Conflict intensifies: building is hit with the media

Israeli attack destroys AP and Al Jazeera offices 1:01

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 Israel bombed a house in Gaza where a family had gathered to celebrate the end of Ramadan, as well as the offices that housed some international media.

At the same time, a new barrage of Hamas missiles fell on Tel Aviv this Saturday.

Given what happened, fears grow that a reduction in the conflict is not close.

The Al ala'a building, which was hit during an Israeli airstrike on Saturday afternoon (local time), contained offices for the Al Jazeera and Associated Press media, among other media outlets, marking a latest escalation of violence that has swept through Israel and the Palestinian territories this week, the bloodiest conflict in recent years.

Satellite captures destruction in Israel and Gaza 1:39

Israel launched more airstrikes in Gaza overnight, and Hamas responded with missiles on Saturday.

In less than a week, Israeli airstrikes have killed more than 130 people and at least 1,000 others were injured in Gaza alone, the Palestinian Health Ministry said in Gaza, while riots and violence between Arabs and Jews have damaged cities and towns. In Israel.

Hamas fired dozens of missiles toward Tel Aviv on Saturday, and the Al-Qassam Brigades, Hamas's militant wing, said in a statement that it was in direct retaliation for Israeli airstrikes on a Gaza refugee camp.

A 50-year-old man died Saturday afternoon after a rocket hit a series of buildings in a residential area of ​​a Tel Aviv suburb called Ramat Gan, raising Israel's death toll to 10, according to the emergency service. From Israel.

Members of the Israeli emergency services work at a site in Ramat Gan, near Tel Aviv, on May 15, after the rocket fire from Gaza.

A baby is taken to Shifa Hospital in Gaza City for medical attention on May 15 after being injured in an Israeli airstrike, which destroyed a 3-story house and killed 10 members of the boy's family.

Early Saturday morning, the baby was the only survivor of a home that was hit and destroyed by an Israeli airstrike on al-Shati refugee camp, killing 10 members of the baby's family, including eight children, according to the Palestine News Agency WAFA.

At least 20 other Palestinians were injured after several nearby houses were damaged during the Israeli airstrike, it added.

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The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said its forces attacked several positions in Gaza on Friday night, including a military intelligence site.

"Hamas is paying the price for its terrorism," they said in a Twitter post on Saturday.

On Saturday, militants in Gaza responded to airstrikes on the refugee camp with rockets targeting the Israeli cities of Beersheba, Ashdod and Sderot.

The IDF posted a video on Twitter of a fire in Ashdod, warning that the move "will not go unanswered."

• Situation in Israel: minute by minute of the conflict with the Palestinians

On the attack on the Al Jala'a building, the Israeli Air Force said on Saturday that fighter jets attacked a building that housed Hamas military intelligence assets and used the media as "shields."

However, the Palestinian Ministry of Health in Gaza has accused the IDF of "directly targeting overcrowded civilian areas" and of failing to take precautionary measures to save civilian lives.

By Saturday, at least 139 people had died in Gaza, including at least 39 children, the Palestinian Health Ministry reported, while the number of Palestinians injured in Gaza rose to at least 1,000 people.

254 of the injured are children who have suffered injuries as a result of Israeli airstrikes, they reported on Friday.

Ashraf al-Qudra, a spokesman for the Gaza Ministry of Health, urged "the international community on the need to curb Israeli aggression in the Gaza Strip," adding that "we monitor these violations against Palestinian families, and this is a flagrant violation.

An Israeli woman inspects the damage to her home after a missile strike from Gaza in the southern Israeli city of Sderot on May 15.

Palestinians inspect buildings destroyed after Israeli airstrikes overnight in the city of Beit Hanoun, Gaza, on Friday, May 14.

The government of US President Joe Biden, which said it was focused on de-escalation and working with allies in the region to that end, sent US Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Israel and Palestinian Affairs, Hady, on Friday. Amr, to Israel. The US embassy in Jerusalem said in a Twitter post that Amr's trip "would reinforce the need to work towards a sustainable calm, recognizing Israel's right to self-defense. Israelis and Palestinians deserve equal measures of freedom, security, dignity and prosperity.

However, so far the international diplomacy effort appears to have stalled.

On Sunday morning there will be a meeting of the UN Security Council on this situation of violence.

The United States blocked previous efforts by the Security Council to meet, preferring direct diplomacy over the conflict rather than discussion in an international forum.

• Why has Biden been slow to react to the new escalation of conflict in the Middle East?

An Israeli military official said on Friday that Israel is prepared to continue hitting "important targets" for a "prolonged period of time."

About 2,300 rockets have been fired from Gaza into Israel, of which about 380 missed launches have landed in Gaza, the IDF said on Saturday, adding that its Iron Dome air defense system has intercepted about 1,000. rockets.

This is how the Iron Dome of Israel works 3:08

Following the attack on the Al Jala'a building on Saturday, the spokesman for the Al-Qassam Brigades said: “After the attack on the civil tower in Gaza, the residents of Tel Aviv and central Israel must be prepared for our great response. ».

