JERUSALEM (AP) — An Israeli airstrike has flattened a high-rise building in central Gaza City. The 14-story Palestine Tower is home to dozens of families. But it also held offices connected to the Ham
The 14-story Palestine Tower is home to dozens of families. But it also held offices connected to the Hamas and Islamic Jihad militant groups.
At least 198 people in the Gaza Strip have been killed in Israel’s retaliation and at least 1,610 wounded, the Palestinian Health Ministry in Gaza said. “We are at war,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a televised address, declaring a mass army mobilization. “Not an ‘operation,’ not a ‘round,’ but at war.”
At a meeting of top security officials Saturday, Netanyahu said the first priority was to “cleanse" southern Israel of infiltrators, followed by a greater retaliation in Gaza. The Israeli military struck targets in Gaza in response for some 2,500 rockets that sent air raid sirens wailing constantly as far north as Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, some 80 kilometers away. It said its forces were engaged in gunfights with Hamas militants who had infiltrated Israel in at least seven locations.
In the town of Sderot, the bodies of at least six people gunned down at a bus shelter were laid out on stretchers on the street. The bags they had been carrying sat at the curb and unmatched shoes were scattered on the sidewalk. Elsewhere, an Israeli woman knelt in the street and embraced a dead family member whose body was stretched out next to a pink motorcycle that lay on its side. The rider’s hand with a glove and a foot in a racing boot extended out from under the sheet.
Western nations condemned the incursion and reiterated their support for Israel, while others called for restraint on both sides. The attack comes at a time of historic division within Israel over Netanyahu’s proposal to overhaul the judiciary. Mass protests over the plan have sent hundreds of thousands of Israeli demonstrators into the streets and prompted hundreds of military reservists to avoid volunteer duty — turmoil that has raised fears over the military’s battlefield readiness and raised concerns about its deterrence over its enemies.
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