An early morning rocket from the Gaza Strip killed an Israeli man Sunday outside a home in the coastal city of Ashkelon, marking the first Israeli casualty from rocket fire since the 2014 war with Hamas militants.
Moshe Agadi, a 58-year-old father of four, was struck in the chest by shrapnel from one of the 450 rockets fired from Gaza in less than 24 hours, in one of the most intense flareups of violence in years.
Israel has retaliated with over 200 airstrikes against militant targets in Gaza. The Palestinians say six people in Gaza were killed, including a pregnant mother and her baby. The military says it struck rocket launchers, tunnel shafts and warehouses of both the territory’s Hamas rulers and the smaller, Iranian-backed Islamic Jihad group.
The sudden outburst of fighting broke a month-long lull as Egyptian mediators had been trying to negotiate a long-term cease-fire between the two sides, who have fought three wars and several other rounds of conflict over the last decade.
Israel’s Iron Dome defense system intercepted dozens of the projectiles from Gaza, but several still managed to slip through, including one that scored a direct hit on a residential home. Jonathan Rieck, director of the emergency room at Barzilai Medical Center in Ashkelon, said they had treated some 80 people, most from shock symptoms, but several with body wounds, including an elderly man who was in critical condition from head injuries.
Sirens wailed along the border region overnight warning of incoming attacks. School has been cancelled in southern Israel Sunday and emergency protocol has been enacted. In Gaza, large explosions thundered across the blockaded enclave overnight as plumes of smoke rose into the air.
Israel has vowed to hit back hard both Hamas and Islamic Jihad, whom it suspects of triggering the current conflagration, but as in similar previous rounds where it stopped short of a full-fledged war the timing is tricky for Israel for a prolonged round of fighting.
Israel marks Memorial Day and Independence Day this week, when masses head out to ceremonies at military cemeteries and then street parties across the country. The following week it hosts the Eurovision song contest in which large groups of tourists are expected to arrive for the campy spectacle.
For Gazans, the violence comes ahead of the Muslim holy fasting month of Ramadan that begins Monday.
Hamas, an Islamic group vowed to Israel’s destruction, forcefully seized control of Gaza in 2007. It most recently engaged in several days of heavy fighting with Israel in March before Egypt brokered a truce, in which Israel agreed to ease a crippling blockade on Gaza in exchange for a halt in rocket fire.
In recent days, Hamas accused Israel of reneging on its pledges as militants began to fire rockets into Israel. Israel in turn accuses Islamic Jihad of instigating the latest round of violence by shooting and wounding two Israeli soldiers Friday. Though it says the shooting was not coordinated with Hamas, and that Islamic Jihad has been undermining Hamas of late, it still holds Hamas responsible for all the fire as the territory’s ruling power.
Islamic Jihad has threatened to fire longer range rockets toward Israel’s heartland and in a video that also was seen as an implicit claim of responsibility it showed archived footage of militants attaching warheads to rockets.
It threatened to shatter the shaky understandings recently reached though Egyptian mediators. Israel had agreed to expand a fishing zone off Gaza’s coast, increased imports into Gaza and allow the Gulf state of Qatar to deliver aid to cash-strapped Gaza.
On Friday, two Palestinians were fatally shot by Israeli forces during the weekly protests along Israel-Gaza perimeter fence. Palestinian militants also shot and wounded two Israeli soldiers along the border fence. No group claimed responsibility for the shooting. In response, Israeli aircraft carried out retaliatory strikes, killing two Hamas militants.
Hamas has hoped that Egyptian mediators could further ease the blockade, which has ravaged Gaza’s economy. For over a year, the Islamic group has orchestrated mass demonstrations each week along the Israeli frontier to draw attention to Gaza’s plight. More than 200 Palestinians and an Israeli soldier have been killed in the border protests.
