Israel bombed dozens of suspected militant sites in the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip and Palestinians kept up their cross-border rocket fire as international pressure for a truce intensified.
An Islamic Jihad local commander was killed in an airstrike on a tower block that houses many international media, a source in the militant group said.
Locals initially thought the dead man was the owner of a computer store on the third storey of the city centre building.
Twelve Palestinian civilians and four fighters were killed also, bringing the Gaza death toll since fighting began on Wednesday to 90, more than half of them non-combatants, local officials said. Three Israeli civilians have been killed.
After an overnight lull, militants in the Hamas-run Gaza Strip fired 12 rockets at southern Israel in the span of 10 minutes, causing no casualties, police said. One landed near a school, but it was closed at the time.
Izzat Risheq, aide to Hamas politburo chief Khaled Meshaal, wrote on Facebook that Hamas would enter a truce only after Israel «stops its aggression, ends its policy of targeted assassinations and lifts the blockade of Gaza».
Listing Israel’s terms, Vice Prime Minister Moshe Yaalon wrote on Twitter: «If there is quiet in the south and no rockets and missiles are fired at Israel’s citizens, nor terrorist attacks engineered from the Gaza Strip, we will not attack.»
Yaalon also said Israel wanted an end to Gaza guerrilla activity in the neighboring Egyptian Sinai, a desert peninsula where lawlessness has spread during Cairo’s political crises.
Source: Buenos Aires Herald