Israel air raids pummel Gaza

dpa Tel Aviv/Gaza City Israel’s military said on Monday it had targeted militant commanders and the tunnel network in the Gaza Strip, while Palestinian mi...

dpa Tel Aviv/Gaza CityIsrael’s military said on Monday it had targeted militant commanders and the tunnel network in the Gaza Strip, while Palestinian militants continued to fire rockets towards Israel despite international scrambling to de-escalate the situation.Despite calls for a ceasefire from around the world, the conflict between Israel and the Islamist Hamas movement - the ruling authority in Gaza - is entering its second week with no sign of letting up.Israel’s army said it had shelled the homes of nine senior Hamas commanders overnight. Some of the residences were used as weapons caches, it said.Another target, a commander of the Islamic Jihad militant group in northern Gaza, was killed in a separate attack, Israel said. Hasem Abu Harbid apparently led an Islamic Jihad unit in that area.More than 1,500 targets have been attacked in Gaza, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday, adding that the operation would continue at “full force.” Overnight, 54 fighter jets were deployed to attack the underground tunnel network in Gaza, the army said. Some 15 kilometres of tunnels were destroyed.The Palestinian side said the airstrikes were the heaviest yet in densely populated Gaza.The rocket fire from Gaza has been equally intense.Some 3,150 rockets have been fired at Israel since May 10, according to the Israeli military.About 460 of the rockets never made it across the border and went down in Gaza territory, the military said.The Iron Dome missile defence system had an interception rate of about 90 per cent, it said.By comparison, a total of 4,481 rockets were fired at Israel during the entire 51-day Gaza war in 2014.At least 192 people have been killed in Gaza, including 58 children, according to the coastal territory’s Health Ministry.In Israel, rocket fire has killed 10 people since May 10, according to rescuers.Israel blames Hamas for any attacks from Gaza. The group is classified as a terrorist organization by Israel, the US and the EU.International diplomatic efforts to calm tensions have had little apparent effect so far.French President Emmanuel Macron threw his support behind Egypt’s efforts to mediate in the conflict, according to sources in France.Both countries want to coordinate in order to promote a rapid ceasefire and prevent the conflict from spreading, it was said after Macron met with his Egyptian counterpart, Abdel Fattah al-Sissi.Europe needs to decide what kind of role it wants to play in the conflict, said German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas, adding there are very different attitudes within the EU with regard to the conflict.Maas said EU foreign ministers plan to meet on Tuesday to discuss the issue.Meanwhile, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said that the US government was also working behind the scenes to ensure an end to the conflict, noting President Joe Biden had spoken to Netanyahu as well as Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas.However, he underscored that “Israel has the right to defend itself.” “There is no equivalence between a terrorist group indiscriminately firing rockets at civilians and a country defending its people from those attacks,” Blinken said.German Chancellor Angela Merkel took a similar line in a phone call with Netanyahu, pledging support for Israel’s right to defend itself.In an unusual intervention, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan told Pope Francis that Palestinians will “continue to be massacred,” if the international community does not sanction Israel.The pope’s messages about and reactions to this issue “are of great importance in terms of mobilizing the Christian world and the international community,” Erdogan said in a phone call with Francis.Francis also hosted Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif at the Vatican on Monday, though the pope’s press office did not disclose anything about the conversation between the two men.Iran had over the weekend assured Hamas of its support in the fight against its arch-enemy, Israel. Tehran supports anti-Israel groups in the region but has kept a relatively low profile in this flare-up.Around 42,000 Palestinians in the Gaza Strip have fled their homes because of Israel’s air attacks on the coastal territory.More than 2,500 people have been left homeless after their homes were destroyed.Israel says it is only targeting militant positions, but some of those are in the middle of highly crowded residential areas.