Israel bombarded Gaza with artillery and airstrikes on Friday following a new barrage of rocket fire from the Hamas-run enclave, intensifying a conflict that has claimed more than 120 lives.
The most intense fighting between Israel and Palestinian militants in Gaza since 2014 has been accompanied by an unprecedented outbreak of mob violence between Jews and Arabs inside Israel.
The Israeli army said its overnight operation in Gaza involved fighter jets and tanks hitting a Hamas tunnel network dug under civilian areas.
The bombardment saw huge fireballs turn the night sky orange as explosions rocked the ground. Towers and homes were leveled, AFP correspondents reported, while rockets tore through the skies towards Israel.
Muhammad Najib, a 16-year-old resident of Gaza City’s Rimal neighborhood, compared the bombing to a video game. “It’s like a horror film,” he said.
Um Raed al-Baghdadi, one of the scores of people who fled her home amid the shelling, told AFP that Gazans “who have been in war since childhood… cannot bear it anymore.”
Israeli soldiers massed on the edge of the blockaded territory Friday, and army spokesman Jonathan Conricus took responsibility for an erroneous overnight report that ground forces had entered Gaza.
Gaza’s health minister said the conflict has killed 119 Palestinians in Gaza, including 31 children, and wounded more than 830.
According to the Sheba Medical Center, a woman in her 50s died late Thursday after she fell while seeking shelter from rockets, bringing the death toll on the Israeli side to nine, including a child and a soldier.
