Air defense sirens, warning of incoming rockets, sounded in Tel Aviv in the early hours of today, amid the fiercest clashes between Israel and the Palestinians in recent years.
Early in the morning, a man and a girl were killed in the Israeli city of Lod as they were riding in a car hit by a rocket fired from the Gaza Strip.
The girl, whose age was not made public, was killed instantly, while the man, about 40 years old, died at the hospital where he was treated, according to the police, who did not specify whether the two victims were a parent and a daughter.
Earlier in the night, a 25-year-old Arab man was shot dead in the town of Lod, and a 34-year-old Jew was arrested on suspicion of murder. During the incidents between Arabs and Jews, a Jewish synagogue in the city was set on fire. According to Israeli media, Arabs allegedly looted a synagogue and set it on fire. Dozens of cars were also burned, while shop windows were destroyed.
The mayor of Lod, Haire Revivo, spoke of a “civil war” and called for an immediate ban on night traffic in the city. Serious incidents also broke out in the predominantly Arab cities of Ako and Jaffa.
New death toll rises to five in Israel killed by rockets fired by Palestinian militant groups in the Gaza Strip on Monday night.
The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) said in a statement on Friday that it had fired more than 200 rockets into Israeli territory in retaliation for Israeli airstrikes on a Palestinian coastal enclave, including a rocket-propelled grenade launcher.
The Israeli Iron Dome anti-aircraft and missile defense system destroyed most of the rockets, but some of them found their target. Late at night, Tel Aviv was hit by a rocket storm, and Ben Gurion Airport was closed.
The Hamas militant wing said in a statement that it was in the process of launching “110 rockets” against the Tel Aviv metropolis and another “100 rockets” against the city of Beer Sheva “in retaliation for strikes against civilian-occupied properties”.
Israel’s caretaker Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has warned that attacks on Hamas “will intensify and intensify” in the near future. At the same time, the military leadership sent armored and infantry to the border with Gaza, while the Ministry of Defense ordered the mobilization of 5,000 reserves with the possibility of a fourth war – since 2007 – seems increasingly likely.
“In the last few hours, the Israeli army has” struck a number of important terrorist targets throughout the Gaza Strip “and” at the moment the blows continue, “a statement from the General Staff said.
