Israel bombed the Gaza Strip for a second day in what it described as a pre-emptive operation against a Palestinian militant group, in the worst escalation of violence since last year s 11 day war.
Israeli warplanes hit several sites in the blockaded territory on Friday, part of a surprise operation called Breaking Dawn, which Israel Defence Forces IDF said thwarted alleged rocket attacks by Palestinian Islamic Jihad. Islamic Jihad is affiliated with the Hamas, the Islamist group that rules the strip.
As exchanges of fire continued and Israel appeared to broaden the operation on Saturday morning, health authorities in the Palestinian coastal enclave said 12 people had been killed by Israeli air strikes, including an Islamic Jihad commander, Tayseer Jabari, and civilians, including a five-year-old girl and 22-year-old art student. Islamic Jihad called the Israeli bombardment a declaration of war and launched a barrage of at least 100 rockets into southern Israel on Friday night. There were no immediate reports of casualties or major damage but 13 people were taken to hospital with minor injuries, with many rockets intercepted by the Iron Dome aerial defence system.
The hostilities have left people in Gaza afraid of another round of war, which would be the fourth serious conflict in Gaza since Hamas took control of the strip in 2007. Israel and Egypt closed the strip's borders a year later, leaving the area's 2 million residents struggling with unemployment, crumbling medical infrastructure and little electricity and clean water.
Hamas supported Islamic Jihad and said it would respond to the strikes. The resistance, with all its arms and military factions, is united in this campaign and will have the last word, the group said in a statement.
Egypt, which has been a mediator between Israel and armed groups in Gaza, said it had been informed by Israel that Breaking Dawn would be a smaller-scale assault, but no negotiations have yet been opened.
This weekend's violence occurred after days of tension sparked by the arrest of Bassem al-Saadi, Islamic Jihad's top commander in the occupied West Bank. Since March, the IDF has conducted near-nightly raids across the West Bank in response to a wave of Palestinian terror attacks on Israeli citizens.
While Islamic Jihad did not launch rockets after Saadi was arrested, Israel has insisted through the week that the group is seeking revenge, closing the Erez crossing used by Palestinians in Gaza to enter Israel, shutting down roads and restricting movement of civilians in Israel s south as a precaution.
On Friday, Israeli tanks and armour were lined up along the frontier after the military said on Thursday it was reinforcing its troops.
Israel isn't interested in a wider conflict in Gaza, but will not shy away from one, the Israeli prime minister, Yair Lapid, said in a televised address on Friday.
Since the war in May last year, the Gaza Strip has remained relatively quiet, killing 256 people in Gaza and 14 people in Israel.
Israel voted for a coalition government a month later, which included members of an independent Arab-Israeli party, opposed to escalation with Palestinians. In an effort to alleviate the poverty of the strip, it increased the number of work permits for Palestinians in Gaza to enter Israel.
The short-lived coalition collapsed in June. Lapid, the caretaker prime minister, is preparing for elections on November 1st in which he faces pressure from Israel s right wing to appear tough on terrorism.