JERUSALEM -- Israel on Thursday said it was massing troops along the Gaza frontier and calling up 9,000 reservists ahead of a possible ground invasion of the Hamas-ruled territory, as the two bitter enemies plunged closer to all-out war. Egyptian mediators rushed to Israel for cease-fire efforts but showed no signs of progress.
The stepped-up fighting came as communal violence in Israel broke out for a fourth night, with Jewish and Arab mobs clashing in the flash point town of Lod. The fighting took place despite a bolstered police presence ordered by the nation's leaders.
For most of Thursday, the air war between Israelis and Palestinians had raged unabated with casualties continuing to climb on both sides amid rocket fire and airstrikes.
Violence also continued to spread within Israel as officials braced for a fourth night of street unrest that has seen Arab Israelis and right-wing Jewish Israelis fight one another in towns across the country. Israeli politicians from across the ideological spectrum condemned attacks by "vigilantes" from both sides, and commentators warned that the communal upheaval may be harder to stop than the military conflict between Israel and the Hamas militant group, which governs Gaza.
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Gaza's Health Ministry said 109 Palestinians, including 28 children, had been killed by Thursday night. It said 621 people have been wounded. The Hamas and Islamic Jihad militant groups have confirmed 20 deaths in their ranks, though Israel says that number is much higher. Seven people have been killed in Israel, including a 6-year-old boy.
The four-day burst of violence has pushed Israel into uncharted territory -- dealing with the most intense fighting it has ever had with Hamas while simultaneously coping with the worst Jewish-Arab violence inside Israel in decades. A late-night barrage of rocket fire from Lebanon that landed in the sea threatened to open a new front along Israel's northern border.
Saleh Aruri, an exiled senior Hamas leader, told London-based satellite channel Al Araby early today that his group has turned down a proposal for a three-hour lull to allow for more negotiations toward a full cease-fire. He said Egypt, Qatar and the United Nations were leading the truce efforts.
Also early today, the Israeli military said air and ground troops struck Gaza in what appeared to be the heaviest attacks yet. Masses of red flames illuminated the skies as the deafening blasts from the outskirts of Gaza City jolted people awake. The strikes were so strong that people inside the city, several miles away, could be heard screaming in fear.
"I said we would extract a very heavy price from Hamas," Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a videotaped statement. "We are doing that, and we will continue to do that with heavy force."
INFRASTRUCTURE TOLL
The reciprocal bombardment has taken a mounting toll on transportation and other infrastructure in Israel and Gaza. Under a rain of more than 1,700 rockets fired from Gaza, Israel's Ben Gurion Airport, the country's main link to the outside world, closed indefinitely to incoming flights. Israeli media reported that rockets struck Israel's secondary Ramon Airport, where flights had been diverted.
In Gaza, damage to power lines cut daily electricity in some parts of the enclave to around three hours. Residents awoke on the normally joyous Eid al-Fitr holiday to pillars of smoke rising from sites bombed by the Israeli military. In the midst of the worst attacks in seven years, streets that would normally bustle with families going to pay holiday visits were quiet.
The fighting broke out late Monday when Hamas, claiming to be the defender of Jerusalem, fired a barrage of long-range rockets toward the city in response to what it said were Israeli provocations. Israel quickly responded with a series of airstrikes.
Since then, Israel has attacked hundreds of targets in Gaza. The strikes set off scores of earth-shaking explosions across the densely populated territory. Gaza militants have fired nearly 2,000 rockets into Israel, bringing life in the southern part of the country to a standstill. Several barrages targeted the seaside metropolis of Tel Aviv, some 45 miles away.
In Washington, President Joe Biden said he spoke with Netanyahu about calming the fighting but also backed the Israeli leader by saying "there has not been a significant overreaction."
He said the goal now is to "get to a point where there is a significant reduction in attacks, particularly rocket attacks that are indiscriminately fired into population centers." He called the effort a "a work in progress."
In remarks, Secretary of State Antony Blinken made clear that he places more blame on Hamas, saying there is a "fundamental difference between a terrorist organization in Hamas that is indiscriminately targeting civilians and Israel, which is defending itself." Blinken and Biden's refrain that Israel has a right to defend itself has come under criticism from several liberal American lawmakers.
BUILDINGS LEVELED
Thursday's visit by Egyptian officials marked an important step in the cease-fire efforts.
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Egypt often serves as a mediator between Israel and Hamas, and it has been a key player in ending past rounds of fighting. The officials met first with Hamas leaders in Gaza before holding talks with Israelis in Tel Aviv, two Egyptian intelligence officials said. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to the media. Hamas' exiled leader, Ismail Haniyeh, was also in touch with the Egyptians, the group said.
