GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip -- Israel on Wednesday pressed ahead with a military offensive in the Gaza Strip, killing as many as 10 senior Hamas military figures and toppling three high-rise towers housing Hamas facilities in a series of airstrikes.
The Islamic militant group showed no signs of backing down and fired hundreds of rockets at Israeli cities.
In just three days, this latest round of fighting between the bitter enemies has begun to resemble the 50-day war in 2014. The fighting has triggered the worst Jewish-Arab violence inside Israel in decades. And looming in the background is an international war-crimes investigation.
Israel carried out a barrage of airstrikes just after sunrise, striking dozens of targets in several minutes that set off bone-rattling explosions across Gaza. Airstrikes continued throughout the day, filling the sky with pillars of smoke.
At nightfall, the streets of Gaza City resembled those of a ghost town as people huddled indoors on the final night of Ramadan. The evening, followed by the Eid al-Fitr holiday, is usually a time of vibrant nightlife, shopping and crowded restaurants.
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Gaza militants continued to bombard Israel with rocket fire throughout the day. The attacks brought life to a standstill in southern communities near Gaza, but also reached as far north as the Tel Aviv area, about 45 miles to the north, for a second-straight day.
Gaza's Health Ministry said the death toll rose to 69 Palestinians, including 16 children and six women. Islamic Jihad confirmed the deaths of seven militants, while Hamas acknowledged that a top commander and several other members were killed.
Seven people have been killed in Israel, including four people who died Wednesday. Among them were a soldier killed by an anti-tank missile and a 6-year-old child hit in a rocket attack.
The Israeli military claims the number of militants killed so far is much higher than Hamas has acknowledged.
Lt. Col. Jonathan Conricus, an Israeli military spokesman, said at least 14 militants were killed Wednesday -- including 10 members of the "top management of Hamas" and four weapons experts.
Altogether, he claimed some 30 militants have been killed since the fighting began.
While United Nations and Egyptian officials have said cease-fire efforts are underway, there were no signs of progress. Israeli television's Channel 12 reported late Wednesday that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's Security Cabinet authorized a widening of the offensive.
The current fighting began a month ago in Jerusalem, where heavy-handed Israeli police tactics during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan and the threatened eviction of dozens of Palestinian families by Jewish settlers ignited protests and clashes with police.
A focal point was the Al-Aqsa Mosque, built on a hilltop compound that is revered by Jews and Muslims, where police fired tear gas and stun grenades at protesters who threw chairs and stones at them.
Hamas, claiming to be defending Jerusalem, launched a barrage of rockets at the city late Monday, setting off days of fighting.
The Israeli military says militants have fired about 1,500 rockets in just three days. That is roughly one-third the number fired during the entire 2014 war.
Israel, meanwhile, has struck more than 350 targets in Gaza, a tiny territory where 2 million Palestinians have lived under a crippling Israeli-Egyptian blockade since Hamas took power in 2007. Two infantry brigades were sent to the area, indicating preparations for a possible ground invasion.
In tactics echoing past wars, Israel has begun to target senior members of Hamas' military wing. It also has flattened three high-rise buildings in a tactic that has drawn international scrutiny in the past.
Israel says the buildings all housed Hamas operations centers, but they also included residential apartments and businesses. In all cases, Israel fired warning shots, allowing people to flee, and there were no reports of casualties.
Israel targeted the Qassam Brigades, the military wing of Hamas and one of several Palestinian militant factions active in Gaza. The Israeli military said a joint operation of soldiers and intelligence officers across Gaza had simultaneously killed the commanders, who were close to Muhammed Deif, the leader of the Qassam Brigades.
Without Qassam's soldiers, Hamas would struggle to control Gaza. Its leaders have long been the targets of Israeli assassinations, and Deif himself was wounded in one attempt in 2006.
U.N. CONDEMNATION
U.N. chief Antonio Guterres condemned the "indiscriminate launching of rockets" from civilian areas in Gaza toward Israeli population centers, but he also urged Israel to show "maximum restraint."
Tor Wennesland, the U.N. Mideast envoy told the U.N. Security Council that the current violence is "the most serious escalation between Israel and Palestinian militants in years."
