Israel stages new round of heavy airstrikes as Hamas continues to fire rockets from Gaza

Israeli warplanes unleashed a series of heavy airstrikes at several locations of Gaza City early Monday local time, hours after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu signalled the fourth war with Gaza's Hamas rulers would rage on.

Explosions rocked the city from north to south for 10 minutes in an attack that was heavier, on a wider area and lasted longer than a series of air raids 24 hours earlier in which 42 Palestinians were killed the deadliest single attack in the latest round of violence between Israel and the Hamas militant group. The earlier Israeli airstrikes flattened three buildings.

The Israeli military said Monday its airstrikes on the Gaza Strip destroyed 15 kilometresof militant tunnels and the homes of nine alleged Hamas commanders.

There was no immediate word Monday on the casualties from the latest strikes. A three-storey building in Gaza City was heavily damaged, but residents said the military warned them 10 minutes before the strike and everyone cleared out. They said many of the airstrikes hit nearby farmland.

Hamas also pressed on, launching rockets from civilian areas in Gaza toward civilian areas in Israel on Sunday.One slammed into a synagogue in the southern city of Ashkelon hours before evening services for the Jewish holiday of Shavuot, Israeli emergency services said. No injuries were reported.

Local media reports said the main coastal road west of Gaza City, security compounds and open spaces were among the targets hit early Monday. The power distribution company said the airstrikes damaged a line feeding electricity from the only power plant to large parts of southern Gaza City.

The Israeli air assault early Sunday was the deadliest single attack since heavy fighting broke out between Israel and Palestinian militantsnearly a week ago, marking the worst fighting in the area since the devastating 2014 war in Gaza.

Sunday's airstrikeshit a busy downtown street of residential buildings and storefronts over the course of five minutes just after midnight, destroying two adjacent buildings and one about 50 metresdown the road.

At one point, a rescuer shouted, "Can you hear me?" into a hole in the rubble. "Are you OK?" Minutes later, first responders pulled a survivor out and carried him off on an orange stretcher.

The Gaza Health Ministry said 16 women and 10 children were among those killed, with more than 50 people wounded.

WATCH |Violence escalates between Israelis, Palestinians:

More fear ahead for Palestinians, Israelis as violence intensifies

3 years ago

Duration 3:52

Israeli airstrikes continue to flatten buildings in Gaza, while Hamas launched rockets from civilian areas in Gaza toward civilian areas in Israel. And Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the strikes will continue.

Hamas leader's home targeted

Earlier, the Israeli military said it destroyed the home of Gaza's top Hamas leader, Yahiyeh Sinwar, in a separate strike in the southern town of Khan Younis. It was the third such attack in the last two days on the homes of senior Hamas leaders, who have gone underground.

Israel appears to have stepped up strikes in recent days to inflict as much damage as possible on Hamas, as international mediators work to end the fighting. But targeting the group's leaders could hinder those efforts.

A U.S. diplomat is in the region to try to de-escalate tensions, and the United NationsSecurity Council alsometSunday. UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres called for an end to the "senseless cycle of bloodshed, terror and destruction."

In its airstrikes, Israel has levelled a number of Gaza City's tallest office and residential buildings, alleging they contain Hamas military infrastructure. Among them was the building housing The Associated Press office and those of other media outlets. Sally Buzbee, the AP's executive editor, on Sunday called for an independent investigation into the airstrike.

Netanyahu alleged that Hamas military intelligence was operating inside the building. "It's a perfectly legitimate target," he told CBS's Face the Nation on Sunday.

Asked if he had provided any evidence of Hamas's presence in the building in a call Saturday with U.S. President Joe Biden, Netanyahu said, "We pass it through our intelligence people."

Meanwhile,militants in Gaza fired an early-morning barrage of rockets into Israel on Sunday.

In the Israeli city of Ashkelon, Zvi Daphna, a physicianwhose neighbourhood has been struck by several rockets, described a feeling of "fear and horror."

Widespread unrest

The latest outbreak of violence began in East Jerusalem last month, when Palestinian protests and clashes with police broke out in response to Israeli police tactics during Ramadan and the threatened eviction of dozens of Palestinian families by Jewish settlers. A focal point of clashes was the Al-Aqsa Mosque, part of a holy site in Jerusalem's Old City revered by both Muslims andJews.

Hamas fired rockets toward Jerusalem late Monday, triggering the Israeli assault on impoverished Gaza, which is home to more than twomillion Palestinians and has been under an Israeli and Egyptian blockade since Hamas seized power from rival Palestinian forces in 2007.

