Israel on Saturday intensified its air assault on Gaza to counter rocket attacks by Palestinian militants, taking the death toll to 135 as the Jewish state targeted over 1,100 Hamas positions in five days of offensive.
On Saturday, 22 Palestinians died in a wave of Israeli air strikes as Operation Protective Edge entered its fifth day, taking the overall death toll to 135, Palestinian health officials said.
Israel says it hit more than “60 terror targets” in new raids and two rockets hit Beersheba in Israel. The Israeli military says it is targeting militants and militant facilities, including the homes of senior operatives. It says “dozens of terrorists” are among those killed.There is no sign of both sides agreeing on a ceasefire, despite intense diplomacy at the United Nations. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Friday that his country will resist foreign pressure to halt its operations.
“The objective is to restore quiet to the cities of Israel, and I intend to achieve this objective,” he said, according to the BBC. In a strike on Beit lahiya overnight, Israel hit a building used by a charitable association for people with disabilities, Palestinian official said.Two teenage female residents were killed, medics said. Three other people, including an Islamic Jihad activist, were killed when a house in Jabaliya refugee camp was hit, the Palestinian health ministry said.