And that violence has spread to the occupied West Bank, where on Friday, at least 10 Palestinians were killed by Israeli armed forces during violent clashes in towns and cities across the territory, according to the Gaza-based Palestinian Ministry of Health.

Israeli soldiers respond during clashes with Palestinian protesters in the West Bank city of Hebron on May 14.

Violence in the West Bank has seen the highest number of people killed in a single day in years.

The Palestinian Red Crescent said that Palestinians in the West Bank had been targeted with live ammunition, rubber bullets and tear gas.

According to the Palestinian Health Ministry, most of the wounded on Friday were "shot with live ammunition", saying that more than 500 Palestinians have been injured since the clashes broke out earlier this week.

A spokesman for the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said in a statement that live ammunition was used after "crowd dispersal means" (referring to tear gas and rubber-coated bullets) failed to stop the unrest.

The recent conflict began earlier in the week, fueled by controversy over planned evictions of Palestinian families in East Jerusalem and restrictions on a popular meeting point near the Old City.

Since then, it has quickly turned into one of the worst rounds of violence the area has seen since the 2014 Gaza War, in which more than 2,200 Gazans were killed during the fighting, about half of them civilians, including more than 550 children, according to a United Nations report.

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Palestinians evacuate a body from a building attacked by Israeli bombardment in Gaza City on May 11, 2021. (Photo by MAHMUD HAMS / AFP)

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Israelis take cover as rockets are fired from the Gaza Strip, controlled by the Palestinian Hamas movement, towards the southern Israeli city of Ashkelon on May 11, 2021. (Photo by JACK GUEZ / AFP)

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Relatives of Palestinian Ahmed Al-Shenbari, who was killed during an Israeli operation in the northern Gaza Strip city of Beit Hanoun, mourn during his funeral on May 11, 2021 in Gaza City.

(Photo by Fatima Shbair / Getty Images)

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An Israeli security agent comforts a man in the city of Holon near Tel Aviv on May 11, 2021. (Photo by GIDEON MARKOWICZ / AFP via Getty Images)

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Palestinian protesters during a protest against Israel over the tension in Jerusalem, near the Jewish settlement of Beit El near Ramallah, in the occupied West Bank, on May 12, 2021. (Photo by ABBAS MOMANI / AFP)

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Israeli security forces take position amid clashes with Palestinian protesters following a protest in the city of Hebron, in the occupied West Bank, on May 12, 2021. (Photo by HAZEM BADER / AFP)

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Palestinians evacuate a building attacked by Israeli bombing in Gaza City on May 11, 2021. (Photo by MAHMUD HAMS / AFP)

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Israelis take refuge under a bridge at the entrance to the central city of Tel Aviv, on May 11, 2021. (Photo by Gil COHEN-MAGEN / AFP)

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A Palestinian inspects the rubble early on May 12, 2021 outside the Al-Jawhara tower in Gaza City, heavily damaged by Israeli airstrikes overnight.

(Photo by MAHMUD HAMS / AFP) (

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A firefighter passes a burned-out vehicle that went extinct in Israel's Holon near Tel Aviv on May 11, 2021, after rockets were fired into Israel from the Gaza Strip.

(Photo by Ahmad GHARABLI / AFP)

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A Palestinian woman in Gaza City in early May 12, 2021, as Hamas militants and the Israeli military exchanged a deadly fire barrage in the early hours of the day with heavy fighting for the second day in a row.

(Photo by MOHAMMED ABED / AFP)

Riots and violent clashes between Arab and Jewish citizens spread through several Israeli cities during the week, including Lod, Bat Yam and Acre, prompting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to warn against "lynching" any of the communities. .

Accentuating the escalation of the conflict is the fear that the violence will spread beyond the borders under Israeli control, as Palestinians in the region will commemorate the Nakba, or "catastrophe" this Saturday. The annual commemoration marks the day that more than 700,000 Palestinians were expelled or left their homes during the 1948-1949 Arab-Israeli war.

In Lebanon, this Saturday's demonstrations by the Nakba, on the southern border with Israel, were not immune to the tension after young people protesting in solidarity with the Palestinians attacked the border wall before the demonstration began. The Lebanese army urged the protesters to return, warning that they were "going to shoot." The events took place a day after a Lebanese man died from shrapnel wounds he received from IDF rockets fired at people protesting in solidarity with the Palestinians on the same border, according to the Lebanese national news agency, NNA. The Israel Defense Forces said in a statement on Friday that tanks fired at protesters who crossed into Israeli territory,The same people who sabotaged the border fence and started fires.

And in recent days in Jordan, protesters have also marched against Israeli attacks on Gaza, with people protesting at the Jordan-Israel border for the second day in a row in solidarity with the Palestinians.

This Saturday, the protesters asked the Jordanian monarch to open the borders so they can go "to fight with their brothers."

CNN's Kara Fox, Richard Roth, Tamara Qiblawi, and Celine Alkhaldi contributed to this report.

This is the map of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict 1:04

Conflict Israel and Palestine