Israel bombarded Islamic Jihad positions in the Gaza Strip for a third day Sunday as violence escalated, with 31 Palestinians reported dead and militants firing their first rockets at Jerusalem.
Six children were among those killed in the latest “Israeli aggression” since Friday, and 265 people have been wounded, said health authorities in the enclave where several buildings were reduced to rubble.
The fighting is the worst in Gaza since a war last year devastated the impoverished coastal territory, home to some 2.3 million Palestinians, and forced Israelis to seek shelter from rockets.
Israel pressed on with its aerial and artillery bombardment of positions of Islamic Jihad, as the group has fired over 500 rockets in return.
The Israeli army has said the entire “senior leadership of the military wing of the Islamic Jihad in Gaza has been neutralised”, and Prime Minister Yair Lapid vowed Sunday that “the operation will continue as long as necessary”.
In Gaza, run by Hamas — who said Sunday they were “united” with Islamic Jihad, but have not joined the fray — the ministry said 31 people had died since the start of Israel’s “Operation Breaking Dawn”.
Israel said it had “irrefutable” evidence that a stray rocket fired by Islamic Jihad was responsible for the deaths of several children in Jabalia, northern Gaza, on Saturday.
It was not immediately clear how many children were killed there, but an AFP photographer saw six dead bodies at the local hospital, including three minors.
“We were sitting in the street and suddenly we saw an explosion,” said Muhammad Abu Sadaa, describing the devastation in Jabalia.
“We came running to the place and found body parts lying on the ground… they were torn-apart children.”
Leaders targetedÂ
The army said it had struck 139 Islamic Jihad positions, with the militants firing 470 rockets that had crossed into Israel, while another 115 rockets fired from Gaza fell inside the enclave.
Al Quds Brigades, the Islamic Jihad’s military wing, said it had “fired rockets” at Jerusalem, where sirens wailed and explosions were heard as the army shot them down.
In total, Israel said its Iron Dome air defence system had intercepted some 185 rockets, with a success rate of 97 percent of projectiles targeted.
Jews in Israel-annexed east Jerusalem meanwhile marked the Tisha Be’av fasting day Sunday at the Al Aqsa mosque compound, known in Judaism as the Temple Mount, where some Palestinians shouted “God is greatest” in response.
Tensions there have previously sparked wider violence — with Hamas’s Doha-based chief Ismail Haniyeh warning of the risk of an “uncontrollable” security crisis.
An AFP photographer was briefly detained by Israeli police, amid a heavy security deployment, but wider commemorations passed off without major incident.
Israel has said it was necessary to launch a “pre-emptive” operation against Islamic Jihad, as the group was planning an imminent attack.
“Whoever seeks to hurt Israeli citizens will be hurt,” said Defence Minister Benny Gantz.
Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi has said Cairo was talking with both sides “around the clock” to ease the violence, but Gantz said strikes would continue “until we restore quiet and remove the threats”.
Israel’s army has reported killing senior leaders of Islamic Jihad in Gaza, including Taysir al-Jabari in Gaza City and Khaled Mansour in Rafah in the south, as well as the arrest of 20 members in the West Bank.
Israel’s Lapid called the killing of Mansour an “extraordinary achievement”.
‘We are all alone’Â
Daily life in the Gaza strip has come to a standstill, with the sole power station shut down due to a lack of fuel after Israel closed its border crossings.
Gaza’s health ministry said the next few hours will be “crucial and difficult”, warning that without electricity it soon risked suspending vital services.
In Gaza City, resident Dounia Ismail said the Israeli bombardment “brings back images of fear, anxiety and the feeling that we are all alone”.
Civilians in southern and central Israel, meanwhile, were forced into air raid shelters, with two people hospitalised with shrapnel wounds and 13 others lightly hurt while running for safety, the Magen David Adom emergency service said.
“It’s tense, it’s frightening,” said Beverly Jamil, a resident of Ashkelon close to Gaza, who has been rushing repeatedly to her air raid shelter.