Wennesland briefed the council Wednesday on the deteriorating situation on the ground, but the U.N.'s most powerful body again took no action.
Diplomats said China, Tunisia and Norway, who called the meeting, wanted the council to issue a statement, but the United States objected. The diplomats spoke on condition of anonymity because the consultations were private.
Four European council members -- France, Estonia, Ireland and Norway -- issued a statement after the council meeting urgently calling on both sides "to deescalate tensions, end violence and show the utmost restraint." They condemned the firing of rockets from Gaza into Israel and called civilian casualties on both sides "worrying and unacceptable."
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken called Netanyahu on Wednesday to reaffirm America's support for Israel's right to defend itself from Hamas rocket attacks from Gaza.
The State Department said he also repeated U.S. calls for a deescalation of violence and the Biden administration's belief that both Israelis and Palestinians have the right to live in safety and security.
Blinken announced earlier that he was sending a senior diplomat to the region to make similar appeals in person to Israeli and Palestinian officials.
He also said Israel had an "extra burden" to avoid civilian casualties as it responds to the attacks.
According to the State Department, Blinken also told Netanyahu that, as he and President Joe Biden have said in the past, the administration believes Israelis and Palestinians should "enjoy equal measures of freedom, security, prosperity and democracy."
VIOLENT CLASHES
The fighting has unleashed clashes between Arabs and Jews in Israel, instances that have not been seen since 2000. Netanyahu warned that he was prepared to use an "iron fist if necessary" to calm the violence.
Clashes broke out across the country late Wednesday. Jewish and Arab mobs battled in the central city of Lod, the epicenter of the troubles, despite a state of emergency and a nighttime curfew. In nearby Bat Yam, a mob of Jewish nationalists attacked an Arab motorist, dragged him from his car and beat him until he was motionless.
"We have not seen this kind of violence since October 2000," said Israel Police Chief Kobi Shabtai, referring to Arab demonstrations in the beginning of the second "intifada," or Palestinian mass uprising.
Shabtai warned that the situation in Lod threatened to devolve into a new intifada. The previous uprising spanned a 5-year period marked by wide-scale Hamas bus bombings and Israeli military incursions that cost thousands of Israeli and Palestinian lives.
In the occupied West Bank, the Israeli military said it thwarted a Palestinian shooting attack that wounded two people. The Palestinian Health Ministry said the gunman was killed. No details were immediately available.
Still unclear is how the fighting in Gaza will affect Netanyahu's political future. He failed to form a government coalition after inconclusive parliamentary elections in March, and now his political rivals have three weeks to try to form one.
His rivals have courted a small Islamist Arab party. But the longer the fighting drags on, the more it could hamper their attempts at forming a coalition. It could also boost Netanyahu if another election is held, since security is his strong suit with the public.
Israel and Hamas have fought three wars since the Islamic militant group seized power in Gaza from rival Palestinian forces in 2007.
COURT INQUIRY
The International Criminal Court has opened an investigation into possible war crimes by Israel and Hamas. In a brief statement, the court's prosecutor Fatou Bensouda said she had noted "with great concern" the escalation of violence and "the possible commission of crimes."
The court is looking into Israeli actions in past wars in Gaza. Israel is not a member of the court, does not recognize the court's jurisdiction and rejects the accusations. But the court could still issue warrants and try to arrest Israeli suspects while traveling overseas.
Conricus, the military spokesman, said Israeli forces respect international laws on armed conflict and do their utmost to minimize civilian casualties.
Israel blames Hamas for civilian casualties because the group fires rockets from residential areas.
Emanuel Gross, a professor emeritus the University of Haifa law school, said Israel should "take into consideration the concerns of the ICC." But he said he believes the military is on solid legal ground while rockets are striking Israeli cities.
"That's the real meaning of self-defense," he said. "If you are attacked by a terrorist group, you defend yourself."
Information for this article was contributed by Fares Akram, Josef Federman, Ilan Ben Zion and staff members of The Associated Press; by Patrick Kingsley and Isabel Kershner of The New York Times; and by Shira Rubin and Steve Hendrix of The Washington Post.
