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Following the massive rocket attack by militant Palestinians on the Tel Aviv area, Israel's military has stepped up its attacks on senior Hamas members.
The air force shot at the houses of Raed Saad, Hamas chief for special operations, and two Hamas commanders in Chan Junis in the south and Dir el-Balach in the central section of the Gaza Strip, the army announced on Saturday evening.
Israel's military also threatened the Hamas leadership with targeted killing.
According to the Israeli military, the Palestinian organization Hamas then fired further rockets at Israel on the night of Sunday.
A "heavy hail of rockets" was fired from the Gaza Strip on central and southern Israel, tweeted the army.
A spokesman for the Hamas military arm had previously threatened to fire rockets again at Tel Aviv from midnight.
On Saturday, Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip had already fired rockets three times in quick succession at the coastal metropolis of Tel Aviv.
According to paramedics, a 50-year-old man died in the neighboring town of Ramat Gan when a rocket struck.
According to the Austrian ambassador to Israel, Hannah Liko, the rocket hit not far from the diplomatic mission.
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Shortly thereafter, according to a dpa reporter, the Israeli air force destroyed a 14-story skyscraper in the Gaza Strip, in which media companies such as the Associated Press (AP) had their offices. According to reports, residents were previously asked by phone to leave the building. The AP news agency reacted with horror. "This is an incredibly worrying development," said AP President Gary Pruitt on Saturday in New York. "We barely escaped a terrible loss of life." A dozen AP journalists and freelancers were brought to safety on time.
UN Secretary General António Guterres reacted with dismay to the Israeli attack. His spokesman Stephane Dujarric said in New York that Guterres was "deeply concerned about the destruction of a high-rise building in Gaza City by an Israeli air strike, in which the offices of several international media organizations and apartments were located". He was also dismayed by the rising number of civilian casualties, including the deaths of ten members of a family, including children, following an Israeli air strike on the Shati refugee camp in western Gaza. He reminded all sides that any arbitrary attack on civil and media structures violated international law.
It was the fifth skyscraper to collapse the Israeli army since the recent escalation began on Monday.
According to the information, the Qatari TV broadcaster Al-Jazeera (Al-Jazeera) also had an office in the building that was recently destroyed.
The Israeli army announced on Twitter that fighter jets had attacked a high-rise building in which the Islamist Hamas military intelligence service had "military resources" at its disposal.
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A spokesman for the military Hamas arm threatened Tel Aviv with an "answer that will shake the earth". A quick end to the conflict seems a long way off. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the military operation against Hamas would "continue as long as necessary". The first thing to do is to destroy the infrastructure of the Islamist Hamas. "We still have difficult days ahead of us, but we will get through them together and win," said the 71-year-old.
According to an Israeli air force officer, Hamas has fired more than 2,300 rockets at Israel since Monday.
Israel attacked more than 650 targets in the Gaza Strip during the same period.
The conflict between Israel and the ruling Hamas in the Gaza Strip had escalated at the beginning of the week.
According to the Ministry of Health in Gaza, 145 people have been killed and 1,100 injured since then.
As the rescue service Magen David Adom announced, the rocket fire in Israel over the past few days killed ten people and injured 636.
Biden is on the phone with Netanyahu
In view of the violence, US President Joe Biden telephoned Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.
Speaking to Netanyahu, the White House said: "The President reiterated his strong support for Israel's right to defend itself against the rocket attacks by Hamas and other terrorist groups in the Gaza Strip."
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Biden had expressed concern about the safety of journalists and stressed the need to ensure their protection.
Biden informed Abbas about the US diplomatic engagement in the ongoing conflict.
Biden also stressed that Hamas must stop firing rockets on Israel.
Biden and Abbas have expressed concern about the deaths of innocent civilians.
The conflict between Israelis and Palestinians had come to a head during the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan and after the cancellation of the Palestinian parliamentary elections.
Police barriers in the old city of Jerusalem, which many young Palestinians perceived as humiliation, are considered to be the trigger.
In addition, there were clashes between Palestinians and Israeli settlers in the Jerusalem neighborhood of Sheikh Jarrah over the threat of evictions and violent clashes on the Temple Mount (Al-Haram al-Sharif).
The complex with the Dome of the Rock and Al-Aqsa Mosque is the third holiest site in Islam.
But it is also holy to Jews because two Jewish temples used to stand there.
The Islamist Hamas has declared itself to be the defender of Jerusalem.
On Saturday, the day of the Nakba (catastrophe), the Palestinians commemorated the displacement and flight of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians in the course of the establishment of the State of Israel in 1948. Around 500 people demonstrated in Ramallah in the West Bank.
They waved Palestinian and black flags.
Protests in southern Lebanon on the border with Israel led to clashes between demonstrators and Israeli security forces.
According to eyewitnesses, they fired tear gas at several people approaching the border fence.
Lebanese army troops also tried to drive the demonstrators off the fence.
Palestinians and supporters of the Lebanese Hezbollah appeared at the protests.