Israeli man is killed by Hamas rocket in Tel Aviv as five-month-old boy is pulled ALIVE from rubble after air strike on Gaza refugee camp while US envoy arrives to broker talks and death toll tops 140
An Israeli man has been killed by a Hamas rocket in Tel Aviv and a five-month-old baby boy has been pulled alive from rubble following an overnight air strike on a refugee camp in Gaza City.
Several people also received minor injuries after rockets were launched from the Gaza Strip towards Israel, according to the Times of Israel.
The launch came in response to Israel's airstrike on a house killing 10 Palestinians in Gaza City, with harrowing pictures show nurses holding a boy, who was reported to have been found next to the body of his deceased mother, at Al-Shifa Hospital.
A three-storey building in Shati refugee camp collapsed following the airstrike, killing at least 10 members of an extended family - eight children and two women - the highest number of fatalities in a single hit since the battle erupted earlier this week.
Another Israeli airstrike has also demolished Jala Tower, which housed Al Jazeera television and Associated Press, with broadcast footage showing a huge mushroom cloud of dust and debris erupting from the 13-floor building.
A US envoy arrived for talks, with the United Nations (UN) Security Council set to meet on Sunday. US Secretary for Israel-Palestinian Affairs, Hady Amr, was due to meet Israeli leaders in Jerusalem, where the latest outburst of violence began, on Saturday before heading to the occupied West Bank for talks with Palestinian officials.
He wants to encourage a 'sustainable calm', State Department deputy spokeswoman Jalina Porter said.
But despite intensifying diplomatic efforts to ease five days of fighting between Israel and Palestinian militants in Gaza, Israel's air force struck several sites in the coastal enclave overnight, while rockets again tore towards Israel.
Mohammed Hadidi told reporters his wife and five children had gone to celebrate the Eid al-Fitr holiday with relatives. She and three of the children, aged six to 14, were killed, while an 11-year-old is missing. Only his five-month-old son Omar is known to have survived.
Eleven Palestinians died in clashes in the occupied West Bank on Friday and there were fears of worse violence today as Palestinians mark Nakba (Catastrophe) Day, when they commemorate the estimated 700,000 people who were expelled from or fled their homes in what is now Israel during the 1948 war surrounding its creation.
Washington has been criticised for not doing more to end the intensifying violence after it blocked a UN Security Council meeting scheduled for Friday.
The overall death toll in Gaza since Monday now tops 140, more than 30 of them children. Around 950 people have been wounded.
A nurse holds a baby, Omar, who was pulled alive from underneath rubble while other members of his family perished, at Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City on Saturday after an Israeli air strike hit al-Shati Refugee Camp without advance warning overnight
Mohammed al-Hadidi with his baby son who was pulled alive from underneath the rubble while three of his children, aged six to 14, and wife perished in the Israeli airstrike
A nurse holds the baby boy at Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City. An airstrike on a house in Gaza City killed at least 10 Palestinians, mostly children - the highest number of fatalities in a single hit since the battle erupted earlier this week
The two nurses seen wearing face masks as one holds the baby boy at Al-Shifa Hospital. Ten members of a single family - eight children and two women - were killed when a three-storey building in Shati refugee camp collapsed following an Israel strike
The baby boy is reported to have been found next to the body of his deceased mother. Hamas militants responded by firing more rockets into Israel as their battle entered a fifth consecutive night and a US envoy arrived for talks
US Secretary for Israel-Palestinian Affairs, Hady Amr (pictured left), was due to meet Israeli leaders in Jerusalem on Saturday before heading to the occupied West Bank for talks with Palestinian officials. But Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (right) gave no indication that Israel was ready to ease its campaign
'There was no warning,' said Jamal Al-Naji, a neighbour living in the same building. 'You filmed people eating and then you bombed them?' he said, addressing Israel.
'Why are you confronting us? Go and confront the strong people!'
