GAZA/OCCUPIED JERUSALEM — Israeli planes renewed air strikes in Gaza early on Saturday
and Hamas responded by firing rockets into Israel as their battle entered a
fifth night and US and Arab diplomats sought an end to the violence.
اضافة اعلان
Palestinian medics said at least 12 people were killed
overnight in air strikes throughout Gaza. Health officials said a woman and her
three children were among the dead after their house was hit in a refugee camp.
The Israeli occupation forces said it carried out strikes on
a Hamas military intelligence facility and a number of rocket launching sites
in northern Gaza.
The Palestinian religious affairs ministry said Israeli
planes destroyed a mosque. A military spokesman said the army was checking the
report.
Across the border, sirens sounded throughout much of
southern Israel, sending residents running for shelter. In the cities of
Beersheba and Ashdod buildings were struck by rockets. There were no immediate
reports of injuries.
With no sign of an end to the fighting, casualties spread
further afield, with Palestinians reporting on Friday 11 killed in the occupied
West Bank amid clashes between protesters and Israeli occupation forces.
At least 132 people have been killed in Gaza since Monday,
including 32 children and 21 women, and 950 others wounded, Palestinian medical
officials said.
Among the eight dead in Israel were a soldier patrolling the
Gaza border and six civilians, including two children, Israeli authorities
said.
Ahead of a session of the UN Security Council on Sunday to
discuss the situation, Biden administration envoy Hady Amr, Deputy Assistant
Secretary for Israel and Palestinian Affairs, flew in on Friday.
The US Embassy in Israel said the aim was "to reinforce
the need to work toward a sustainable calm."
Israel launched day-long attacks on Friday to destroy what
it said were several kilometres of tunnels, launch sites and weapons
manufacturing warehouses used by the militants in an effort to halt the rocket
attacks.
Across central and southern Israel, from small towns
bordering Gaza to metropolitan Tel Aviv and southern Beersheba, people have
adjusted to sirens wailing, radio and TV broadcast interruptions and the beeps
of cellphones bearing red alerts that send them rushing for cover.
Cross-border hostilities between Israel and Palestinian fighters
in Gaza have been accompanied by violence in mixed communities of Jews and
Arabs in Israel. Synagogues have been attacked and street fights have broken
out, prompting Israel's president to warn of civil war.
Diplomatic flurry
Egypt was leading regional efforts to secure a ceasefire.
Cairo was pushing for both sides to cease fire from midnight on Friday pending
further negotiations, two Egyptian security sources said, with Egypt leaning on
Hamas and others, including the United States, trying to reach an agreement
with Israel.
The foreign ministers of Egypt and Jordan discussed efforts
to end the Gaza confrontation and to prevent "provocations" in
Jerusalem, Egypt's foreign ministry said.
"The talks have taken a real and serious path on
Friday," a Palestinian official said. "The mediators from Egypt,
Qatar and the United Nations are stepping up their contacts with all sides in a
bid to restore calm, but a deal hasn't yet been reached."
The United Arab Emirates on Friday called for a ceasefire
and negotiations while offering condolences to all victims of the fighting,
citing the promise of September accords that made the UAE and Bahrain the first
Arab states in a quarter century to establish formal ties with Israel.
The Israeli occupation forces said more than 2,000 rockets
had been fired from Gaza into Israel since the start of the conflict, around
half of them intercepted by missile defense systems and 350 fell into the Gaza
Strip.
Civil unrest between Jews and Arabs in Israel itself dealt a
strong blow to efforts by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's opponents to
unseat the Israeli leader after a series of inconclusive elections, giving rise
to expectations Israelis will go to the polls for an unprecedented fifth time
in just over two years.
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