GAZA STRIP-Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip have fired 270 rockets at Israel and the Israeli military says it has hit 50 targets belonging to Islamic Jihad, in the heaviest fighting in nine months. Five people have been killed and 40 injured in Gaza, local medics say.
Several were hurt rushing to shelters in Israel, where most rockets have been intercepted or fell in open areas.
It comes a day after 15 Palestinians were killed in Israeli strikes on Gaza, including three Islamic Jihad leaders.
Islamic Jihad, which is the second biggest militant group in Gaza, had sworn to avenge their deaths.
Militant groups in Gaza, which is controlled by Hamas, warned in a joint statement following Wednesday’s escalation that “if Israel increases its aggression, dark days await it”.
Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told mayors that it was “ready for the possibility of an expanded campaign and harsh strikes against Gaza”.
Palestinians said the exchange of fire began with several loud explosions in southern Gaza, sending up large plumes of smoke.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said an aircraft targeted Islamic Jihad operatives travelling in a vehicle to a concealed rocket launcher in the Khan Younis area. About an hour later, the IDF announced that it had started attacking underground rocket launchers belonging to Islamic Jihad across the territory in order to thwart planned attacks. Palestinian media reported strikes in Gaza City, the northern town of Bait Lahiya, and the southern town of Rafah.
The Palestinian health ministry in Gaza said one man was killed in the initial strike on Khan Younis. Another man was killed in the northern Beit Hanoun area, two people were killed in Rafah, and a fifth person was killed in Gaza City, it added. Not long afterwards, militants began firing barrages of rockets from Gaza and rocket sirens sounded in communities in southern Israel.
Later, rockets were launched towards central Israel, triggering sirens in the Tel Aviv area, 80km (50 miles) from Gaza. In one video filmed in Old Jaffa, explosions could be heard as two rockets appeared to be intercepted overhead.
Israeli officials said one rocket hit an empty house in the town of Sderot, which is only 1km (0.6 miles) from the Gaza perimeter fence. Another hit the roof of a kindergarten in the kibbutz of Nirim, to the south, but no-one was injured.
A hospital in the city of Ashkelon said it treated two people hurt while running to a bomb shelter and three other people for anxiety. An IDF spokesperson said 205 of the 270 rockets and mortars launched from Gaza crossed into Israeli territory, while the other 65 fell inside Gaza. Israel’s Iron Dome air defence system intercepted 62 rockets, three hit urban areas in Israel and the rest landed in open areas. The IDF spokesperson also said it had carried out strikes on 53 sites belonging to Islamic Jihad in Gaza, including rocket and mortar launchers.
The Joint Operations Room of armed groups in Gaza, which includes Islamic Jihad and Hamas, claimed in a statement that they had launched the rockets.
“The damage to the homes of civilians and faction fighters is a red line, and we will respond strongly to it. Resistance forces are ready for all options,” it said.
The IDF launched Operation Shield and Arrow in the early hours of Tuesday with several waves of strikes across Gaza that killed 13 Palestinians.
Three were Islamic Jihad commanders who the IDF said were involved in recent attacks against Israeli civilians and were planning more. But the other 10 dead were civilians, including four women and four children.
Another two Palestinians were killed on Tuesday afternoon in a strike that the IDF said targeted militants planning to fire anti-tank missiles.
The strikes were the deadliest since three days of hostilities between Israel and Islamic Jihad last August, in which 49 Palestinians were killed in Gaza.
Islamic Jihad has been responsible for many of the rocket attacks on Israel in recent years and is sworn to Israel’s destruction.
There was a serious flare-up last week, as Islamic Jihad and other groups fired more than 100 rockets into Israel over two days, following the death in an Israeli prison of a Palestinian hunger striker. The Israeli military carried out air strikes on sites it said were linked to Hamas in response.
Tensions also remained high in the occupied West Bank on Wednesday, after Israel carried out arrest raids overnight.
Two Palestinians were killed in the town of Qabatiya by Israeli forces, who said the pair fired at them. The IDF also said a soldier was also seriously wounded during a separate exchange of fire with Palestinian gunmen in Tubas.