As Egyptian officials worked on a deal, seven more people were killed in Gaza, bringing the Palestinian death toll to 36 since the Israeli offensive began on Friday. Among the dead were 11 children and four women. The Palestinian Ministry of Health said more than 311 people had been injured since Friday. The Iranian-backed Palestinian Jihad militant group has fired hundreds of rockets at Israel in response, and the risk of cross-border fighting escalating into full-scale war remained until a ceasefire was reached. Israel says some of the dead were killed by misfired rockets. Gaza’s ruling group Hamas, which fought an 11-day war with Israel in May 2021, appeared to remain on the sidelines for now, possibly fearing Israeli retaliation and the cancellation of economic deals with Israel, including Israeli ones. work permits for thousands of Gazans. which reinforce his control. If that happens, the ceasefire efforts could bear fruit. According to an Egyptian intelligence official, both Israel and Palestinian militant groups gave initial approval to a ceasefire proposal earlier on Sunday, but it was unclear when it might take effect. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the ongoing talks. While Israel did not address the ceasefire talks, Islamic Jihad spokesman Tarek Selmi downplayed expectations of a deal, citing the mounting number of Palestinian casualties. “There is no talk of a ceasefire so far, there is no talk of mediators, the talk is about the aggressive behavior of the Zionist enemy,” he said. “The battle continues.” Israel began its operation with a strike on Friday against an Islamic Jihad leader and followed it up on Saturday with another targeted strike against a second prominent leader. Islamic Jihad’s second-in-command, Khaled Mansour, was killed in an airstrike on an apartment building in the Rafah refugee camp in southern Gaza late Saturday, which also killed two other militants and five civilians. Mansour, the Islamic Jihad commander for southern Gaza, was in the apartment of a member of the group when the rocket hit, leveling the three-story building and severely damaging nearby houses. “Suddenly, without warning, the house next to us was bombed and everything turned black and dusty with smoke in the blink of an eye,” said Wissam Jouda, who lives next to the targeted building. Ahmed al-Qaissi, another neighbor, said his wife and son were among the injured, who suffered shrapnel wounds. To make way for rescue crews, al-Qaisi agreed to demolish part of his house. As the funeral for Mansour began in the Gaza Strip on Sunday afternoon, the Israeli military said it hit suspected “Islamic Jihad rocket launch sites”. Smoke could be seen from the strikes as the booms from their explosions shook Gaza. Israeli airstrikes and rockets followed for hours as sirens blared in central Israel. As the call to sunset prayer sounded Sunday night in Gaza, sirens wailed as far north as Tel Aviv. Israel says some of the deaths during this round were caused by errant rocket launches, including an incident in the Jebaliya refugee camp in northern Gaza that killed six Palestinians on Saturday. On Sunday, a projectile hit a house in the same area of Jebaliya, killing two men. The Palestinians held Israel responsible, while Israel said it was investigating whether the area was hit by an errant rocket. Israel’s defense ministry said mortars fired from Gaza hit the Erez border crossing with Israel, which is used by thousands of Gazans a day. The mortars damaged the roof and shrapnel hit the hall’s entrance, the ministry said. The crossing has been closed amid the clashes. The Rafah strike was the deadliest so far in the current round of fighting, which began on Friday with Israel’s targeted killing of the Islamic Jihad commander for northern Gaza. Israel has said it took action against the militant group because of specific threats of an imminent attack, but did not provide details. Caretaker Prime Minister Yair Lapid, who is a seasoned diplomat but untested in overseeing a war, launched the attack less than three months before a general election in which he is campaigning to retain the post. In a statement on Sunday, Lapid said the military would continue to strike targets in Gaza “in a precise and responsible manner in order to minimize damage to non-combatants.” Lapid said the strike that killed Mansour was “an extraordinary achievement”. “The operation will continue as long as necessary,” Lapid said. Israel estimates its airstrikes have killed about 15 militants. Islamic Jihad has fewer fighters and supporters than Hamas, and little is known about its arsenal. Both groups call for the destruction of Israel, but have different priorities, with Hamas constrained by the demands of the regime. The Israeli military said militants in Gaza fired about 580 rockets into Israel. The military said its air defenses had intercepted many of them, with two of those shot down flying towards Jerusalem. Islamic Jihad has fewer fighters and supporters than Hamas. Air raid sirens sounded in the Jerusalem area on Sunday for the first time since last year’s Israel-Hamas war. Jerusalem is typically a flashpoint during periods of cross-border fighting between Israel and Gaza. On Sunday, hundreds of Jews, including ultranationalist lawmaker Itamar Ben Gvir, visited a sensitive holy site in Jerusalem known to Jews as the Temple Mount and to Muslims as the Noble Sanctuary. The visit, under heavy police protection, was completed without incident, police said. Such ostentatious visits by Israeli hardliners seeking to underscore Israeli claims of sovereignty over disputed Jerusalem have sparked violence in the past. The holy site lies at the fault line of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and is central to the competing narratives of Palestinians and Israeli Jews. In Palestinian cities and towns in the West Bank, Israeli security forces said they arrested 19 people suspected of belonging to Islamic Jihad during overnight raids. The fighting began with Israel killing a senior Islamic Jihad commander in a wave of raids on Friday that Israel said were aimed at preventing an imminent attack. Until Sunday, Hamas appeared to remain out of the fray. The group has a strong incentive to avoid another war. Last year’s Israel-Hamas war, one of four major conflicts and several smaller battles in the past 15 years, took a staggering toll on the impoverished region’s 2.3 million Palestinians. Since the last war, Israel and Hamas have reached a tacit understanding based on a lull in trade for work permits and a slight relaxation of the border blockade imposed by Israel and Egypt when Hamas seized the region 15 years ago. Israel has issued 12,000 work permits to Gazan workers and held out the prospect of granting another 2,000. Gaza’s only power plant shut down at noon on Saturday due to a lack of fuel. Israel has kept crossing points to Gaza closed since Tuesday. With the new disruption, Gazans can use only four hours of electricity a day, increasing their reliance on private generators and deepening the region’s chronic electricity crisis amid the height of the summer heat.
Goldenberg reported from Tel Aviv, Israel.
