JERUSALEM: Palestinian militants in Gaza have fired more than 1,000 rockets towards Israel since Monday evening, when hostilities escalated dramatically following days of unrest in Jerusalem, the Israeli army said.
Army spokesman Jonathan Conricus told reporters Wednesday morning that the figures related to the barrage that began at roughly 6:00 pm (1500 GMT) on Monday evening, when Hamas Islamist launched rockets towards Jerusalem, causing tensions to soar.
Since then, 850 rockets launched by various armed groups in Gaza have landed in Israel or been intercepted by Israel’s Iron Dome air defence system.
Another 200 have landed inside Gaza, the army spokesman said.
The Israeli army also announced it had intercepted a Hamas drone early Wednesday.
Israel’s military operation in Gaza, dubbed “The Guardian of the Walls”, has included hundreds of air strike on the blockaded strip.
Thirty-five Palestinians, including 10 children, have been killed in Gaza since Monday.
Five Israelis have been killed by rocket fire.
Conricus insisted that Israel was exclusively hitting military targets, and that the army “goes to great lengths” to minimise the impact on civilians.
On Tuesday, Israeli strikes demolished a 12-storey building close to the sea in Gaza city, identified by Hamas as a residential building.
Conricus said the building was used by Hamas for “military purposes, and as such qualifies as a military target”.
He said the army took various measures, including phone calls, to warn people in the building about an impending strike and there were no civilian casualties in the building.
“The reason there weren’t (casualties) is because we took specific measures to prevent it,” Conricus said.Relentless rocket fire and rioting in mixed Jewish-Arab towns fueled growing fears Wednesday that violence between Israel and Palestinians that has claimed 50 lives could spiral into “full-scale war”.
Palestinian militants have launched more than 1,000 rockets since Monday, said Israel’s army, which has launched hundreds of air strikes on Hamas and other Islamist groups in the crowded coastal enclave of Gaza.
The most intense hostilities in seven years have killed at least 43 people in Gaza, including 13 children, two Palestinians in the West Bank, and five Israelis, triggered by weekend unrest at Jerusalem’s Al-Aqsa mosque compound, which is sacred to both Muslims and Jews.
As world powers voiced growing alarm and the UN Security Council readied for another emergency meeting on the bloody crisis, the UN Middle East envoy Tor Wennesland warned that “we’re escalating towards a full-scale war”.
“Leaders on all sides have to take the responsibility of de-escalation,” he said, echoing warnings from the international community.

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