Israel continued on Friday to bombard the Gaza Strip with air raids and artillery shells as it stepped up the deployment of troops and tanks near the besieged Palestinian enclave.
At least 123 Palestinians, including 31 children and 20 women , have been killed and more than 830 wounded since hostilities flared up on Monday. Hundreds of Palestinian families have taken shelter in UN-run schools in northern Gaza to escape Israeli artillery fire, with locals reporting that that the Strip had experienced its “most violent” night.
Despite international calls for an immediate halt of all hostilities, including from United Nations chief Antonio Guterres, Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu pledged the offensive will continue “as needed to restore calm in the state of Israel”.
Hamas fired another barrage of rockets towards Israel, hitting the city of Ashkelon in the early hours on Friday.
At least seven Israelis and one Indian national have also been killed. The Israeli army said hundreds of rockets have been fired from Gaza towards various locations in Israel and they have added reinforcements near the enclave’s eastern lands.
The Israeli army said it destroyed several kilometres of underground tunnels in Gaza during a large-scale operation involving 160 aircraft.
The army said in a statement the aim of the operation was to severely damage the tunnels, an underground network they say Hamas use to move and launch attacks on Israel. It said more than 150 targets were hit.
Meanwhile, violence is brewing between Israeli settlers and Palestinian citizens in the West Bank as well as in Israel. In another potential escalation, at least three rockets were fired from southern Lebanon towards Israel.Hasan al-Attar stood quietly inside the morgue, staring at the bodies of his daughter, Lamya, and three other children belonging to the same family. Wearing his fireman’s vest, he bent over to kiss his daughter, before the refrigeration unit door was closed.
“Pray for her,” a colleague said, clasping his hand on Hasan’s shoulder.
Lamya and the children – the siblings Amir and Islam al-Attar – and Mohammed al-Attar were killed overnight on Friday in Beit Lahia, after an Israeli air raid bombed the house they were staying in.
One man was shot dead at a checkpoint in the town of Yabad near Jenin by Israeli security forces as Palestinians took to the streets across the occupied West Bank to protest against Israeli air raids in Gaza. Demonstrations were held in the cities of Nablus, Tulkarem, Jenin, Ramallah and Hebron.
Safa news news agency also said that 20 people were injured in Jericho where Israeli police reportedly used live ammunition.Israeli forces shot dead a Palestinian man in the occupied West Bank, the fourth Palestinian killed since Monday.Israeli soldiers have fired live ammunition against Palestinian protesters in the town of Budrus, west of Ramallah, local media Safa news reported.
There was no immediate information on the man’s identity. The Israeli army said he had attempted to stab a soldier before being “neutralised”.
“The assailant arrived in his vehicle to a military post adjacent to the community of Ofra, north of Ramallah, and accelerated” towards a soldier before the alleged attempted stabbing.
The Palestinian health ministry confirmed the man’s killing.Local media are reporting more Israeli shelling and aerial bombardments in Gaza.
In the last few minutes, “violent” artillery shelling hit east of Deir al-Balah governorate just south of Gaza City.
Artillery fired also reportedly hit the homes of civilians east of Maghazi, also in Deir al-Balah area.A video posted on social media by New Press publication showed several alleged Israeli settlers attacking Palestinian homes in the city of Hebron in the occupied West Bank early on Friday.
Over 30 Palestinian schools, one Israeli damaged by air raids
Save the Children said that at least 31 schools attended by 24,000 children and a health facility in Gaza have been damaged by Israeli air raids.
The charity said all schooling had been suspended due to the violence.
“We keep telling my young daughter and son that the heavy shelling is celebrations, fireworks, what a joke! We resort to different ways to distract their attention from this awful atmosphere but all are in vain,” said Ibrahim Abu Sobeih, Save the Children’s Gaza field manager.
“It is relatively quiet right now compared to the previous days and to the extremely intense exchange of fire that took place in the night,” Fawcett said, referring to a barrage of rockets launched by Hamas into the city of Ashkelon around 3am local time (00:00 GMT).
The volley of rockets was followed by some confusion, Fawcett said, “deliberately or not” as reports suggested that Israel was considering a ground invasion. The report was later dismissed.
Israeli air raids have destroyed or severely damaged more than 200 housing units in the Gaza Strip, while 24 schools have sustained damages, according to the UN’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).
The agency said the escalation has been having an impact on access to water, sanitation, healthcare and the COVID-19 response.
It noted that the North Gaza Seawater Desalination Plant was still not operational affecting an estimated 250,000 people’s access to clean drinking water. Another 230,000 people from Gaza City and Khan Younis have limited access to piped water due to increasing power cuts and the damages to the networks, according to OCHA.
sraeli authorities have closed the Erez crossing in the north of the Gaza Strip since May 10, including for humanitarian workers, as well as the Kerem Shalom crossing in the south where goods and fuel go through.
“Humanitarians continue to provide assistance on the ground but the current insecurity significantly restricts the delivery of essential services, including the ongoing COVID-19 response,” said Jens Laerke, OCHA’s spokesperson.
Maha Hussaini, a human rights activist in the Gaza Strip, spoke to media detailing her experience in the face of the ongoing Israeli bombardment.
“I haven’t slept for the past three days because the shelling intensifies mostly at night. We are sometimes able to buy food or order deliveries but most shops are closed because they are also being bombarded,” she said.
Hussaini said the northern part of the Gaza Strip had witnessed its “most violent” attack overnight, with fighter jets, tanks and artillery shelling “all bombing one area of 62 kilometres” (39 miles).
ICC prosecutor warns against war crimes
International Criminal Court’s top prosecutor Fatou Bensouda told Reuters news agency that individuals involved in the ongoing conflict may be targeted by an investigation into alleged war crimes.
Bensouda said she would press ahead with her inquiry even without the cooperation of Israel, which accuses her office of anti-Semitic bias and rejected membership in the treaty-based court, objecting to its jurisdiction.
“These are events that we are looking at very seriously,” Bensouda said. “We are monitoring very closely and I remind that an investigation has opened and the evolution of these events could also be something we look at.”