Israel pounds Gaza as fighting shows no signs of letting up

GAZA/JERUSALEM • Israel bombed what it said were underground tunnels used by Hamas while Palestinian militants fired rocket barrages at Israeli cities as fighting spilled into a second week yesterday amid mounting international calls for a ceasefire.

After a night of heavy Israeli air strikes on areas across the Islamist Hamas-run enclave, Israel's military said Gaza militants had fired about 60 rockets towards Israeli cities overnight, down from 120 and 200 the two previous nights.

Israeli air strikes yesterday killed a senior Palestinian militant commander in Gaza.

The death of Hussam Abu Harbeed, Islamic Jihad's armed commander for north Gaza, is likely to draw a fierce response from the militant group that is fighting alongside Hamas, the Islamist movement that governs the coastal enclave.

A Palestinian sponge factory in northern Gaza was hit in a morning air strike and firefighters battled to quell the blaze, which sent plumes of smoke into the air.

After rockets were fired from Gaza at the Israeli cities of Beersheba and Ashkelon, Israeli jets bombed what the military said were 15km of underground tunnels used by Hamas. They also struck nine residences belonging to high-ranking Hamas commanders.

With the sounds of Israeli bombardment continuing throughout the morning, Gaza residents rushed to bakeries and drugstores to stock up on bread and other essentials. "My children couldn't sleep all night even after the wave of intensive bombing stopped," said mother of five Umm Naeem, 50, as she shopped for bread in Gaza City. "What is happening to us is too much, but Jerusalem deserves all the sacrifices."

There were no new reports of casualties on either side of the border. The Gaza Health Ministry puts the death toll since the hostilities flared at 197, including 58 children and 34 women.

Ten people have been killed in Israel, including two children, the Israeli authorities say.

Hamas began its rocket assault last Monday after weeks of rising tensions over a court case to evict several Palestinian families in East Jerusalem, and in retaliation for Israeli police clashes with Palestinians near the city's Al-Aqsa Mosque, Islam's third holiest site, during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.

World concern had already deepened after an Israeli air strike in Gaza that destroyed several homes on Sunday and which Palestinian health officials said killed 42 people, including 10 children, and persistent rocket attacks on Israeli towns.

"All parties need to de-escalate tensions - the violence must end immediately", US Secretary of State Antony Blinken wrote on Twitter, injecting more urgency into Washington's calls for calm after he spoke with Egypt's foreign minister.

At a UN Security Council meeting on Sunday, the United States said it had made clear to Israel, the Palestinians and others that it was ready to offer support "should the parties seek a ceasefire".

However, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel's campaign in Gaza was continuing at "full force", and that deterrence had to be achieved to prevent future conflict with Hamas.

"We are acting now, for as long as necessary, to restore calm and quiet to you, Israel's citizens. It will take time," Mr Netanyahu said in a televised address after his security Cabinet met on Sunday.

US President Joe Biden said his administration is working with all parties towards achieving a sustained calm.

In New York, United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres told the Security Council that the world body was "actively engaging all sides towards an immediate ceasefire" and urged them "to allow mediation efforts to intensify and succeed".

UN envoys have helped to mediate past truces between Israel and Hamas.

Washington, a strong ally of Israel, has been isolated at the UN over its objection to a public statement by the Security Council on the ongoing violence because it worries it could harm behind-the-scenes diplomacy.

Jordan's King Abdullah said his kingdom is involved in intensive diplomacy to halt what he characterised as an Israeli military escalation. The monarch, whose ruling family has custodianship of Muslim and Christian sites in Jerusalem, did not elaborate. Israel and Jordan made peace in 1994.

Meanwhile, Brigadier-General Yaron Rosen, a former Israeli air division commander, gave no indication yesterday that there would be a let-up in attacks in what he called a "war of attrition".

"The IDF (Israeli military) can go with this forever. And they (Hamas) can go on with their rockets, sadly, also for a very long time. But the price they are paying is rising higher and higher," he told reporters.

REUTERS