit.

No one is ready to bet on how much the situation can hold in this balance: there are many who argue in Israel that it is not easy to stop this conflict now.

Use: Israel has the right to defense, cease attacks
The US firmly condemns the barrage of attacks launched by Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad from Gaza on innocent civilians and their communities throughout Israel ". This was stated in a note by US State Department spokesman Morgan Ortagus." We ask the responsible for the violence to stop this aggression immediately. We stand alongside Israel and fully support its right to self-defense against these aberrant attacks, "the statement concludes.

Hamas calls for a ceasefire
Hamas has asked Israel to declare a ceasefire, to stop the escalation of violence on Saturday and Sunday. The Israeli broadcaster Kan, quoted by the Jerusalem Post, reported this.

The beginning of new tensions
Earlier this month, in the run-up to the April 9th ​​elections, a truce was reached by Israel and Palestinian armed groups under the aegis of Egypt and the UN, leading to relative calm but this week was interrupted.

On Tuesday, Israel lifted the extension of the fishing limit after a rocket was fired from Gaza and fell into the Mediterranean, while on Thursday it bombed a Hamas military complex after the launch of incendiary balloons across the border.

In light of the resumption of tension, three days ago a delegation led by Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar went to Cairo for consultations. The general secretary of the Islamic Jihad, Ziad al-Nakhaleh, had already warned Israel in recent days that, in the event of injury or killing of its militants, it would respond by targeting the main cities of the Jewish state.