Gaza Pummeled by Fresh Israeli Strikes, More Than 200 Dead in a Week

Smoke and flames rise above a building during Israeli air strikes in Gaza City at dawn on May 17, 2021 - REUTERS
Smoke and flames rise above a building during Israeli air strikes in Gaza City at dawn on May 17, 2021 - REUTERS
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Gaza Pummeled by Fresh Israeli Strikes, More Than 200 Dead in a Week

Smoke and flames rise above a building during Israeli air strikes in Gaza City at dawn on May 17, 2021 - REUTERS
Smoke and flames rise above a building during Israeli air strikes in Gaza City at dawn on May 17, 2021 - REUTERS

Israeli air strikes hammered the Gaza Strip pre-dawn Monday, after a week of violence between Israelis and Palestinians left more than 200 people dead as international calls for de-escalation went unheeded.

Overnight Sunday to Monday, Israel launched dozens of strikes in the space of a few minutes across the crowded coastal Palestinian enclave controlled by Islamist group Hamas, according to AFP journalists at the scene.

The strikes caused widespread power cuts and damaged hundreds of buildings, local authorities said. No casualties were immediately reported.

West Gaza resident Mad Abed Rabbo, 39, expressed “horror and fear” at the intensity of the onslaught.

“There have never been strikes of this magnitude,” he said.

In a statement just before 2:00 am (2300 GMT Sunday), the Israeli army said its fighter jets were “striking terror targets in the Gaza Strip.”

Gazan Mani Qazaat said Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu “should realize we’re civilians, not fighters.”

“I felt like I was dying.”

The renewed strikes come a day after 42 Palestinians in Gaza — including at least eight children and two doctors, according to the health ministry — were killed in the worst daily death toll in the enclave since the bombardments began.

In total, 197 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza, including at least 58 children, and more than 1,200 wounded since Israel launched its air campaign against Hamas on May 10 after the group fired rockets. The heaviest exchange of fire in years was sparked by unrest in Jerusalem.

In Israel, 10 people, including one child, have been killed and 282 wounded by rocket fire launched from Gaza.

The violence between Hamas and Israel is the worst since 2014, when Israel launched a military operation on the Gaza Strip with the stated aim of ending rocket fire and destroying tunnels used for smuggling.

The war left 2,251 dead on the Palestinian side, mostly civilians, and 74 on the Israeli side, mostly soldiers.

Opening the first session of the UN Security Council on the renewed violence on Sunday, Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called the fighting “utterly appalling.”

“It must stop immediately,” he said.

But the UN talks, already delayed by Israel’s ally the United States, resulted in little action, with Washington opposing a resolution.

President Joe Biden’s administration says it is working behind the scenes and that a Security Council statement could backfire.



Hamas Fires Rockets at Israeli Cities, Israel Issues Evacuation Orders in Gaza 

Emergency personnel gather at an impact scene following a hit by a rocket fired from the Gaza strip towards Israel, in Ashkelon, Israel April 6, 2025. (Reuters)
Emergency personnel gather at an impact scene following a hit by a rocket fired from the Gaza strip towards Israel, in Ashkelon, Israel April 6, 2025. (Reuters)
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Hamas Fires Rockets at Israeli Cities, Israel Issues Evacuation Orders in Gaza 

Emergency personnel gather at an impact scene following a hit by a rocket fired from the Gaza strip towards Israel, in Ashkelon, Israel April 6, 2025. (Reuters)
Emergency personnel gather at an impact scene following a hit by a rocket fired from the Gaza strip towards Israel, in Ashkelon, Israel April 6, 2025. (Reuters)

Palestinian militant group Hamas said it fired a barrage of rockets at cities in Israel's south on Sunday in response to Israeli "massacres" of civilians in Gaza.

Israel's military said about 10 projectiles were fired, but most were successfully intercepted. Israel's Channel 12 reported a direct hit in the southern city of Ashkelon.

Israeli emergency services said they were treating one person for shrapnel injuries, and teams were en route to locations of fallen rockets. Smashed car windows and debris lay strewn on a city street, videos disseminated by Israeli emergency services showed.

Meanwhile, Gaza local health authorities said Israeli military strikes killed at least 39 people across the Gaza Strip on Sunday.

Shortly after the rocket firing, the Israeli military posted on X a new evacuation order, instructing residents of several districts in Deir Al-Balah city in the central Gaza Strip to leave their areas, citing earlier rocket firing.

"This is a final warning before the attack," the military warning statement said.

Later, it said it struck the rocket launcher from which projectiles were launched earlier from the Gaza Strip.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, on a flight to Washington for a meeting with US President Donald Trump, was briefed on the rocket attack by his Defense Minister, Israel Katz.

A statement issued by his office said Netanyahu instructed that a "vigorous" response be carried out and approved the continuation of intensive activity by the Israeli military against Hamas.

Israel's Channel 12 television said at least 12 lightly injured people have been treated as a result of the rocket firing from Gaza, quoting officials at the Bazilai Hospital in Ashkelon.

The first phase of a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas went into force on January 19 after 15 months of war and involved a halt to fighting, the release of some of the Israeli hostages held by Hamas, and the freeing of some Palestinian prisoners.

However, Israel said on March 19 that its forces resumed ground operations in the central and southern Gaza Strip. Both parties blamed one another for a stalemate in the ceasefire talks.

More than 50,000 Palestinians have been killed by the Israeli offensive in Gaza, Palestinian officials say. Israel began its offensive after thousands of Hamas-led gunmen attacked communities in southern Israel on October 7, 2023, killing 1,200 people and abducting 251 as hostages, according to Israeli tallies.