The Israeli military did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Hamas said it fired a salvo of rockets at southern Israel in response to the airstrike.
Egypt opened its Rafah border crossing with Gaza on Saturday to allow in 10 ambulances carrying seriously injured Palestinians for treatment in Egyptian hospitals, medical officials said.
Meanwhile, Israel 'destroyed Jala Tower in the Gaza Strip, which contains the Al Jazeera and other international press offices,' Al Jazeera said in a tweet.
The strike on the building housing media offices came in the afternoon, after the building's owner received a call from the Israeli military warning that it would be hit.
Broadcast footage from Al Jazeera, the news network funded by Qatar's government, shows the building collapsing to the ground after the Israeli air strike, sending up a huge mushroom cloud of dust and debris.
Israel, which is also trying to contain an outbreak of internal Jewish-Arab violence, is facing its bloodiest conflict with Palestinian militants in Gaza since a 2014 war.
Its bombardment began on Monday after the territory's Islamist rulers Hamas fired rockets towards Jerusalem in response to a bloody Israeli police action at the flashpoint Al-Aqsa mosque compound in annexed east Jerusalem.
More than 2,000 rockets have been fired at Israel since then, killing nine people, including a child and a soldier. Over 560 people have been wounded.
The aftermath following the Israeli strike, which destroyed Jala Tower - a 13-floor building housing Al Jazeera television and Associated Press
Israel 'destroyed Jala Tower in the Gaza Strip, which contains the Al Jazeera and other international press offices,' Al Jazeera said in a tweet. It was reported the army had warned the tower's owner ahead of the strike on Saturday
The bomb seen hurtling towards the building. Jawad Mehdi, the owner of the Jala Tower, said an Israeli intelligence officer warned him he had just one hour to ensure the evacuation of the building
A ball of fire erupts from the Jala Tower as it is destroyed in an Israeli airstrike in Gaza City. It came hours after another Israeli air raid on a densely populated refugee camp in Gaza City killed at least 10 Palestinians from an extended family
Smoke billows as an air bomb is dropped on the Jala Tower during an Israeli airstrike in Gaza City. Wael al-Dahdouh, Al Jazeera's bureau chief in Gaza, said: 'It's terrible, very sad, to target the Al Jazeera and other press bureaux'
A building housing various international media, including Al Jazeera and The Associated Press, collapses after an Israeli airstrike on Saturday, May 15, in Gaza City
A ball of fire erupts from the Jala Tower as it is destroyed in an Israeli airstrike in Gaza City on Saturday, May 15
A Palestinian firefighter speaks to colleagues following an Israeli strike on Rafah town in the southern Gaza Strip on May 15
Palestinians inspect the damages following Israeli air strikes in Gaza City amid a flare-up of Israeli-Palestinian violence on May 15
A man gestures as he prepares with others to bury the bodies of Palestinian children and their mother from the Al-Hadidi family, who were killed amid a flare-up of Israeli-Palestinian violence, during their funeral at a cemetery on May 15
Palestinians take part in the funeral of the Abu Hatab family in Gaza City on May 15 - an extended family of 10 who were killed early in an Israeli air strike on the western Gaza Strip
Mourners stand next to the bodies of Palestinians who were killed amid a flare-up of Israel-Palestinian violence, during their funeral at the Beach refugee camp in Gaza City
Between 7pm Friday and 7am Saturday, some 200 rockets were fired at southern Israel, over 100 of which were intercepted by air defences, the Israeli military said.
Israel's response has seen it hit nearly 800 targets, including a massive assault Friday on a Hamas tunnel network dug under civilian areas.
Tower blocks and other multi-storey buildings have been levelled.
Some 10,000 Palestinians have fled homes near the Israeli border for fear of a ground offensive, the United Nations said.
'They are sheltering in schools, mosques and other places during a global Covid-19 pandemic with limited access to water, food, hygiene and health services, said UN humanitarian coordinator for the occupied territories, Lynn Hastings.
