A Tel Aviv man was killed Saturday as a heavy barrage of rockets from Gaza streamed into Israel.
Several others sustained minor injuries as Hamas sent new rockets toward residential communities in response to the deaths of a family of 10 in Gaza overnight from an Israeli airstrike, including eight children, The Times of Israel reported.
With warning sirens screaming throughout cities and towns as rockets flew, Israelis tweeted pictures of rockets being thwarted by Israel’s “Iron Dome” defense system.
Airstrikes continued to batter the Gaza Strip. The Israeli Defense Forces said it struck 20 rocket launchers that were aimed at central and southern Israel.
Diplomatic efforts aimed at stopping the worst violence between Israel and Hamas in more than six years are underway, and are expected to accelerate with US envoy Hady Amir on his way to the region.
But the hope for a ceasefire may be fleeting. “I don’t think he can do much, frankly speaking,” veteran Palestinian politician Hanan Ashrawi told the BBC. She pointed to a comment from Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu last week, who she claimed, “clearly said ‘mind your own business’ and Joe Biden waited for a whole week before he sent a third, fourth-level, not even a third, fourth-level civil servant and you think the Israelis are going to listen?”
Ashrawi added that the US has more influence than it is wielding. “If they really mean business, then they can, at the highest level, come out and say ‘stop the shelling, stop the killing’,” she said.
Palestinian protesters in Lebanon are reported to be on their way to the Israeli border on buses to protest against the Jewish state.
The military said it thwarted an attempted infiltration attack against Israelis along the Lebanese border last night. Troops saw several suspects cutting the border fence and digging beneath it. The men fled when the soldiers fired on them. A search of the area found suspected bombs.
