Militants in Gaza and Israeli forces engaged in a bloody and spiralling clash over the weekend, with Palestinian factions launching hundreds of rockets towards towns and cities in Israel, which retaliated with more than 250 strikes. In exchanges that marked some of the worst fighting in recent years, 19 Palestinians, including two pregnant women and a toddler, have been killed since hostilities began on Friday, the health ministry in Gaza said. The dead included at least eight militants and a Hamas commander killed in the first targeted assassination Israel has conducted in the strip for years. Four Israelis were reported as killed by rockets, the highest death toll on the Israeli side since the 50-day war in 2014. On Sunday night, Donald Trump tweeted his “100%” support for Israel’s actions after “a barrage of deadly rocket attacks by terrorist groups Hamas and Islamic Jihad”. He added: “To the Gazan people — these terrorist acts against Israel will bring you nothing but more misery. End the violence and work towards peace – it can happen!” The violence is following a pattern established over the past year in which short-lived exchanges have erupted on a near-monthly basis, usually dying down quickly under Egyptian and UN mediation. Late on Sunday a TV station belonging to Hamas claimed a ceasefire had been reached, however, the battling sides vowed to pursue each other aggressively on Sunday and moved further than in previous flare-ups. Benjamin Netanyahu ordered the armed forces to conduct “massive strikes” on Gaza and reinforce the edge of the enclave with tanks, artillery and soldiers. “This morning, I instructed the [military] to continue massive attacks against terrorist elements in the Gaza strip. I also ordered the reinforcement of the units around the Gaza strip with armour, artillery and infantry,” the prime minister said. A woman is loaded into an ambulance by Israeli emergency personnel after a rocket attack in the southern town of Ashdod. Photograph: Ahmad Gharabli/AFP/Getty Images The Israel Defence Forces (IDF), which had halted its targeted assassination to avoid escalating tensions, said it killed Hamas commander Ahmed Khudari in an operation, believed to be a strike on a car. The army said Khudari was responsible for cash transfers from Iran to militants in Gaza. The IDF said it had also targeted Palestinian militants inside a weapons warehouse. In another attack, an IDF attack helicopter shot at a militant, and the army said it was bombing “weapons warehouses hidden in houses of terror operatives”. In previous rounds the Israeli air force has sought to avoid high casualties, even among militants, often telling residents of Gaza by phone that they are going to bomb a building so it can be emptied. Hamas, which rules the strip, and a separate armed group, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, continued to fire off rockets late into Sunday evening. Israel said more than 600 had been launched in total and the militant factions put out a statement threatening to use longer-range rockets to bombard deeper into Israel. “The resistance decided to respond to the crimes of the occupation in an unprecedented manner,” it said. Israel’s anti-missile Iron Dome system had intercepted many of the projectiles but several landed in residential neighbourhoods. In one strike, a primary school was hit and a hospital was damaged by shards of debris from an intercepted rocket. Several Israelis, including an 80-year-old woman, were wounded. In Gaza, the dead included a pregnant woman and her 14-month-old niece. Israel denied responsibility for their deaths, saying they were hit by accidental militant fire. The health ministry in Gaza said on Sunday evening a second woman, who was nine months pregnant, had been killed in an Israeli airstrike. The IDF said it would not comment. Israel’s bombing campaign also flattened a building containing the Gaza office of the Turkish state-run news agency, an attack the Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, said was an act of “terrorism”. The IDF said it had hit a building in Gaza City containing Hamas military intelligence and general security offices. Fatima Al-Zaeem, a 45-year-old from Gaza City, said she and her four children had been hiding from the strikes all weekend. “We are not heroes, we are the victims of aggression and siege,” she said. “It’s a situation of horror for two days now. I’m a mother of four kids and we are on the eve of Ramadan.” Fighting is often sparked by an incident that ignites tensions. On Friday, Palestinian militants fired across