'All the children are afraid and we are afraid for the children,' said Kamal al-Haddad, who fled with his family to a UN-supported school in Gaza City.
Early on Saturday, the Israeli army said it had hit a Hamas 'operation office' near the centre of Gaza City, with additional overnight strikes targeting what the military called 'underground launch sites'.
Gaza's infrastructure, already in widespread disrepair because of an Israeli-Egyptian blockade imposed after Hamas seized power in 2007, showed signs of breaking down further, compounding residents' misery. The territory's sole power plant is at risk of running out of fuel in the coming days.
The UN said Gazans are already enduring daily power cuts of 8-12 hours and at least 230,000 have limited access to tap water. The impoverished and densely populated territory is home to 2million Palestinians, most of them the descendants of refugees from what is now Israel.
The conflict has reverberated widely. Israeli cities with mixed Arab and Jewish populations have seen nightly violence, with mobs from each community fighting in the streets and trashing each other's property.
Israeli beachgoers rush towards shelters in the central city of Tel Aviv on May 15 following the launching of rockets from the Gaza Strip controlled by the Palestinian Hamas movement towards Israel
Israeli beachgoers take cover in the central city of Tel Aviv on May 15 following the launching of rockets from the Gaza Strip
Israeli beachgoers and a dog are seen rushing towards shelters in the central city of Tel Aviv on May 15 after the launching of rockets
Israeli beachgoers are seen rushing towards shelters in Tel Aviv. Rockets were launched from the Gaza Strip controlled by the Palestinian Hamas movement towards Israel
Israeli beachgoers pictured going towards shelters in Tel Aviv. Israel, which is also trying to contain an outbreak of internal Jewish-Arab violence, is facing its bloodiest conflict with Palestinian militants in Gaza since a 2014 war
Israeli beachgoers, including children, are seen on their way to take cover in Tel Aviv following the launching of rockets from the Gaza Strip on May 15
Israeli beachgoers lie in a row by some steps as they take cover following the launching of rockets on May 15
A firefighter walks at a site where a rocket fired from Gaza has landed in Ramat Gan, near Tel Aviv, Israel
A man looks at a burnt-out car where a rocket fired from Gaza has landed in Ramat Gan, near Tel Aviv, Israel, on May 15
Pedestrians look on as barricade tape surrounds an area hit by a rocket fired from Gaza, in Ramat Gan, Tel Aviv District, Israel, on May 15 in an image obtained from social media
Late on Friday, someone threw a firebomb at an Arab family's home in the Ajami neighborhood of Tel Aviv, striking two children. A 12-year-old boy was in moderate condition with burns on his upper body and a 10-year-old girl was treated for a head injury, according to the Magen David Adom rescue service.
In the occupied West Bank, on the outskirts of Ramallah, Nablus and other towns and cities, hundreds of Palestinians protested the Gaza campaign and Israeli actions in Jerusalem. Waving Palestinian flags, they trucked in tires that they set up in burning barricades and hurled stones at Israeli soldiers. At least 10 protesters were shot and killed by soldiers. An 11th Palestinian was killed when he tried to stab a soldier at a military position.
In east Jerusalem, online video showed young Jewish nationalists firing pistols as they traded volleys of stones with Palestinians in Sheikh Jarrah, which became a flashpoint for tensions over attempts by settlers to forcibly evict a number of Palestinian families from their homes.
On Israel's northern border, troops opened fire when a group of Lebanese and Palestinian protesters on the other side cut through the border fence and briefly crossed. One Lebanese was killed. Three rockets were fired toward Israel from neighboring Syria without causing any casualties or damage. It was not immediately known who fired them.
The tensions began in east Jerusalem earlier this month, with Palestinian protests against the Sheikh Jarrah evictions and Israeli police measures at Al-Aqsa Mosque, a frequent flashpoint located on a mount in the Old City revered by Muslims and Jews.
