Gaza, killing five Palestinians on Saturday as militants fired rockets
into Israel and ceasefire talks in Cairo stalled.
The Palestinian interior ministry said Israeli jets launched 21
strikes after midnight, destroying three mosques, one in the Zeitoun
area, one in Jabaliya in the north and Nuseirat in the middle of the
enclave.
At least two of the mosques were considered close to Hamas.
Gaza emergency services spokesman Ashraf al-Qudra said two men were
killed in a strike that "targeted a motorbike in the Al-Maghazi camp"
and that the bodies of three other men were pulled from the rubble "of
the Al-Qassam mosque" in the Nuseirat camp.
The strike on the site in Nuseirat levelled the huge Al-Qassam mosque,
an AFP photographer said, leaving only the minaret standing.
"We heard a loud explosion and it was the beginning of the explosions
and a warning to residents to evacuate the area to stay away," said
Jood Irhaem, who lives close to one of the mosques.
"Minutes later there were two strong explosions," he said.
Palestinian militants fired six more rockets into Israel on Saturday,
the Israeli army said. The projectiles slammed into the desert,
causing no injuries or damage.
The month-long conflict flared again after mediators tried but failed
to extend a ceasefire that expired on Friday morning as Palestinian
militants shattered the quiet with pre-dawn rocket attacks.
The fighting between Israel and Hamas has killed at least 1,898
Palestinians and 67 people on the Israeli side, almost all soldiers,
since July 8.
The United Nations says at least 1,354 of the Palestinians killed
since July 8 were civilians, including 447 children.
- Egyptian mediators met Palestinians -
Egyptian mediators met a Palestinian delegation again Friday evening
and are understood to be waiting to hear back from the Israelis after
Shabbat, the Jewish sabbath which ends at sundown Saturday.
Five Palestinians, including a 10-year-old boy, were killed in Israeli
air strikes on Friday.
But fighting has not resumed with the same fierce intensity seen
before a 72-hour ceasefire was implemented on Tuesday, feeding hopes
for the possibility of a new ceasefire.
"Our hope is that the parties will agree to an extension of the
ceasefire in the coming hours," State Department spokeswoman Marie
Harf told reporters.
Israel warned it would not negotiate under fire, and Prime Minister
Benjamin Netanyahu ordered the military to retaliate "forcefully" and
blamed the Islamist movement Hamas for breaching the ceasefire.
Egypt said negotiations had made progress before the truce collapsed.
"There had been an agreement on the vast majority of matters that are
important to the Palestinian people, but some limited points remained
undecided, a matter that should have led to an acceptance to renew the
ceasefire,
" its foreign ministry said.
Since the collapse of the truce, Palestinian militants have fired 44
rockets into Israel, injuring one civilian and a soldier, the army
said.
In response, the Israeli military has carried out around 100 strikes
in Gaza since Friday, about 30 of them since midnight, a spokeswoman
said. The army said at least three militants had been killed in Gaza.
Two Palestinian men died after being shot by Israeli troops during
violent clashes at protests in Hebron and near the Jewish settlement
of Psagot in the occupied West Bank, Palestinian medics said.
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