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(CNN) — Palestinian militants on Friday fired rockets at Israeli settlements in Jerusalem, Tel Aviv and the occupied West Bank, escalating violence in the region and killing at least 33 Palestinian, Israeli, people in the Gaza Strip. It has led to one death in the country.
Jerusalem has never been targeted by rockets in the current hostilities that began earlier this week.
Islamic Jihad’s al-Quds Brigade said in a statement shortly after the rocket launch: “The launch into Jerusalem is a message and everyone should understand its purpose. Jerusalem is before our eyes and what is happening there is inseparable from Gaza.”
The operation was called “Liberty’s Revenge”.
Fires across the border continue in Jerusalem, and explosions were heard amid heavy bloodshed in the area, especially along the railway line.
Negotiations to achieve a ceasefire between Israel and the Islamic Jihad in Gaza are “currently in an ice age,” a diplomatic source familiar with the negotiations told CNN on Friday. The official requested anonymity regarding the closed diplomatic talks.
Israeli airstrikes on Friday also killed two Palestinian men, including a senior Islamic Jihad commander, and wounded five others in the Gaza Strip. This brings the number of Palestinian men, women and children killed in Gaza to at least 33 since Tuesday when Israel’s “shield and shield” was activated. Operation Arrow has begun.
A CNN producer who arrived at the scene shortly after the bombing saw several windows blown out on the top floor of an apartment building.
Jack Guez/AFP/Getty Images
A building in the central Israeli city of Rehovot, pictured on Friday, was heavily damaged in a rocket attack from Gaza on Thursday amid continuing violence in the region.
Majidi Fati/Nurfoto/Getty Images
Rockets were fired across the sky from Gaza toward Israel on Friday amid fading hopes of securing a truce to end days of fighting in the region.
The Israel Defense Forces said Israel Defense Forces fighters also struck four military posts belonging to Islamic Jihad. Israel Defense Forces aircraft also fired mortar shells over the southern Gaza Strip.
On Friday, Israel blared sirens all day long, warning of rocket launches in areas surrounding Gaza.
CNN reporters in Sderot, southern Israel, witnessed Israeli air defenses intercept about 8-10 rockets flying from Gaza and had to take temporary shelter from falling debris.
The Israel Defense Forces on Tuesday launched a wave of airstrikes against infrastructure along an area it claims are operatives of Islamic Jihad. The IDF hit 254 targets in the Gaza Strip in what it calls a “shield and arrow” operation.
Palestinian militants retaliated by firing hundreds of rockets at Israel.
Among the three Palestinian deaths announced on Friday, one was a Palestinian man who died in the Gaza Strip from injuries he sustained in an airstrike in the town of Jabariya on Thursday, the Gaza Health Ministry said. announced the family.
The hospital said the man, named Ariane Abu Wadi, 38, died after doctors attempted to rescue him.
Two others were killed in airstrikes on Friday. One, whose name has not been released, is Iyad al-Abd al-Hassan, a senior Islamic jihadist commander known as Abu Anas, a member of the military council and in charge of al-Quds. ing. Brigade Operations Force announced on Friday.
The Israel Defense Forces announced that he was the target of the attack.
The Israel Defense Forces said al-Hassan was “a key figure in the organization and was involved in all decisions regarding the launch of rockets and barrages into Israel”, adding that his predecessor was killed on Tuesday.
IDF chief spokesman Maj. Gen. Daniel Hagari reviewed the death toll from the entire hostilities and said the Israeli military believed 16 Palestinians killed in the violence were “combatants” and 14 were “not involved.” said that
The IDF also said four of the Palestinians were killed when a failed Islamic Jihad rocket landed in Gaza, a claim the militants denied was a lie.
About 973 rockets had been fired into Israel over the past three days as of 4 p.m. Friday (9 a.m. ET), according to the Israel Defense Forces. Of these, 761 crossed over to Israel, and 212 landed in the Mediterranean after failing to reach Gaza.
According to the IDF, Israel’s Iron Dome air defenses intercepted 296 rockets. The system will only work if the rocket predicts it has hit its target of reaching a populated area in Israel.
The Gaza authorities also outlined how Israeli airstrikes and border closures have caused extensive damage beyond casualties within the highly isolated enclave.
Officials said at a government briefing on Friday that at least nine private residences and 28 homes had been demolished, with a further 532 homes damaged, 37 of which were rendered uninhabitable. A total of 90 families were left homeless, they added.
They warned that Gaza would be forced to close the plant within 72 hours because it could not import fuel, adding that one of the plant’s three turbines had already shut down.
Additionally, all formal schooling was suspended in Gaza.
Fishing was suspended for four days, leaving 3,500 fishermen out of work. More than 600 tons of agricultural products remain in Gaza, unable to be exported.
Bashar Taleb/AFP/Getty Images
People take refuge behind walls after Israeli airstrikes hit buildings in Beit Lahia, northern Gaza, on Friday.
Gaza is one of the most densely populated places in the world, an isolated coastal enclave with about 2 million people packed into 140 square miles.
The Hamas-controlled region has been largely cut off from the rest of the world by Israel’s land, air and sea blockade of Gaza dating back to 2007. Egypt controls the Rafah border crossing in southern Gaza.
Israel imposes severe restrictions on the freedom of movement of civilians and restricts the importation of essential commodities into its narrow coastal strip.
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