School in southern Israel was canceled following the violence that threatened to escalate into a major conflict just two weeks before the Israeli elections. The fighting subsided by morning, but the situation remained tense.
Israeli soldiers work on their tanks at a gathering area near the Israel-Gaza border on Tuesday.
Overnight, the Israeli air force pounded militant sites of Gaza's Hamas rulers and the smaller Islamic Jihad group. The targets included a multistory building in Gaza City that Israel said had served as a Hamas military intelligence headquarters and the office of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh. Gaza's Health Ministry said seven Palestinians were wounded in the airstrikes.
After a meeting with President Trump and before leaving Washington, Netanyahu indicated the election would not deter him from acting. The Israeli military said it was a locally made rocket with a range of 75 miles, making it one of the deepest strikes ever carried out by Hamas. The military mobilized two armor and infantry brigades and drafted some reserve forces before striking back at militant sites in Gaza.
Two weeks ago, rockets were fired from Gaza toward Israel's densely populated commercial capital of Tel Aviv, and the Israeli military struck back. Gaza's Hamas leaders said the rocket fire was accidental and the fighting quickly subsided. The blockade, combined with sanctions by the Palestinian Authority and mismanagement by the Hamas government, have all fueled an economic crisis that has left Gaza with an unemployment rate above 50%.Hamas has been leading weekly protests along the Israeli border for the past year in hopes of easing the blockade, but the demonstrations, in which some 190 people have been killed by Israeli fire, have done little to improve conditions.
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