Israel attacks continue killing Palestinians, Hamas fires rockets at Tel Aviv

Rafah, Palestinian Territories – AFP

Hamas fired a salvo of rockets at Israel’s commercial hub Tel Aviv for the first time in months, sending people scrambling for shelter.

Hamas’s armed wing said it had targeted Tel Aviv “with a large rocket barrage in response to the Zionist (Israeli) massacres against civilians”.

Israeli military spokesman Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari told a televised briefing that “Hamas launched these rockets from near two mosques in Rafah.”

A member of Hamas’s political leadership, Izzat al-Rishq, accused Netanyahu earlier Sunday of “trying to buy more time to continue the aggression”.

An Israeli official had said Saturday that “there is an intention to renew these talks this week” after negotiations involving US, Qatari and Egyptian mediators stalled in early May.

However, Rishq said Sunday that so far, “we have not received anything from the mediators”.

He insisted on Hamas’s long-standing demand for a permanent cessation of hostilities as “the foundation and the starting point for anything”.

In Brussels, the European Union’s foreign policy chief Josep Borrell told journalists before meeting Palestinian premier Mohammed Mustafa that a strong Palestinian Authority (PA) was in Israel’s interest.

EU members Ireland and Spain, and also Norway, have said they will recognise the State of Palestine from Tuesday, drawing furious Israeli condemnation.

“A functional Palestinian Authority is in Israel’s interest too, because in order to make peace, we need a strong Palestinian Authority, not a weaker one,” Borrell said.

Mustafa, whose government is based in the occupied West Bank, said the “first priority” was to support people in Gaza, especially through a cease-fire, and then “rebuilding the institutions of the Palestinian Authority” there after Hamas seized it from the PA in 2007.

US President Joe Biden has pushed for renewed international efforts to halt the war, now in its eighth month.

– ‘Constant bombardment’ –

Netanyahu has repeatedly vowed to destroy Hamas following the October 7 attack, but has also faced growing domestic and international criticism.

Israel has killed at least 35,984 people in Gaza, mostly women and children, according to the local health ministry.

The military on Sunday announced the death of a soldier in north Gaza, taking to 289 the number of troops killed since Israel began its ground offensive in late October.

As the war ground on, the families of those still held by Palestinians militants have piled pressure on Netanyahu to secure a deal to free them.

Washington has also taken a tougher line with its close ally as outrage over the war and US support for Israel has become a major issue for Biden, seeking re-election in a battle against Donald Trump.

Rafah resident Moaz Abu Taha, 29, told AFP of “constant bombardment from land and air, which has destroyed many houses”.

Gaza’s civil defence agency said it had retrieved six bodies after a house was targeted in eastern Rafah.

Last Monday, the prosecutor at the International Criminal Court announced he was seeking arrest warrants for Netanyahu and his defence minister as well as for three top Hamas figures.

And on Friday, the International Court of Justice ordered Israel to halt its Rafah offensive or any other operation there that could bring about “the physical destruction” of the Palestinians.