“Ashkelon’s a ghost town — it’s a holiday, kids should be out playing.”
Meanwhile, the response of Hamas to the violence remains critical, with spokesman Fawzi Barhoum offering the group’s support to Islamic Jihad on Sunday, but stopping short of saying they would take part.
Islamic Jihad is aligned with Hamas but often acts independently. Hamas has fought four wars with Israel since seizing control of Gaza in 2007, including the conflict last May.
“The resistance in all its military wings and factions are united in this battle,” Barhoum said.
MIXED REACTIONS
The latest deadly flare-up between the Israeli military and Palestinian militants in Gaza has drawn mixed reactions from the international community, along with a chorus of calls for a de-escalation.
United StatesÂ
National Security Council spokesman John Kirby urged calm from both sides but said US ally Israel had the right to defend itself.
“We certainly urge all sides to avoid further escalation… We absolutely fully support Israel’s right to defend itself against terrorist groups that are taking the lives of innocent civilians in Israel,” he said.
RussiaÂ
Russia, whose ties with Israel have been tested by Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine, appeared to pin initial blame on the Jewish state.
“We are observing with profound worry how events are evolving,” foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said, adding that Moscow was calling “on all the parties involved to show maximum restraint”.
“The new escalation was caused by Israeli army firing into the Gaza Strip on August 5, to which Palestinian groups responded by carrying out massive and indiscriminate bombardments on Israeli territory,” she said.
 BritainÂ
Britain called for “a swift end to the violence”, while reasserting its support of Israel.
“The UK stands by Israel and its right to defend itself,” Foreign Secretary Liz Truss tweeted.
“We condemn terrorist groups firing at civilians and violence which has resulted in casualties on both sides.”
Health authorities in the Palestinian enclave have said a five-year-old girl was among 15 people killed in Israeli bombardment.
No deaths have been reported on the Israeli side.
FranceÂ
Paris “condemns the rocket fire on Israeli territory and restates its unconditional commitment to Israel’s security”, a spokesperson said, warning that “civilians would be the first victims” of a new escalation and urging all parties to show “restraint”.
European UnionÂ
The EU called for maximum restraint, as Israel warned Saturday that its air strikes could last a week and as cross-border fire reverberated for a second day, in the worst escalation since the last Gaza war in 2021.
“The European Union follows with great concern the latest developments in and around Gaza,” a spokesman for the EU’s foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said.
“The EU calls for maximum restraint on all sides… While Israel has the right to protect its civilian population, everything must be done to prevent a broader conflict,” he said.
United NationsÂ
UN Middle East peace envoy Tor Wennesland said he was “deeply concerned”, warning that the escalation was “very dangerous”.
EgyptÂ
Egypt, historically a broker between Israel and armed groups in Gaza, has reportedly been seeking to mediate.
“Contacts are maintained around the clock with everyone, so that things do not get out of control,” President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi said in a speech.
IranÂ
Iran, a supporter of Gaza militants, said the territory was “not alone” in its fight.
“We are with you on this path until the end, and let Palestine and the Palestinians know that they are not alone,” Iran’s Revolutionary Guards chief Major General Hossein Salami told Islamic Jihad leader Ziad al-Nakhala during a meeting in Tehran.
Saudi ArabiaÂ
The Saudi foreign ministry condemned “the attacks which the Israeli occupation forces have carried out on the Gaza Strip”, adding that it “stands beside the brotherly Palestinian people” and calling on the international community to help stop the escalation.
Arab LeagueÂ
The Arab League “condemned in the strongest possible terms the ferocious Israeli aggression against Gaza”.
Gulf blocÂ
The secretary-general of the six-member Gulf Cooperation Council, Nayef al-Hajraf, “condemned the brutal military aggression of the Israeli occupation forces on the Gaza Strip” and “stressed the need for the international community to act urgently” to protect civilians.