GAZA/JERUSALEM—Hostilities between Hamas and Israel escalated on Tuesday, raising the death toll in two days to 32 Palestinians and three people in Israel, with the terrorist group firing rockets at Tel Aviv and Israel carrying out multiple air strikes in Gaza.
A pipeline belonging to an Israeli state-owned energy company was hit in a rocket attack from Gaza late on Tuesday, an Israeli government official and an energy sector official told Reuters. Video broadcast by Channel 12 showed flames rising from what appeared to be a large fuel vat near the Israeli Mediterranean city of Ashkelon, south of Tel Aviv. Operations at a power plant in Ashkelon were not interrupted, Channel 13 TV said.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) on Twitter said at 3:22 a.m. local time, “Terrorists in Gaza are firing rockets non-stop as civilians in central and southern Israel spend their night in shelters to protect themselves from rocket fire.” In another slightly earlier post, the group wrote, “It’s 3AM and more rockets are being fired at Tel Aviv. Families are being woken up & rushed to bomb shelters.”
Gazans reported their homes shaking and the sky lighting up with Israeli attacks, outgoing rockets fired by Hamas and Islamic Jihad, and Israeli air defence missiles intercepting them into the early hours of Wednesday morning.
Israelis ran for shelters or flattened themselves on pavements in communities more than 45 miles up the coast amid sounds of explosions as interceptor missiles streaked into the sky. Israel said hundreds of rockets had been fired by the terrorist groups.
In Tel Aviv, air raid sirens were heard around the city. For Israel, the terrorists’ targeting of Tel Aviv, its commercial capital, posed a new challenge in the confrontation with the Islamic Hamas group.
In the late hours of Tuesday, the IDF had posted a message addressed to citizens of Gaza saying that it is “striking Hamas weapons stores hidden inside civilian buildings in Gaza.” The Israeli military added, “Although Hamas wants to put you in harm’s way, we urge you to stay away from Hamas’ weapons sites and get to safety. Our goal is only to strike terror.”
BY REUTERS
