Gaza- The Israeli military says its warplanes carried out 122 strikes on Gaza overnight, as the regime continues its bombardment of the besieged enclave, targeting residential buildings in total disregard for civilian lives.
Hidai Zilberman, the Israeli military spokesperson, said that around 10 p.m. on Tuesday night, 52 fighter jets carried out 122 airstrikes on the Gaza Strip in 25 minutes, targeting what he claimed to be Hamas’ network of tunnels, including weapons storage sites and a command center.
At least four Palestinians were killed during the raids, Palestinian news agency Wafa reported.
One of the attacks killed a journalist named Yusef Abu Hussein and injured several others on Wednesday morning. Hussein, a presenter in a Palestinian Radio channel, lost his life during an air raid that targeted the Sheikh Radwan neighborhood in Gaza City.
Israeli airstrikes also hit homes and farmlands in the towns of Khan Younis and Jabalia on Tuesday night and early Wednesday morning, while a house in Beit Lahia and a truck in the Maghazi camp were bombed by the regime’s jets.
Israel tried in vain twice to kill Hamas military chief
The Israeli military confirmed on Wednesday that it has tried to kill Hamas military chief Muhammad Deif twice since the confrontations began on May 10.
It said Deif escaped the attacks both times, claiming that it has targeted at least seven other top Hamas members, but all of whom survived, some with injuries.
Palestinian resistance groups also continued firing rockets toward Israeli-occupied territories, with Hamas saying it targeted six Israeli air force bases in central and southern occupied territories in the course of its latest barrage.
“The bases that the al-Qassam Brigades targeted are Hatzor, Hatzerim, Nevatim, Tel Nof, Palmachim, and Ramon,” Hamas said.
Rocket sirens sounded last night in central and southern occupied territories, including in Ashdod and Rehovot. Sirens also sounded in the western town of Sderot and Gaza border communities. After hours of silence, rocket sirens were set off in the Gaza border town of Ein HaShlosha in the morning, the Times of Israel reported.
Citing unnamed sources, Arabi 21 reported that Israeli settlers are leaving Tel Aviv en masse toward Israeli illegal settlements in the occupied West Bank over fears of the Palestinian resistance groups’ rockets.
Palestinians hold nationwide strike
On Tuesday, Palestinians held protests in various parts of Israeli-occupied territories to condemn Israel’s atrocities.
Protesters rallied in Haifa, Jaffa, Nazareth, Hebron, Acre, Tulkarm, Sakhnin, Salfit, Jenin, Qalqilya, Umm al-Fahm and Lod, as well as other areas, where they waved Palestinian flags and chanted anti-Israeli slogans. Israeli violence was reported in several areas.
Israeli occupation forces were deployed to the area to suppress the protesters, who came out to condemn the ongoing bombardment of Gaza, the Israeli regime’s attacks on al-Aqsa Mosque compound and the land appropriation in Sheikh Jarrah.
According to the Palestinian Red Crescent, 16 people were injured in Israeli forces’ violence near the Damascus Gate, with three requiring hospitalization.
Israeli forces kill two more Palestinians in West Bank
The Palestinian Health Ministry said two more Palestinians – 20-year-old Adham Fayez Musa Kashif and 15-year-old Islam Wael Bernat – were shot dead during demonstrations near the Beit El checkpoint in the occupied West Bank.
The ministry said Kashif was shot in the chest with several live bullets and Bernat was shot several times in the head.
Gaza health ministry said in its latest report that the Israeli airstrikes on Gaza have killed at least 219 Palestinians, including 63 children and 36 women, with over 1,500 others wounded. The ministry said around a third of the wounded are children.
The Israeli attacks have destroyed a number of buildings and roads as well, making it hard for emergency rescue crews to reach new targeted areas.
Israel vows to continue shelling Gaza
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said the regime will continue its airstrikes on the Gaza Strip for at least several more days.
In remarks on Tuesday, Netanyahu said the Israeli bombardment of Gaza will go on “as long as needed to restore calm for the citizens of Israel.”
Israel’s minister of military affairs Benny Gantz also said the aerial raids against Gazans will continue with the aim of achieving “long-term quiet.”
Speaking with US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin on Tuesday, Gantz expressed his appreciation for the US administration’s support of what he called Israel’s right to self-defense.
The US has strongly supported Israel since the beginning of its war on Gaza. On Sunday, it blocked a statement by the UN Security Council over the issue.
Resistance warns Israeli commander: ‘Your house is next’
Meanwhile, al-Mujahideen Brigades published a video of the areas targeted in Israeli-occupied territories, threatening the chief of the regime’s southern command that his house will be the next target.
“Your house is next,” the Palestinian resistance group said in the video, addressing Eliezer Toledano, according to Lebanon’s al-Mayadeen television network.
It came after a video of Toledano escaping a live TV interview right after hearing sirens circulated on social media.
Toledano was being interviewed on Sunday by Israeli Channel 13 before he heard the rocket sirens and escaped.
This is not the first time an Israeli official escapes to shelters while on air. Netanyahu and others had done the same several times escaping from the resistance’s missiles.
Hamas denies ceasefire agreement
A member of the Hamas political bureau denied reports that the resistance group had agreed to a ceasefire on Thursday, saying no such agreement had been reached.
“What some enemy media reported about Hamas agreeing to a ceasefire on Thursday is not true,” Izzat al-Reshiq wrote in a tweet early on Wednesday. “We stress that the efforts and contacts with the mediators are serious and continuous, and the demands of our nation are clear.”
Meanwhile, the Palestinian Authority’s envoy to the United Nations, Riyad Mansour, said Palestinians cannot continue to live under the aggressive apartheid regime of Israel.
“We cannot continue to live under this aggressive apartheid regime. This occupation has to end. We need to have the independence of our state with East Jerusalem [al-Quds] as its capital where we can live with dignity and freedom,” Mansour told a press conference at UN headquarters in New York.
Al-Alam office evacuated over Israeli threat of strike
The office of Iran’s Arabic-language Al Alam news network was evacuated on Wednesday due to the Israeli regime’s threat to bomb a nearby building, the network’s correspondent to Gaza said.
It came days after the Tel Aviv regime destroyed Al Jalaa tower in Gaza that housed offices of Al Jazeera, the Associated Press and the Middle East Eye among other news agencies.
The attack was denounced around the globe as a move to suppress journalism.
The killing of Yusef Abu Hussein on Wednesday morning will add to that fury.
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