From our correspondent in Jerusalem
Remote fighting between the Jewish state and Hamas has escalated in what is the heaviest outbreak of violence since the 2014 war in Gaza.
At least 145 people were killed in the strip, and ten in Israel.
Almost all civilians, they lost their lives in the exchange of bombs and missiles.
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Israel carried out hundreds of airstrikes and several ground strikes, but Armed Defense Forces (IDF) troops did not cross the Rubicon.
They did not pass to the stage of the ground offensive.
Fighters from Palestinian armed groups fired more than 2,300 rockets at central and southern Israel, repeatedly hitting Tel Aviv and its region.
The concerns of the inhabitants of Israel's economic and cultural capital are, however, out of all proportion to those of the population of Gaza City, the epicenter of the bombings.
Interceptor missiles from the Israeli Iron Dome (left) against Palestinian rockets (right) on the night of May 15-16.
ANAS BABA / AFP
Israeli raids once again rocked the vast metropolitan area in the dead of night from Saturday to Sunday.
Three buildings were destroyed without the IDF “
knocking on the roof
”, that is to say, warning residents via intermediaries.
Hundreds of families have fled to seek refuge in the compound of Al-Shifa hospital where the many wounded are being treated.
Ten members of the same family killed
UNRWA, the United Nations office for refugees in Gaza, has announced that it is transforming its schools into places of reception for people whose homes have been damaged.
They were taken by storm.
Some 10,000 Gazans from the eastern and northern neighborhoods, the most affected areas, are camping there under United Nations protection.
Others take shelter with relatives in this small, overcrowded territory.
UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres said via his spokesperson "appalled
by the growing number of civilian casualties
".
He highlighted the deaths of ten family members, including children, in an Israeli airstrike on Friday in the al-Shati refugee camp in Gaza.
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Electricity and internet cuts are massive.
Fuel reserves to supply the sole power station in the blockaded territory are dwindling.
In the middle of the night, rescuers managed to extract dozens of survivors from a collapsed building.
A new tower, the Andalusian tower, has been targeted.
These buildings are destroyed one by one, transforming a district of Gaza nicknamed "the Champs Élysées" into a field of ruins.
“
It's like an earthquake.
We had never heard of such bombardments.
When towers are aimed it looks like they are cutting a slice of cake.
The precision is extreme,
”said a witness.
Building housing Associated Press and Al-Jazeera destroyed
Previously, the building housing international media - including the US Associated Press (AP) and Qatari news channel Al-Jazeera - was wiped out, embarrassing US President Joe Biden who phoned the first Israeli Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu. Images broadcast by television showed the owner of the tower called by the IDF by telephone. He was warned of the strike. The IDF gave him an hour for the evacuation. He asked for ten more minutes to allow staff and residents to leave the premises but also to save their media equipment and property. He did not get this deadline.
After members of the armed wing of Hamas, the Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades, the political leaders of the Islamo-nationalist movement are now in the crosshairs of the Israeli hunt.
The house of Yahya Sinwar, the “
prime minister
” of the Gaza Strip has been wiped off the map without causing any casualties.
The former head of the Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades is the organization's most powerful leader after Ismail Haniyeh.
The message is symbolic: the IDF wants to weaken its enemy as much as possible.
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Hamas started hostilities after the intervention of the Israeli police six days ago, shortly before the end of the holy month of Ramadan, on the Mosques Esplanade in Jerusalem (300 wounded). “
Resistance is the shield and the shortest path to Jerusalem. I told Netanyahu not to play with fire because we realize what Jerusalem means to every free Palestinian
, ”Ismail Haniyeh said Saturday evening.
For his part, Benyamin Netanyahu persists and signs. "
We will continue to respond forcefully until the security of our people is restored and restored,
" said the head of the Israeli government. "
We have eliminated dozens of Hamas terrorists and destroyed hundreds of terrorist sites, including missile launchers and buildings that Hamas was using to plan and carry out these attacks,
" the acting prime minister said. “
I want to remind the world that by shooting our cities, Hamas is committing a double war crime. It targets our civilians and hides behind Palestinian civilians, using them as human shields.
"
