Israeli strikes hit home in Gaza refugee camp, media offices as conflict intensifies

Israeli strikes hit home in Gaza refugee camp, media offices as conflict intensifies

(CNN) – Israel bombed a house in Gaza where a family had gathered to celebrate the end of Ramadan and an office housing international media as a new flurry of Hamas missiles rained down on Tel Aviv Saturday, increasing fears that a de-escalation of the conflict could soon be out of reach.

The Jala’a building, which was hit an Israeli airstrike on Saturday afternoon, contained offices for Al Jazeera and the Associated Press, among other media outlets, marking the latest escalation of violence that has spread across Israel and the Palestinian territories this week — the conflict’s bloodiest in recent years.

Israel launched more airstrikes on Gaza overnight, with Hamas retaliating with missiles on Saturday.

Early Sunday, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said it had bombed the house of Hamas’ Gaza leader, Yahya Sinwar. IDF spokesperson Brig. Gen. Hidai Zilberman told local media Sinwar was unhurt in an airstrike that hit his home in Khan Yunis, southern Gaza.

Also Sunday morning, Israeli airstrikes on Gaza killed at least two Palestinians and injured 25 others, most of whom were women and children, the Palestinian Ministry of Health’s spokesperson Ashraf al-Qudra said.

Medical and civil defense teams “rescued five children alive from under the rubble” and they are now at the hospital in stable condition, al-Qudra said. The numbers will likely rise as rescue operations continue, he added.

With the latest casualties, the death toll in Gaza has climbed to a total of 147, including at least 41 children and 23 women, according to CNN’s count of data from the ministry. Since the beginning of the airstrikes on Gaza this week, 1,125 have been injured, the ministry data showed. Meanwhile, rioting and mob violence between Arabs and Jews marred cities and towns throughout Israel.

Hamas fired dozens of missiles toward Tel Aviv and the city of Ashdod on Saturday, with Al-Qassam Brigades, the militant wing of Hamas, saying in statements the moves were in direct retaliation for Israeli airstrikes on a Gazan refugee camp, civilian towers and safe houses. A 50-year old man was killed early Saturday afternoon after a rocket hit a series of buildings in a residential area in a Tel Aviv suburb called Ramat Gan, bringing Israel’s death toll to 10, according to Israel’s emergency service.

Early Saturday, an infant was the lone survivor in a house that was hit and destroyed in an Israeli air strike hit in the al-Shati refugee camp, killing 10 members of the infant’s family — including eight children, according to the Palestinian News Agency WAFA. At least 20 other Palestinians were wounded after several near houses were damaged in the Israeli airstrike, it added.