Smoke is seen from a collapsed building after it was hit by Israeli airstrikes on Gaza City.Credit:AP
Hamas signalled defiance,with its leader,Ismail Haniyeh,saying:“The confrontation with the enemy is open-ended.”
Israel launched its offensive after Hamas fired rockets at Jerusalem and Tel Aviv in retaliation for Israeli police clashes with Palestiniansnear al-Aqsa mosque in East Jerusalem during the fasting month of Ramadan.
These escalated ahead of a court hearing - now postponed - that could lead to the eviction of Palestinian families from East Jerusalem homes claimed by Jewish settlers.
For Israel,the targeting of the two major cities posed a new challenge in the confrontation with Hamas,regarded as a terrorist group by Israel and the United States.
Street violence
A Palestinian source said truce efforts by Egypt,Qatar and the United Nations had made no progress to end the violence.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken phoned Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and said Washington “was exerting efforts with all relevant parties to reach calm,” the official Palestinian news agency WAFA said. Abbas is a Hamas rival whose authority is limited to the Israeli-occupied West Bank.
The fighting has touched off strife within Israel,where some in the Arab minority mounted violent pro-Palestinian protests. Media reported spreading street attacks by Jews on Arab passersby in ethnically mixed areas on Wednesday.
In Gaza,two multi-storey residential buildings and a tower housing media outlets,including one linked to Hamas,collapsed after Israel urged occupants to evacuate in advance of its air strikes,and another structure was heavily damaged.
“Israel has gone crazy,” said a man on a Gaza street,where people ran out of their homes as explosions rocked buildings.
Many in Israel also holed up in shelters as waves of rockets hit its heartland,some blown out of the sky by Iron Dome interceptors.
Israeli riot police try to block a Jewish right-wing man as clashes erupted between Arabs,police and Jews,in the mixed town of Lod,Israel.Credit:AP
“All of Israel is under attack. It’s a very scary situation to be in,” said Margo Aronovic,a 26-year-old student,in Tel Aviv.
The fatalities in Israel include a soldier killed while patrolling the Gaza border and five six civilians,including two children and an Indian worker,medical authorities said.
US energy corporation Chevron said it had shut down the Tamar natural gas platform off the Israeli coast as a precaution. Israel said its energy needs would continue to be met.
At least two US airlines cancelled flights from the United States to Tel Aviv on Wednesday and Thursday.
Israel,whose Ben Gurion Airport briefly suspended operations on Monday after a rocket barrage on Tel Aviv,said national airline El Al stood ready to provide supplemental flights.
‘Anarchy’ condemned
Netanyahu has condemned the “anarchy” of Jewish-Arab violence in cities across the country after a day of tumultuous unrest.
Netanyahu said on Wednesday (Thursday AEST) that “nothing justifies” Jews attacking Arabs or Arabs attacking Jews. He vows to restore order after two days of violence unchecked by police.
In his words:“It doesn’t matter to me that your blood is boiling. You can’t take the law in your hands.”
Shortly after he spoke,police reported two people injured in a shooting in the restive city of Lod.
Despite large police mobilization under a state of emergency and a nighttime curfew,Lod was the scene of street battles between Jewish and Arab mobs Wednesday night.
Reuters