Gaza-Israel Conflict Continues, With 1,000 Rockets, Airstrikes

Armed conflict between Israel and the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip continued to escalate Tuesday night and Wednesday morning, with fatalities and injuries on both sides.

In the Gaza Strip, around 35 people have been killed, 10 of them children, and 220 people have been injured since the violence began on Monday, according to the Health Ministry in Gaza. Israel says that at least 18 of the Palestinians killed were combatants involved in the fighting.

In Israel, five people, all of them civilians, have been killed, and more than 90 injured.

Armed groups in Gaza have showered more than 1,000 rockets on southern and central Israel, as far north as Netanya, since the violence began on Monday. A barrage of around 200 missiles was fired starting around 2:45 am, sending millions of Israelis into bomb shelters.

A direct hit on a home in the Arab Israeli village of Dahmash, just west of Lod, killed Khalil Awad, 52, and his 16-year-old daughter Nadin. Another home, in Yehud, north of Lod, took a direct hit. Between them lies Ben-Gurion International Airport, which has seen many flights delayed or canceled due to the rocket fire.

The Israeli military says it carried out hundreds of airstrikes overnight, eliminating rocket-launching positions, storage facilities and other military targets across the Gaza Strip, and killing two senior Hamas military officials. Residential buildings have also been hit, including one multistory apartment building that collapsed in an airstrike.

Infantry and Armored Corps forces are poised to enter the Strip if the government orders a ground operation.