the border, wounding two soldiers, which Israel responded to with airstrikes, killing two Hamas militants. Israeli snipers also killed two people in Gaza demonstrating near the frontier. UN peace envoy Nickolay Mladenov has since called for calm. “Continuing down the current path of escalation will quickly undo what has been achieved and destroy the chances for long-term solutions to the crisis,” he said in a statement. “This endless cycle of violence must end, and efforts must accelerate to realise a political solution to the crisis in Gaza.” Jeremy Stoner, Middle East regional director for the aid agency Save the Children, said the humanitarian community “believes we may have entered the most serious stage in this crisis since the 2014 Gaza war. “We echo the UN special coordinator for the Middle East peace process’s call on all parties to immediately de-escalate the situation,” he added. An Egyptian-led ceasefire agreement was designed to ease the conditions of a 12-year air, land and sea blockade on Gaza while halting rocket fire into Israel. Following the rocket strikes, Israel closed entry and exits to Gaza and restricted its fishing zone. The escalation comes as Israel prepares to host the high-profile Eurovision song contest in Tel Aviv. The week of the competition will also mark the one-year anniversary since Israeli snipers killed nearly 60 Palestinians protesting at the frontier. The 140 sq mile strip is home to about 2 million people but has been blockaded by Israel and Egypt since Hamas took control in 2007. Israel and Hamas have fought three wars and the economy has imploded, with youth unemployment over 70%. Hamas’s rival, the Palestinian Authority, based in the occupied West Bank, has also imposed sanctions on the strip, cutting off money transfers and deepening the crisis.<doc-sep>Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip fired at least 100 rockets into southern Israel on Saturday, according to the Israeli military. The attack triggered retaliatory airstrikes and tank fire against militant targets in the blockaded enclave and shattered a month-long lull in violence. Gaza’s Health Ministry said a 22-year-old Palestinian, Emad Nassir, was killed by an Israeli airstrike. Six other Palestinians sustained injuries from airstrikes and shelling. In Israel, there were no reports of injuries, and police said a house in the coastal city of Ashkelon was damaged. The outbreak of fighting came as leaders from Hamas, the militant group that controls Gaza, and the smaller armed faction Islamic Jihad were in Egypt for talks with mediators aimed at restoring a fraying cease-fire. Hamas leaders have hoped the recent calm would pave the way for a deeper, longer-term cease-fire. The Israeli military said dozens of rockets were intercepted by its Iron Dome rocket-defense system, and that roads near the Gaza border were closed to civilian traffic. Israeli police said they had dispatched bomb disposal experts to the country’s south to deal with projectiles that landed in open areas. The army said its chief of staff, Lt. Gen. Aviv Kochavi, convened an emergency session with top security officials to discuss the situation. The European Union’s ambassador to Israel, Emanuele Giaufret, sharply criticized the rocket attacks on Twitter, saying “firing indiscriminately against civilians (is) unacceptable.”<doc-sep>Istanbul (AFP) - President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Saturday fiercely denounced Israel for the bombing of a building housing Turkey's state news agency Anadolu in Gaza. "We strongly condemn Israel's attack against Anadolu Agency’s office in Gaza," Erdogan said on Twitter. "Turkey and Anadolu Agency will continue to tell the world about Israeli terrorism and atrocities in Gaza and other parts of Palestine despite such attacks," he wrote. Anadolu reported that the building collapsed after being hit. Staff were evacuated shortly before the strike which was preceded by a warning shot, the agency said, adding that none of its journalists had been hurt. Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu added: "Targeting of @AnadoluAgency #Gaza office is new example of Israel's unrestrained aggression. "Israeli violence against innocent people w/out distinction is Anaa crime against humanity. Those who encourage Israel are also guilty. Will keep defending #Palestinian cause, even if alone," he said. Gaza militants on Saturday fired some 200 rockets at Israel, which responded with strikes that killed four Palestinians including a baby and her pregnant mother, according to officials, as a fragile ceasefire faltered and a further escalation was feared. The latest flare-up came with Hamas, the Islamist movement that rules the blockaded Gaza Strip, seeking further concessions from Israel under the ceasefire. The destruction of the Anadolu offices risks a new surge of tension between Turkey and Israel. Turkey has repeatedly criticised Israeli policies even though the two countries in 2016 ended a six-year rift triggered by the Israeli storming of a Gaza-bound ship that left 10 Turkish activists dead. Erdogan, an ardent defender of the Palestinian cause, and Israeli premier Benjamin Netanyahu frequently exchange barbs, notably during election campaigns. Last month, Erdogan called the Israeli leader a "tyrant" after Netanyahu called him a "dictator" and a "joke".<doc-sep>
Turkey’s president has attacked what he called “Israeli terrorism” after the Gaza office for the Turkish state-run news agency was destroyed during the latest round of hostilities between Israeli forces and Palestinian militants. More than 24 hours of heavy fire continued into Sunday, as militants launched rockets out of the strip and Israel responded with air attacks. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he had ordered the military to launch more “massive strikes” on Gaza and move tanks, artillery and infantry to the edge of the enclave. “We strongly condemn Israel’s attack against Anadolu agency’s office in Gaza,” Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said on Twitter. “Turkey and Anadolu agency will continue to tell the world about Israeli terrorism and atrocities in Gaza and other parts of Palestine despite such attacks.” The Israel Defense Forces said it had bombed a building in Gaza City on Saturday containing Hamas military intelligence and general security offices. During the weekend, more than 430 rockets and mortars had been fired out of Gaza, which Israel said it responded to with 200 air and tank strikes. One Israeli civilian and six Palestinians, including two militants, had been killed, officials on both sides said. The dead in Gaza included a pregnant woman and her 14-month-old niece, medics said, in the most recent of violent exchanges that have erupted on a near-monthly basis for the past year. Israel denied on Sunday that its forces had killed the woman and infant, saying they were hit by accidental militant fire. Authorities in Gaza had originally identified them as mother and daughter but the family later clarified the woman was the baby’s aunt. A Palestinian relative of fourteen-month baby girl Seba Abu-Arrar carries her body during her funera in the Al-Zaitun neighborhood in the east of Gaza City. Photograph: Haitham Imad/EPA The latest round began on Friday after a Palestinian Islamic Jihad sniper fired at Israeli troops, wounding two soldiers, according to the Israeli army. Israel responded with an airstrike that killed two members of Hamas, another faction that controls the strip. Israel says it holds Hamas accountable for all activity in Gaza. On the same day, Israeli forces killed two Palestinians demonstrating near the frontier, and on Saturday morning militants began rocket barrages that stretched into Sunday. The launches have often followed killings at rallies on the border, where Palestinians have been calling for an end to a debilitating Israeli-Egyptian blockade that has led to a dire humanitarian crisis. Egypt has led a UN-backed effort to mediate a longer ceasefire between the two sides but repeated attempts have only won temporary lulls in the tit-for-tat conflict. Hamas and Islamic Jihad released a joint statement saying: “Our response will be broader and more painful if the enemy pursues its aggression.” In southern Israel, air-raid sirens sent families fleeing to shelters. Dozens of projectiles were incepted by the country’s Iron Dome system, but several slipped through, hitting residential neighbourhoods and in one case, a school. Four Israelis, including an 80-year-old woman, were wounded. Israelis stand outside their building after it was hit by a rocket fired from Gaza in the costal city of Ashkelon. Photograph: Tsafrir Abayov/AP Residents in Gaza City said explosions caused by Israeli strikes thundered throughout the night. Fireballs lit up the sky as several-story buildings crumbled in on themselves. The escalation comes as Israel prepares to host the high-profile Eurovision song contest in Tel Aviv. That week will also mark the one-year anniversary since Israeli snipers killed nearly 60 Palestinians protesting at the frontier. The Associated Press contributed to this report