His army Israel carried out a series of intense air strikes in the early hours of today in Gaza Strip, after a dark week with around 200 deaths in hostilities between the Jewish state and the Islamic faction Hamas, who continue to turn a deaf ear to international calls for de-escalation.
On Sunday night into Monday, the Israeli Air Force bombarded the Gaza Strip with dozens of strikes in a matter of minutes, causing widespread power outages, a journalist from French Agency.
Hundreds of buildings were damaged, according to authorities in Gaza, who have not yet provided information on whether there were any casualties or how many.
In a terse statement, the Israeli Air Force reported that its «fighter jets» had struck «terrorist» positions in the Gaza Strip, without going into details.
«We have never seen strikes on this scale,» said Mad Abed Rabbo, 29, who lives in the western part of Gaza City, expressing «horror» and «fear.».
«I thought I was going to die,» said Mani Kazat, another Gaza resident. «Netanyahu must be held accountable. We are civilians, not soldiers,» she added.
The new Israeli strikes were recorded while the Palestinian enclave, ruled by the Islamists of Hamas, recorded its heaviest daily toll yesterday, Sunday, since the new cycle of violence began on Monday evening: 42 Palestinians, including at least eight children and two doctors, were killed in Israeli strikes., according to the Ministry of Health in Gaza.
In total, since May 10, 197 Palestinians have been killed, including at least 58 children, while more than 1,200 have been injured. On the Israeli side, authorities report 10 dead, including two children, and 282 wounded.
Armed factions in Palestine, including Hamas, have fired more than 3,100 rockets into Israeli territory since the escalation began, the Israeli army said yesterday. This is the highest rate of rocket fire ever recorded, according to the same source, which specified that most of them were intercepted by the Iron Dome anti-missile system.
«Our campaign against terrorist organizations continues» and is «in full swing,» the Israeli prime minister said yesterday. Benjamin Netanyahu, who also defended the attack that flattened a 13-story building housing the offices of international media outlets, particularly the television network Al Jazeera (Qatar) and the American news agency Associated Press. It was a «perfectly legitimate target,» he insisted, arguing that members of Hamas' intelligence service were based in the building.
The Israeli army, which says it is targeting Hamas facilities and equipment, as well as senior members of the organization and underground tunnels, accuses the Islamist group of using civilians as «human shields.».
Yesterday, Sunday, the Israeli Air Force struck properties belonging to the head of Hamas« political office in the Gaza Strip, Yahya Sinwar, and his brother, a »terrorist." Sources close to the Palestinian security forces confirmed the strikes but added that they did not know the fate of Mr Sinwar.
The most recent operation by the Israeli army in the Gaza Strip, area where two million people live and where an Israeli blockade has been imposed for more than ten years, dating back to 2014.
The war between Israel and Hamas lasted 50 days and claimed the lives of at least 2,251 people on the Palestinian side, most of them civilians, and another 74 on the Israeli side, almost all of them military personnel.
Violence has spread to the occupied West Bank, where the Palestinian Ministry of Health reports 19 deaths since May 10.
The ongoing violence could cause an «uncontrollable» crisis, «from a security and humanitarian perspective, and further encourage extremism,» UN Secretary-General António Guterres warned yesterday at the start of the emergency Security Council meeting. Antonio Guterres, at the start of the Security Council's emergency meeting.
«This absurd cycle of bloodshed, terror, and destruction must end immediately,» he insisted, while the third digital meeting—this time public—of the Security Council yielded no results.
According to several diplomats who spoke to Agence France-Presse, the US continued to reject the issuance of any joint statement calling for an end to hostilities.
In Israel, the conflict has sparked unprecedented riots in many cities with mixed Israeli and Arab populations: synagogues have been attacked, clashes have broken out in the streets, attacks by Israeli right-wing extremists have been reported, and threats of lynching have been made.
«The clashes raise the risk that Israelis and Palestinians will be drawn into a continuous escalation of violence, with devastating consequences for both communities and the entire region,» Mr. Guterres warned yesterday.
