Rockets are launched towards Israel from Rafah, in the southern the Gaza Strip, controlled by the Palestinian Hamas movement, on 12 May 2021. Heavy exchanges of rocket fire and air strikes, and rioting in mixed Jewish-Arab towns, fuelled fears today that deadly violence between Israel and Palestinians could spiral into ‘full-scale war’. Picture: Said Khatib/AFP
Gaza City, Palestinian Territories – Hamas said it fired a barrage of rockets Wednesday towards central and southern Israel, where rescue workers reported one of them killed a six-year-old boy.
The Islamist militia said in a statement that it launched 130 rockets in response to an Israeli air raid that levelled the Al-Sharouk tower in Gaza City.
AFP reporters and the Israeli army confirmed sirens were sounding in several southern communities and the Tel Aviv area.
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Various locations in Israel’s south were hit by a number of rockets, resulting in wounds and a death, medics said.
“A six-year-old boy was killed when a rocket fired from Gaza struck a residential building in Sderot,” United Hatzalah said.
Magen David Adom medics said they were treating six others in Sderot, as well as in coastal city Ashkelon.
The Al-Sharouk tower, which housed the bureau of the Al-Aqsa television channel, is the third tall structure levelled by Israeli fire since the bombing campaign began on Monday.
Gaza militants have launched more than 1,000 rockets since Monday, according to Israel’s army, which has carried out hundreds of air strikes on Islamist groups in the crowded coastal enclave of Gaza.
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