Tsafrir Abayov / AP
An Israeli soldier throws a blood-stained table from an apartment building hit by a rocket fired from the Gaza Strip, killing three people in Kiryat Malachi, southern Israel, Thursday.
By Lawahez Jabari, NBC News
Updated 5:15 a.m. ET: Rockets fired from Gaza into southern Israel killed three people and injured six on Thursday, Israeli officials said, as Israel launched numerous airstrikes across the Gaza Strip and the military showdown lurched closer to all-out war.?
Eleven Palestinians have been killed and 100 injured in Gaza since Wednesday.
The funeral was being held Thursday for Ahmed Jabari, the senior Hamas military commander, who was one of those killed in the Israeli Defense Force airstrikes.
The IDF said on its website?that the three people who died in Israel Thursday were civilians.
It added that 43 of the rockets from Gaza had been intercepted by its defense systems, and that it had targeted 156 "terror sites" in Gaza since the start of what it called "Operation Pillar of Defense."
Israeli leaders indicate that a new offensive against Islamic militant commanders is underway. NBC's Martin Fletcher reports.
The United Nations Security Council held an emergency meeting late on Wednesday to discuss the Israeli assault. It called for a halt to the violence, but took no action.
PhotoBlog: Deadly day along Israeli-Gaza border, after Israel kills Hamas military chief
Egypt officially requested on Thursday a full meeting of the Security Council to discuss what it described as Israeli aggression on Gaza.
Hamas is affiliated to the Muslim Brotherhood which now controls Egypt, Israel's most powerful Arab neighbor and a crucial partner in the 1979 peace treaty that stands between fragile stability and regional chaos.
The Muslim Brotherhood on Thursday called for ties with Israel to be severed.
Expecting days or more of fighting, Israel warned Hamas that all its men were in its sights and dropped leaflets in Gaza telling residents to keep their distance from militants and Hamas facilities.
Israeli Defence Force via YouTubeVideo posted to YouTube by the Israeli Defence Force claiming to show its attack on a car in Gaza on Wednesday in which Ahmed Jabri, the head of Hamas' military wing, was killed. The video has not been independently verified by NBC News.
"The leaflets stress that Hamas is dragging the region toward violence, and that the IDF is prepared to defend the residents of the State of Israel until quiet is restored to the region," the military said in a statement.
Israel also warned its own citizens to stay off the streets.
Israel kills Hamas military chief, 7 others in airstrike, officials say
The United States condemned Hamas, shunned by the West as an obstacle to peace, for its refusal to renounce violence and recognize Israel.?
Few in the Palestinian territory's largest urban area, Gaza City, came out following the call for dawn prayers on Thursday, and the only vehicles plying the streets were ambulances and media cars.?
Jim Hollander / EPA
An Israeli woman in shock at the scene of a Grad missile hit on an apartment in the southern Israeli town of Kiryat Malachai, Thursday.
About 400 angry mourners braved the streets, however, to bury Jabari, whose body was draped in the green flag of the Islamic militant Hamas movement. Some fired guns in the air and chanted, "God is Great, the revenge is coming."
When the body was brought into a mosque for funeral prayers, some tried to touch or kiss it. Others cried.?BBC producer Paul Danahar posted pictures of the scene outside the mosque on Twitter.
Reuters contributed to this report.
More world stories from NBC News:
Follow World News from NBCNews.com on Twitter and Facebook
?
thursday night football At&t Wireless apple apple 9/11 Jerry Lawler andy murray
No comments:
Post a Comment