Hamas fired rockets toward Jerusalem late Monday, in an apparent attempt to present itself as the champion of the protesters.
Meanwhile, the UN said the Security Council would meet on Sunday to address the violence.
But Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu gave no indication that Israel was ready to ease its campaign. I said we'd deliver heavy blows to Hamas and other terror groups, and we're doing that,' Netanyahu said.
A Palestinian protester launches flares amid clashes with Israeli soldiers in the city center of Hebron in the occupied West Bank, following a rally for Fateh movement supporters denouncing the Israeli Gaza attacks and supporting Palestinians of Jerusalem, on May 14, 2021
Israeli soldiers take aim during clashes with Palestinian protesters in the city center of Hebron in the occupied West Bank, following a rally for Fateh movement supporters denouncing the Israeli Gaza attacks and supporting Palestinians of Jerusalem, on May 14
Israeli border guards detain a Palestinian youth in Jerusalem on May 14, 2021, during clashes between Israeli far-right extremists and Palestinian
Palestinian protesters set up barricades during clashes with Israeli forces in the Shuafat camp for Palestinian refugees, neighbouring the Israeli settlement of Ramat Shlomo, in Israeli-annexed east Jerusalem on May 14, 2021
A Palestinian protester lights a molotov cocktail during clashes with Israeli forces in the Shuafat camp for Palestinian refugees, neighbouring the Israeli settlement of Ramat Shlomo, in Israeli-annexed east Jerusalem on May 14, 2021
Rockets are launched from Gaza City, controlled by the Palestinian Hamas movement, towards Israel early on May 15, 2021
An Israeli rocket falls over buildings linked to the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas in Gaza City, amid the escalating flare-up of Israeli-Palestinian violence, May 14, 2021
Smoke rises after airstrikes over Ansar Government Complex building, carried out by Israeli army, on the second day of the Muslim holy fasting month of Ramadan, in Gaza City, Gaza on May 14, 2021
Palestinian mourners carry the body of Nidal Safadi, who was killed in clashes with Israeli forces, during his funeral in the West Bank village of Urif, near Nablus, Friday, May 14, 2021
'They're paying and will continue to pay dearly for that. It's not over yet.'
U.S. President Joe Biden has expressed support for Israel while saying he hopes to bring the violence under control.
Israel estimates that more than 30 leaders of Hamas and its ally Islamic Jihad have been killed.
It has hit sites it describes as military targets such as Hamas bomb-making facilities and the homes of senior militant commanders.
Hamas has fired some 2,000 rockets toward Israel since Monday, according to the Israeli military. Most have been intercepted by anti-missile defenses, but they have brought life to a standstill in southern Israeli cities, caused disruptions at airports and have set off air raid sirens in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem.
Israeli soldiers prepare their artillery unit near the border with Gaza Strip on May 14, 2021 in Sderot, Israel
Israeli soldiers prepare their artillery unit near the border with Gaza Strip on May 14, 2021 in Sderot, Israel
Israeli troops are pictured at their position in southern Israel along the border with the Gaza Strip from on May 14, 2021
Israeli soldiers stand guard after firing flares above the northern town of Metula, by the border with Lebanon, following a pro-Palestinian protest across the border in the Lebanese Khiam area, on May 14, 2021
Smoke rises after airstrikes over Ansar Government Complex building, carried out by Israeli army, on the second day of the Muslim holy fasting month of Ramadan, in Gaza City, Gaza on May 14, 2021
A Palestinian woman shouts in the street as those living in Gaza assess the damage after a night of IDF bombardment
In the north of Israel, multiple pro-Palestinian protesters approached the border from Lebanon on Friday afternoon, and for a second time later on Friday evening, according to the Jerusalem Post. Pictured: People stand together in the southern Lebanese village of Khiam, near the border with Israel, Lebanon May 14, 2021
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