Roundup: Israel-Gaza exchange of fire continues for 2nd day, 15 killed-Xinhua

Photo taken in Gaza City on Aug. 6, 2022 shows rockets fired by Palestinian militants toward Israel. The exchange of fire between Israel and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) continued for the second day on Saturday, leaving at least 15 killed and 125 injured in the Gaza Strip. (Photo by Rizek Abdeljawad/Xinhua)

GAZA, Aug. 6 (Xinhua) -- The exchange of fire between Israel and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) continued for the second day on Saturday, leaving at least 15 killed, including a five-year-old girl, and 125 injured in the Gaza Strip.

On Saturday, the Palestinian health ministry said in a brief statement that a Palestinian was killed and another wounded in an Israeli airstrike on the city of Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip.

Tayseer al-Jabari, commander of the PIJ's armed wing, and three of his aides were killed when Israeli warplanes bombed a residential apartment in a Palestinian tower in central Gaza that houses media offices.

Meanwhile, the PIJ's militants continued firing rockets from the Gaza Strip into Israel, as sirens were heard in the southern city of Ashkelon and other Israeli cities near Gaza.

"There is no talk of calm or mediation" with the continued Israeli bombardment on Gaza, the PIJ said in a statement, warning that the situation in the Gaza Strip "is heading for an escalation."

Since Friday, more than 160 rockets have been fired toward Israel, 30 of which fell short in Gaza, and 60 were intercepted by Iron Dome defense systems, while the rest landed in open areas and the sea, according to the Israeli army.

The Israeli media reported that the army is ready for at least one week of fighting in the Gaza Strip.

Since Friday, Israeli fighter jets have launched more than 30 airstrikes on over 40 targets belonging to the PIJ in Gaza, including rocket launchers, workshops for production of weapons, warehouses for storing rockets, and observation posts, according to the army. The media reports said 55 missiles were fired at the targets.

In a brief statement sent to Xinhua on Friday night, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) warned that the ongoing escalation in the Gaza Strip "is out of control and will have serious consequences for the population."

The Palestinian Foreign Ministry said in a press statement that it holds the Israeli government "fully and directly responsible for the aggression and crimes it perpetrated in Gaza."

"The Israeli government is the one that started the dangerous escalation. It is the right of the Palestinian people, who are subjected to killings and destruction, to defend themselves," the ministry said.

The heightened tension came after Israeli forces arrested a senior official of the PIJ in the West Bank city of Jenin on Monday. The PIJ vowed to take revenge, prompting the Israeli military to raise its alert along the border with Gaza.

Israel and Hamas, which has controlled the Gaza Strip since 2007, have fought several wars in the Palestinian enclave in recent years, the last of which was in May 2021. ■

People take part in a protest against the military operation against the Gaza Strip in northern Israeli city of Um al-Fahem, on Aug. 6, 2022. The exchange of fire between Israel and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) continued for the second day on Saturday, leaving at least 15 killed and 125 injured in the Gaza Strip. (Roni Ofer/JINI via Xinhua)