Israel bombed Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) positions in the Gaza Strip for the third day today, killing 31 Palestinians as militants fired back hundreds of rockets amid escalating violence.
Six children have been killed since the conflict began on Friday, while 275 people have been injured, health authorities said in the enclave where several buildings were reduced to rubble.
Israel launched its first bombing raid on Friday as part of a surprise operation called “Breaking Dawn,” which the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said was a “preemptive strike” designed to thwart a planned PIJ missile strike.
The IDF continued their intense air and artillery bombardment early this morning on the Iranian-backed group, which has fired hundreds of missiles since Friday.
Israeli authorities said one of their attacks killed a PIJ commander Khaled Mansour late last night, who was believed to have been hiding in an apartment building in the Rafah refugee camp in southern Gaza, but also killed several Palestinian civilians. at the explosion.
The fighting is the worst in the region since an 11-day war in May 2021 between Israeli forces and Hamas, the de facto government authority of the Gaza Strip, that devastated the impoverished coastal area where some 2.3 million Palestinians lived and forced Israelis to take shelter. search for missiles.
View of destroyed homes after an Israeli airstrike in the city of Rafah, Gaza Strip, August 7, 2022
The friend of a young Palestinian who died overnight in the Jabalia refugee camp in the northern Gaza Strip reacts during his funeral in the same camp, August 7, 2022
Palestinians inspect a destroyed house after an Israeli airstrike in the city of Rafah, Gaza Strip, Aug. 7, 2022
An injured Palestinian girl is taken to hospital after Israeli airstrikes over Rafah
Smoke rises from a building smashed into an Israeli airstrike on August 7, 2022, believed to have killed an Islamic Jihad commander in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip.
Palestinians gather on August 7, 2022 to protest Israel’s attack on Gaza in Nablus, West Bank. The Palestinian death toll from the past three days from attacks has now reached 31.
A Palestinian inspects a destroyed house after an Israeli airstrike in the city of Rafah, Gaza Strip
Islamic Jihad missiles are launched from the Gaza Strip towards Israel, in Gaza City, Sunday, August 7, 2022
“Suddenly, without warning, the house next door was bombed and everything went black and dusty from smoke in the blink of an eye,” said Wissam Jouda, who lives next door to the proposed building in Rafah.
Ahmed al-Qaissi, another neighbor, said his wife and son were among those injured, with shrapnel injuries.
The Rafah strike was the deadliest to date in the current round of fighting initiated by the IDF.
Israel has said it has taken action against the PIJ over concrete threats of an imminent attack, but has not provided details.
Interim Prime Minister Yair Lapid, an experienced diplomat but untested in war surveillance, unleashed the offensive less than three months before a general election in which he is campaigning to keep the job.
In a statement Sunday, Lapid said the military would continue to strike targets in Gaza “in a precise and responsible manner to minimize damage to non-combatants.”
But the IDF estimates that their airstrikes killed about 15 militants, suggesting more civilians than PIJ members have died as a result of the attacks.
Lapid said the attack that killed Mansour was “an extraordinary achievement”, adding that “the operation” lasts as long as it takes.”
Hundreds of Palestinians took to the streets today to protest what they see as even more unnecessary violence from Israel, while hundreds more attended the funerals for Mansour and others killed in the airstrikes.
People attend funeral ceremony of Palestinians who lost their lives in Israel’s attacks in Rafah, Gaza
An Iron Dome anti-missile system fires an interceptor missile as a missile is launched from the Gaza Strip toward Israel, into the skies near the Israel-Gaza border, Aug. 7, 2022
Hundreds of Palestinians have taken to the streets to protest the violence in Israeli airstrikes that have left 31 dead, including more than 15 civilians, since Friday.
A Palestinian man inspects a destroyed house after an Israeli airstrike in the city of Rafah, Gaza Strip, Aug. 7, 2022
PIJ has fewer fighters and supporters than the de facto rulers of Gaza, Hamas, and little is known about its arsenal of weapons.
Both groups call for Israel’s destruction but have different priorities, with Hamas being constrained by the demands of the administration and eager to stay out of conflict since last year’s 11-day war with Israel.
For the first time since the war last May, air-raid sirens blared in Jerusalem after a handful of the PIJ missiles fired at Israel headed for the holy city, although Israeli authorities said their missile defense systems had shot down the threats.
Daily life in the Gaza Strip has come to a standstill, with the only power plant shut down due to a lack of fuel after Israel closed its border crossings in the wake of its attacks on Friday.
Gaza’s health ministry said earlier today it only had enough fuel for its power generators to last for two days before essential services would be interrupted.
The United Nations humanitarian agency OCHA has warned of the ‘serious risk’ to the ‘continuation of essential basic services’.
“Every day we wake up to martyrs of children and women…there are dead and wounded and people are displaced,” said Abu Mohammed al-Madhoun, 56, a resident of Gaza City. “We hope that the Israeli aggression will end.”
A ceasefire proposed by Egyptian authorities on both sides was accepted at 8pm BST tonight, according to security sources in Cairo, but official spokesmen for Israel and the PIJ have not yet confirmed whether the ceasefire will go ahead.