Israel: Airstrikes in Gaza as Benjamin Netanyahu says war continuing at 'full-force'
Israeli warplanes unleashed a new series of heavy airstrikes at several locations in Gaza City on Monday morning.
Explosions rocked Gaza 24 hours after the deadliest single attack in the violence between Israel and the Hamas militant group that rules the city.
As Israeli warplanes unleashed its airstrikes across the city for 10 minutes on Monday morning, Israel's prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the war against Hamas were continuing at “full-force” and would “take time”.
The latest attacks were heavier, on a wider area from north to south of the Gaza city and lasted longer than a series of air raids 24 hours earlier, in which 42 Palestinians were killed - the deadliest single attack in the violence.
Mr Netanyahu said Israel “wants to levy a heavy price” on the Hamas as he was flanked by his defence minister and political rival, Benny Gantz.
Hamas also continued to launch rockets into Israel.
One hit a synagogue in Ashkelon city hours before evening services for the Jewish holiday of Shavuot, Israeli emergency services said. No one was injured.
The violence, which has escalated over the past week, marks the worst fighting in the territory that is home to two million Palestinians since Israel and Hamas’s devastating 2014 war.
Samir al-Khatib, an emergency rescue official in Gaza, said: “I have not seen this level of destruction through my 14 years of work. Not even in the 2014 war.”
Israel's airstrikes have targeted a number of Gaza's tallest buildings, which Israel alleges contained Hamas military infrastructure.
One of them was the building housing the news agency, the Associated Press, and other media outlets.
AP executive editor Sally Buzbee called for an investigation into the airstrike on Saturday.
Mr Netanyahu alleged Hamas military intelligence was operating inside the building and said on Sunday any evidence would be shared through intelligence channels.
The White House and the US' State Department did not say if any evidence had been seen.
The violence began in east Jerusalem last month, when Palestinians clashed with Israeli police in response to its tactics during Ramadan and the threatened eviction of Palestinian families by Jewish settlers.
Hamas began firing rockets toward Jerusalem last Monday, triggering Israel's attack on Gaza.
At least 192 Palestinians in Gaza have been killed in hundreds of airstrikes, including 58 children and 34 women. 1,230 have been injured.
Meanwhile, 10 people in Israel have been killed in some of the 3,100 rocket attacks launched from Gaza, including a five-year-old boy and a soldier.