Palestinian Death Toll Nears 100 as Hamas Promises More Attacks on Israel
At least eight Palestinians were killed overnight in airstrikes as Israel pressed on with its air offensive in Gaza, while southern and central Israel came under heavy rocket fire from militants on Friday morning.
As Palestinian health officials said the death toll in Gaza was approaching 100, the two sides appeared to be set on a course of continuing escalation, with no outside mediator yet having stepped in to try to broker a renewal of the cease-fire that came into effect after the last round of fierce, cross-border fighting, in November 2012.
One rocket launched from Lebanon struck open ground in northern Israel, putting Israeli forces in the north on alert and raising the specter of confrontation on a second front. An Israeli military official said it was too early to determine whether the act was “symbolic or something more substantial.”
Israeli tanks were positioned on the border with the Gaza Strip on Thursday amid preparations for a possible ground offensive.
Israel responded with artillery fire aimed at the launch site in Lebanon, according to Lt. Col. Peter Lerner, a spokesman for the Israeli military. He said it was not immediately clear whether Hezbollah, the Shiite organization against which Israel fought a 34-day war in 2006, was responsible for the rocket fire from Lebanon.
An attack on gas station in the Mediterranean port city of Ashdod wounded several people, one of them seriously. Three more rockets fired from Gaza were intercepted by Israel’s Iron Dome missile defense system above the Tel Aviv metropolitan area, the military said.
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http://www.nytimes.com/2014/07/12/world/middleeast/middle-east.html?partner=rss&emc=rss&_r=0
