Fire from Gaza killed a man near Tel Aviv today, amid a barrage of 278 rockets in just 12 hours.
He was found by medics who went house to house after the rocket fell in Ramat Gan. "During our search we located the wounded man in one of the apartments near the site of the fall, a 56-year-old man who was unconscious and suffering from impact of shrapnel,” said Magen David Adom paramedic Ronen Cohen.
His team tried to resuscitate the man, who has not yet been named, but had to declare him dead.
The fatal rocket landed close to the official residence of British ambassador Neil Wigan, who quickly expressed condolences. “A man my age was killed by a missile a few streets from my house this afternoon,” he wrote on Twitter. “My deepest condolences to his family at this terrible time for them. May his memory be a blessing.”
The rocket also caused several injuries and damaged buildings. More than 50 people have been treated by ambulance services today for shrapnel injuries, shock or accidents while running to bomb shelters.
While many of today’s rockets were taken down by the Iron Dome missile defence stay system, there were strikes in several places, including Givat Shmuel, just east of Tel Aviv, and the Arab city of Taibeh.
There are Israeli media reports of ceasefire proposals but Israel is reportedly determined to strike further blows to Hamas’ terror infrastructure in Gaza.
The IDF has struck numerous Hamas targets today. They included the homes of Tisar Mevasher, commander of the Hamas battalion in Khan Yunis, and the house of Azi Tama'a, commander of the Hamas 'Central Camps' Brigade in Deir al-Balah.
The military said that both houses served as military infrastructure and stated: “Damage to these infrastructures dealt a blow to the military capabilities of the Hamas terror organization.”
One of today’s strikes destroyed a high-rise building which the IDF says it selected because it contains “Hamas intelligence assets”. The target is causing controversy because it also contained homes and offices, including those of The Associated Press and Al-Jazeera.
AP’s President and CEO Gary Pruitt released a statement confirming that warning of the strike was received, but declared himself “shocked and horrified,” and called the attack “an incredibly disturbing development.”
Seemingly trying to address the outrage, the IDF stressed that warnings had given civilians time to evacuate, and insisted that the media offices were being used by Hamas as “shields.” It claimed: "The building contained civilian media offices, which Hamas hides behind and deliberately uses as human shields.”
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke to US President Joe Biden this evening and defended Israel's campaign in Gaza. He "emphasised that Israel is doing everything to avoid harming persons who are uninvolved," according to a statement from his office, which added that "the proof of this is that the buildings in which terrorist targets are being hit by the IDF are evacuated of uninvolved persons."
On Israel’s northern borders there is rising violence. Protests in Lebanon, just across the border, have involved the throwing of molotov cocktails and other objects at Israeli soldiers, the IDF reports. And Jerusalem is closely monitoring the border with Syria, after three rockets were launched from Syria last night.
So far, 891 people have been arrested in connection with the ongoing Arab-Jewish violence. Some 15,000 police officers are expected to patrol tonight in a bid to limit violence.
A 12-year-old Arab boy is an induced coma, after his family home was targeted with a firebomb, although he is thought to be out of danger to life. And in Acre, Arab rioters set fire to a theatre.
