Netanyahu pledges 'massive strikes' in Gaza

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Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday he ordered the military to continue "massive strikes" against militants in Gaza as a surge in cross-border hostilities ran into a third day.

A rocket fired from Gaza killed an Israeli civilian on Sunday and two Palestinian gunmen were killed in an Israeli strike, with no sign of any impending ceasefire in the most serious border flare-up since November.

Earlier, Gaza health ministry also said that a 14-month-old baby and her pregnant mother were also killed in Israeli strikes, while 40 were wounded.

Israeli army spokesman Avichay Adraee on Twitter challenged the account of the mother and her baby being killed in an Israeli strike, suggesting they may have died from Palestinian fire.

Israel's military said more than 450 rockets, many of them intercepted by its Iron Dome anti-missile system, have been fired at southern Israeli cities and villages since Friday, and it attacked some 220 targets belonging to Gaza militant groups.

Police said one of the rockets hit a house in the city of Ashkelon, killing a 58-year-old man. That marked the first Israeli civilian fatality in a rocket strike from Gaza since a 2014 war between Israel and militants in the Hamas-run enclave.

A woman stands in her kitchen that was damaged by a rocket strike on the southern Israeli city of Ashkelon near the Gaza border, May 5, 2019. /VCG Photo

"This morning I instructed the IDF (Israel Defense Forces) to continue with massive strikes against terrorists in the Gaza Strip and I also instructed that forces around the Gaza Strip be stepped up with tank, artillery and infantry forces," Netanyahu, who doubles as Israeli defense minister, said in a statement.

Israel and Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip have fought three wars since 2008 and fears remain of a fourth.

A ceasefire between Israel and Hamas brokered by Egypt and the United Nations had led to relative calm around Israel's April 9 general election.

But the past week saw a gradual uptick in violence.

With the ceasefire at risk, a Hamas delegation led by its Gaza's head Yahya Sinwar went to Cairo on Thursday for talks with Egyptian officials.

The ceasefire has seen Israel allow Qatar to provide millions of dollars in aid to Gaza to pay salaries and to finance fuel purchases to ease a severe electricity shortage.

(With inputs from Reuters, AFP)

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