After massive rocket attacks from the Gaza Strip, Israel's air force shot at the house of Hamas chief Jihia al Sinwar.
The building in Chan Junis in the south of the coastal area served as the "military infrastructure of the Hamas terrorist organization," the Israeli army announced on Sunday.
The house of Al Sinwar's brother Muhammad, also a high-ranking member of the Islamist Hamas ruling in the Gaza Strip, had also been attacked.
According to the army, other offices and houses of important Hamas members were attacked. As part of the ongoing attacks on Hamas' underground network of tunnels, known as the Metro, 30 more targets were bombed. In addition, the air force shot at dozens of weapons caches and rocket launchers. The air force attacked 90 militant Palestinian targets within 24 hours. According to Palestinian sources, these were the heaviest air strikes to date in the Gaza Strip.
According to eyewitness accounts, five houses were destroyed in the city of Gaza.
There is fear of many dead and buried under the rubble.
The Ministry of Health in Gaza announced on Sunday that eight people were killed and 45 injured in the city overnight.
Among the dead was a doctor from Schiffa Hospital, the largest clinic in Gaza.
Israel's military had previously threatened the leadership of the Palestinian organization Hamas, which ruled the Gaza Strip, with targeted killing.
During the night, Palestinian militants had once again fired massive rockets into the greater Tel Aviv area and other Israeli towns.
According to the army, around 2,900 rockets have been fired at Israel since the escalation began on Monday.
Israel's air force had already bombed the home of another senior Hamas leader on Saturday. The house of Chalil al Haja, Vice-Head of the Hamas Politburo, served as a "terror infrastructure". The army released a video of the attack. According to Palestinian information, Al Haja was not in the house at the time of the attack.
On Saturday, an Israeli air strike hit a skyscraper in the Gaza Strip used by international media.
In view of the violence in the Middle East, US President Joe Biden spoke on the phone with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and with 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." Biden expressed concern about the safety of journalists and stressed the need to ensure their protection.
It was Biden's second conversation with Netanyahu since Wednesday.
Guterres "deeply worried"
UN Secretary General António Guterres also reacted with dismay to the Israeli attack. His spokesman Stephane Dujarric announced in New York that Guterres was "deeply concerned". 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.
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 Gaza Ministry of Health, 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.
Federal Foreign Minister Heiko Maas (SPD) meanwhile emphasizes Israel's right to self-defense against the rocket fire by Hamas and calls for a three-stage plan to de-escalate the Gaza conflict. "1. a stop to the rocket terror, 2. an end to the violence and 3. the return to talks about concrete confidence-building steps between Israelis and Palestinians and a two-state solution, ”Maas told the newspaper Bild am Sonntag according to a preliminary report.
The green candidate for Chancellor Annalena Baerbock demanded in the newspaper a stronger commitment from the federal government and the sending of mediators to the region. “Israel's security is part of Germany's reason of state. We cannot just watch the heinous attacks by Hamas, ”said Baerbock. The federal government must now act with intensive telephone diplomacy and send high-ranking representatives to the region in order to mediate an immediate end to the violence together with close allies.