Air strikes, rocket attacks pound Gaza in second day of fighting

Smoke billows from an Israeli air strike in Gaza City.

Israeli aircraft struck in Gaza yesterday, a day after an Israeli operation set off a cross-border flare-up that ended more than a year of relative calm. Bombings of at least five houses sent huge clouds of smoke and debris into the air, as explosions rocked Gaza and ambulances rushed through the streets.The Israeli strikes have killed 15 Palestinians, among them a child, the Palestinian Health Ministry said. It added scores more had been wounded. Palestinian fighters fired rockets at Israel - most of them intercepted, setting off air raids sirens and sending people running to bomb shelters. There were no reports of serious casualties, the Israeli ambulance service said.Egypt said it was engaged in intensive talks to calm the situation. Further escalation would largely depend on whether Hamas, the group which controls Gaza, would opt to join the fighting. An Egyptian intelligence delegation headed by Major General Ahmed Abdelkhaliq arrived in Israel yesterday and would be travelling to Gaza for mediation talks, two Egyptian security sources said. They were hoping to secure a day’s ceasefire in order to carry out the talks, the sources added.Islamic Jihad signalled no ceasefire was imminent. “The time now is for resistance, not a truce,” a group official told Reuters. The group has not said how many of its members have been killed since Friday.Around 2.3mn Palestinians are packed into the narrow coastal Gaza Strip, with Israel and Egypt tightly restricting movement of people and goods in and out of the enclave and imposing a naval blockade, citing security concerns. Israel stopped the planned transport of fuel into Gaza shortly before it struck on Friday, crippling the territory’s lone power plant and reducing electricity to around 8 hours per day and drawing warnings from health officials that hospitals would be severely impacted within days.The frontier had been largely quiet since May 2021, when 11 days of fierce fighting left at least 250 in Gaza and 13 in Israel dead.UN and EU Mideast envoys expressed concern about the violence and the Western-backed Palestinian Authority condemned Israel’s attacks. Gaza streets were largely deserted yesterday afternoon. At the site where top Islamic Jihad commander Tayseer al-Jaabari was killed, rubble, glass and furniture were strewn along the street.In Israel, border town streets were largely empty while brushfires sparked by rockets spread through nearby fields. Islamic Jihad said it had fired a missile at Israel’s main international gateway, Ben Gurion Airport, but the rocket fell short around 20km away. The Civil Aviation Authority said the airport was operating normally.Tensions rose this week after Israeli forces arrested an Islamic Jihad commander in the occupied West Bank, drawing threats of retaliation from the group. The military said it had apprehended 19 more members of the group there yesterday.Israeli Defence Minister said dozens of the group’s rocket facilities in Gaza had been destroyed. Prime Minister Yair Lapid said the operation thwarted an imminent attack by Islamic Jihad. Israeli political analysts said the military operation provided Lapid with an opportunity to bolster his security credentials ahead of a Nov 1 election.