JERUSALEM (AP) — 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...
