display

Tel Aviv / Gaza (dpa) - After massive rocket attacks from the Gaza Strip, Israel's air force shot at the house of Hamas boss Jihia al-Sinwar there.

The building in Chan Junis in the south of the coastal area served as "the military infrastructure of the Hamas terrorist organization," said the Israeli army.

The house of Al-Sinwar's brother Mohammed, 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.

display

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 said 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.

A "heavy hail of rockets" was fired from the Gaza Strip on the center and south of Israel, tweeted the army.

Israel's air force had already bombed the home of another senior Hamas leader on Saturday.

The house of Khalil al-Haja, Vice-Head of the Hamas Politburo, served as a “terror infrastructure”.

The army released a video of the attack.

According to Palestinian sources, Al-Haja was not in the house at the time of the attack.

display

According to a dpa reporter, the Israeli air force destroyed a 14-story skyscraper in the Gaza Strip on Saturday, 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. "We only narrowly 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." 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.

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."

First one has 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.

display

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.

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."

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.

© dpa-infocom, dpa: 210516-99-615398 / 4

Israel's military on Twitter

Report from the Jerusalem Post