The Israeli military
pounded Gaza with airstrikes on Monday, saying it was targeting the homes and infrastructure of the Palestinian militant group Hamas, as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed "t
o continue to strike at the targets of terrorism."
The Hamas-run Gaza Ministry of Health said 212 people had been killed and 1,400 others injured since violence flared last week, in what has become the most serious Israeli-Palestinian confrontation in years. Sixty-one children and 36 women are among the dead, the ministry said.
In the background, Israel's Iron Dome system intercepts rockets fired by Hamas from northern Gazaa towards southern Israel on Sunday.
Meanwhile, Hamas rocket fire from Gaza has killed at least 10 people in Israel, including two children, since the start of the flareup, according to the Israel Defense Forces (IDF).
On Monday, a fresh barrage of rockets from Gaza once again set off sirens and sent Israelis fleeing into bomb shelters in Ashdod, Ashkelon and Beer Sheva. At least one residential building in Ashdod was hit, the IDF said. Three people were slightly injured, according to the Israeli Red Cross.
The Israel Defense Forces on Sunday released photos purporting to show Hamas rocket installations and tunnel entrances placed in close proximity to civilian infrastructure like hospitals and schools. The IDF said that "Hamas deliberately and systematically places military targets within the civilian population, exposing their citizens to danger."
A health clinic hit
Dozens of Israeli jets bombed more than nine miles of
Hamas' tunnel system in Gaza overnight and targeted 14 residences Monday that the Israeli military said belonged to commanders from the Palestinian militant group.
Hamas authorities and video from the ground showed a health clinic in Gaza City damaged by an Israeli airstrike on a nearby target, its windows blown out. The Ministry of Health in Gaza said the clinic was one of its main coronavirus testing centers.
At least two floors of the nearby building that was targeted were destroyed, according to a CNN journalist on the scene. The Qatar Red Crescent reported damage to its office inside the building.
The ministry earlier warned Monday that Israeli strikes on homes, medical facilities and infrastructure had created the conditions for an "upcoming wave" of Covid-19 cases, and that those fleeing to shelters would be "exposed to the spread of infectious diseases, especially the danger of spread of the coronavirus."
Netanyhau met with leaders from the IDF and the country's security services, saying in a video statement that the IDF was "doing well." "Today (the IDF) has eliminated another senior Islamic Jihad commander, we have hit the Hamas naval unit, and we continue to strike at the underground medium, the Hamas 'metro,' and there are other targets.
The Palestinian Authority Ministry of Health in the West Bank condemned the strike on the tunnel system and said that its local administrative office was also damaged. It was not immediately clear if there were any casualties in the attack, nor what the IDF was targeting.
Israel's military earlier said it had struck more targets in Gaza in the past week than it did in all of 2020.
Brigadier General Hidai Zilberman, IDF spokesperson, told Israeli Channel 13 News that the IDF believes it has destroyed 80-90% of the rocket manufacturing capacity in Gaza. "This includes the engineers and developers as well," he said.
About 3,150 rockets have been fired from Gaza at Israeli territory since last Monday, though the Israeli military said many had either fallen short or been intercepted by the Iron Dome aerial defense system.