At least 188 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza, including 55 children and 33 women, with 1,230 people wounded. Eight people in Israel have been killed, including a five-year-old boy and a soldier.

The turmoil has also spilled over elsewhere, fuelling protests in the occupied West Bank and stoking violence within Israel between its Jewish and Arab citizens, with clashes and vigilante attacks on people and property.

On Sunday, a driver rammed into an Israeli checkpoint in the East Jerusalem neighbourhood of Sheikh Jarrah where Palestinian families havebeen threatened with eviction injuring six officers before police shot and killed the attacker, Israeli police said.

The violence also sparked pro-Palestinian protests in cities across Canada, the United States and Europe, where police in Paris firedtear gas and water cannons at demonstrators. Some of the largest demonstrations in Canada were seen in Toronto, Montreal, Ottawa and Vancouver.

Ceasefire efforts

The Israeli military said Sunday it struck Sinwar's home and that of his brother Muhammad, another senior Hamas member. On Saturday it destroyed the home of Khalil al-Hayeh, a senior figure in Hamas's political branch.

Hamas's upper echelon has gone into hiding in Gaza, and it is unlikely any were at home at the time of the strikes. Hamas's top leader, Ismail Haniyeh, divides his time between Turkey and Qatar, both of which provide political support to the group.

Hamas and the Islamic Jihad militant group have acknowledged that 20 fighters have been killed since the fighting broke out on Monday. Israel says the real number is far higher and has released the names and photos of two dozen alleged operatives it says were "eliminated."

An Egyptian diplomat said Israel's targeting of Hamas political leaders would complicate ceasefire efforts. The diplomat, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the closed-door negotiations, said Cairo is working to broker an end to the fighting, as are other international actors.

The Egyptian diplomat said the destruction of Hamas's rocket capabilities would require a ground invasion that would "inflame the whole region." Egypt, which made peace with Israel decades ago, has threatened to "suspend" co-operation in various fields, the official said, without elaborating.

Meanwhile, the Biden administration in the U.S. has affirmed its support for Israel while working to de-escalate the crisis. American diplomat Hady Amr met withBenny Gantz, the Israeli defence minister, who thanked the U.S. for its support. Gantz said Israel "takes every precaution to strike at military targets only and avoid harming civilians, while its civilians are the targets of indiscriminate attack."

Canada's Global Affairs released a statement Sunday night urging a de-escalation of the violence.

"Canada joins its allies and friends in urging all parties to take steps to immediately end all violence, prevent further loss of life, protect all civilians, and de-escalate tensions," the statement said.

"All parties must uphold international law."

The statement went on to say: "Canada supports Israel's right to live in peace with its neighbours within secure boundaries and fully supports Israel's right to assure its own security. This right also comes with immense responsibility and obligation to act in accordance with international law.

"The use of force has led to significant civilian loss of life and we urge utmost restraint."

Hamas and other militant groups have fired some 2,900 rockets into Israel. The military said 450 of the rockets had fallen short or misfired, while Israeli air defences intercepted 1,150.

The interception rate appeared to have significantly dropped since the start of the conflict, when Israel said 90 per centwere intercepted. The military did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Israel has carried out hundreds of airstrikes across Gaza.

Outrage over media building airstrike

On Saturday, Israel bombed the 12-storey al-Jalaabuilding, where the office of The Associated Press was located. The building also housed the Arabic news network Al Jazeera, which is based in Qatar, and other media outlets, along with several floors of apartments.

Israel routinely cites a Hamas presence as a reason for targeting certain locations in airstrikes, including residential buildings. The military has also accused the militant group of using journalists as human shieldsbut provided no evidence to back up the claims.

The AP has operated from the building for 15 years, including through three previous wars between Israel and Hamas. During those conflicts as well as the current one, the news agency's cameras, operating from its top floor office and roof terrace, offered 24-hour live shots as militants' rockets arched toward Israel and Israeli airstrikes hammered the city and its surroundings.

"We have had no indication Hamas was in the building or active in the building," AP president and CEO Gary Pruitt said in a statement. "This is something we actively check to the best of our ability. We would never knowingly put our journalists at risk."

In the afternoon, the military called the building's owner and warned a strike would come within an hour. AP staffers and other occupants evacuated safely. Soon after, three missiles hit the building and destroyed it, bringing it crashing down in a giant cloud of dust.

"The world will know less about what is happening in Gaza because of what happened today," Pruitt said. "We are shocked and horrified."