Israeli planes bombed Gaza and Palestinian militants fired rockets into Israeli cities on Saturday as fighting continued for a second day, ending more than a year of relative calm along the border. On Friday, Israel said it launched a special operation against Palestinian Islamic Jihad, killing one of its top commanders in a surprise daytime air strike on a high-rise building in Gaza City. The Palestinian Health Ministry said the Israeli attacks killed nine other Palestinians, including at least four Islamic Jihad members and a child, and wounded 79 people. In the occupied West Bank, the Israeli army said it had arrested 19 Islamic Jihad activists in overnight raids. The military said Palestinian militants fired at least 160 rockets across the border, some deep into Israel toward the Tel Aviv mall. Most of the missiles were intercepted and a few people were slightly injured while escaping to the shelters. Egypt, the United Nations and Qatar have begun mediating an end to the violence, "but there has been no breakthrough so far," a Palestinian official familiar with these efforts said. An official in the Western-backed Palestinian Authority condemned the Israeli attacks. On Saturday, the Israeli army said that it had targeted a cell belonging to the Islamic Jihad movement in the Gaza Strip, which was on its way to launch mortar shells at settlements in the vicinity of the Strip. Sky News Arabia sources reported that a Palestinian was killed, on Saturday, as a result of renewed Israeli shelling on the city of Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip. On Saturday, the Israeli army announced the arrest of 19 militants of the Islamic Jihad movement in the West Bank, while it launched strikes on military targets in Gaza. An army statement said that soldiers and members of the Shin Bet internal security service arrested 20 people during raids early Saturday morning in the West Bank. The Israeli army added that "19 of them are elements linked to the Palestinian Jihad Organization," according to "AFP". Sky News Arabia sources also reported that sirens sounded in the settlements around the Gaza Strip after a new batch of rockets was launched from the Strip. On the reactions to the recent escalation between Israel and the Palestinians, the United Nations envoy to the Middle East peace process, Tor Wencesland, said on Friday that he was very concerned about what he described as the “continued escalation between Palestinian militants and Israel,” including the targeted killing of a leader of the Islamic Jihad movement. inside Gaza. Wencesland said the ongoing escalation is very dangerous, calling for an immediate halt to the rocket fire, and urging all parties to avoid further escalation. Wencesland pointed out that there are no justifications for launching attacks targeting civilians, saying that the progress that has been made in opening Gaza since late May may not take place because of what is currently happening. The UN envoy warned of the consequences of the situation slipping, resulting in humanitarian needs that are difficult to meet in the current global context. And he indicated that the United Nations is engaged with all parties in order to avoid an additional conflict that could have devastating consequences, especially among civilians. The position of the UN envoy comes as the Israeli army announced, earlier on Friday, the launch of the "Sadiq Dawn" operation, which targets the sites of the Islamic Jihad movement in the Gaza Strip, declaring a "special status" for the home front in Israel. For its part, the General Secretariat of the League of Arab States condemned the Israeli military operations, calling on the international community, especially the Security Council and human rights organizations, to "immediate and effective action." In the same vein, the Arab Parliament condemned the Israeli military operations in the Gaza Strip, saying that they constitute a flagrant defiance of international law and a violation of human rights principles. Meanwhile, the Egyptian Foreign Ministry announced, on Saturday, that it had conducted intensive contacts in order to contain the situation in the Gaza Strip, in an effort to work towards calm and preserve lives and property.

Source: agencies