Israel has taken 'powerful action' against Hamas in Gaza: Benjamin Netanyahu
Israel
The flare-up followed mounting public criticism of Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu over failure to counter a new Palestinian tactic: incendiary kites and balloons launched from Gazathat burn agricultural fields and scrubland in southern Israel.
Israel launched on Saturdaywhat it termed its most powerful attacks against Gaza's dominant Hamas group since a 2014 war as militants in the Palestinian enclave fired dozens of rockets across the border.
The flare-up followed mounting public criticism of Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu over failure to counter a new Palestinian tactic: incendiary kites and balloons launched fromGazathat burn agricultural fields and scrubland in southern Israel.
Two Palestinian teenagers were killed on Saturday,Gazahealth officials said, in one of more than 40 air strikes the Israeli military carried out inGazasince Friday (July 13).
The military said some 100 rockets were launched fromGazaat southern Israel, where many residents have reinforced rooms in their homes but only seconds to reach them between the time sirens blare and missiles land.
Some of the projectiles were intercepted by Israel's Iron Dome system, but police said three people were wounded in the southern town of Sderot.
"After consultations with the defence minister, the chief of staff and Israel's top defence officials, we decided on powerful action against Hamas terrorism," Netanyahu said in a video statement sent by a spokesman to reporters.
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The Israeli military said one aerial attack hit a high-rise building in al-Shati refugee camp in the northernGazaStrip, describing the target as a Hamas urban warfare training facility with a tunnel underneath.
Health officials inGazasaid the building was empty, but two Palestinians aged 15 and 16, among a crowd in a nearby public park, were killed. Around 10 other passers-by were wounded, the officials said. Nearby houses were damaged.
Rocket warning sirens went off in the coastal city of Ashkelon, about 12 km (7 miles) from the enclave, further north than in recent attacks. A police spokesman said no hits had been identified in the city.
Hamas stopped short of claiming responsibility for the rocket fire, but its spokesman Fawzi Barhoum, called it "an immediate response by the resistance to the escalation" by Israel and a deterrence to further Israeli attacks.
A Palestinian official who spoke to Reuters on condition of anonymity said Egypt and other international players were holding contacts with Israel andGazato restore calm. There was no immediate comment from officials in Cairo.