Despite those efforts, the fighting only intensified. Israeli aircraft pummeled targets in Gaza throughout the day. And late Thursday, Israel fired tank and artillery shells across the border for the first time, sending scores of terrified residents fleeing for safety.
The airstrikes have destroyed scores of buildings, including three high-rises. Israel says the buildings housed Hamas militants or facilities, but civilians were inside as well.
On some blocks, displaced residents picked through the rubble of destroyed homes. In northern Gaza City on Thursday morning, Zaher Sbieh pulled two stuffed sheep from what had been a five-story apartment building. They would be a nice surprise for his four children, who are now staying with family in Jabaliya.
The building was demolished by an airstrike Wednesday afternoon, 90 minutes after Sbieh's brother, who lived in an apartment next door, got an urgent call: Get out now. The call was from an Israeli military officer, Sbieh said. The officer said the building next door was a target. The brothers and their families joined the panicked rush down the stairs as the building emptied. When he returned later that evening, it was gone.
"I lost everything, my clothing, books, laptops, photo albums," said Sbieh, 48, who runs a youth and community advocacy group. "I evacuated with the clothes I'm wearing."
Mohammad Qadada, 31, said that the Israeli demolition of the 13-story Hanadi building, which houses his IT company's offices, has caused him, for the first time, to consider leaving the Gaza Strip.
"I always said, 'I can't leave my country, I can't leave my country.' But now, I can't be in my country," said Qadada, who plans to try obtaining Swedish citizenship through his Swedish-born wife.
"We lived through the first war in Gaza in 2008; it was the worst one. But, for me, the past two days are worse than ever because I have a family. When you look at your son who is crying from the bombing, my wife's tears, my mother's tears, it is exhausting," he said.
In the northern Gaza Strip, Rafat Tanani, his pregnant wife and four children were killed after an Israeli warplane reduced the building to rubble, residents said.
Sadallah Tanani, a relative, said the family was "wiped out from the population register" without warning. "It was a massacre. My feelings are indescribable," he said.
TROOPS MASS AT BORDER
Israel has come under heavy international criticism for civilian casualties in Gaza fighting. It says Hamas is responsible for endangering civilians by hiding and launching rockets from civilian areas.
Late Thursday, Israel's Defense Minister Benny Gantz ordered the mobilization of an additional 9,000 reservists.
The chief military spokesman, Brig. Gen. Hidai Zilberman, said troops were massing along the Gaza border for a possible ground operation. He said tanks, armored vehicles and artillery were being prepared "for mobilization at any given moment."
Hamas showed no signs of backing down. It launched several intense barrages of rockets throughout the day and fired its most powerful rocket, the Ayyash, nearly 120 miles into southern Israel. The rocket landed in the open desert but briefly disrupted flight traffic at the southern Ramon airport. Hamas also launched a drone that Israel said it quickly shot down.
Hamas military spokesman Abu Obeida said the group was not afraid of a ground invasion, saying any invasion would be a chance "to increase our catch" of dead or captive soldiers.
The fighting cast a pall over the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Fitr, normally marked by family gatherings and festive meals. Instead, the streets of Gaza were mostly empty.
Hassan Abu Shaaban tried to lighten the mood by handing out candy to passersby but acknowledged "there is no atmosphere" for celebrating. "It is all airstrikes, destruction and devastation," he said. "May God help everyone."
Late Thursday, Lebanese media reported rockets being fired from southern Lebanon toward Israel. Israel's military said three rockets had landed in the Mediterranean Sea. A media liaison for the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah, which has repeatedly battled Israeli forces, declined to comment on the attack, and Israeli media reported that the rockets had been fired by Palestinians in Lebanon.
The prospect of even fiercer fighting seemed to grow Thursday as two Israeli infantry brigades and an armored one readied for ground operations, according to Israeli military spokesman Lt. Col. Jonathan Conricus. No orders to invade Gaza have been given, he added, but the troops are preparing for the possibility. Israeli troops last entered Gaza en masse during a two-month war in 2014, when more than 2,200 Gazans were killed.
FIGHTING IN ISRAELI CITIES
Even as Israeli troops were readied for action in Gaza, Netanyahu announced that he would separately deploy the military in restive Israeli towns to quell the "anarchy." He said he has ordered police to adopt "emergency powers" and intends to "bring in military forces according to the existing law, and we will pass an additional law if necessary."
"What is happening in Israel's cities over the past few days is unacceptable," Netanyahu said on Twitter of the worst Jewish-Arab violence inside Israel in decades. "We have seen Arab rioters set fire to synagogues and vehicles and attack police officers. They are attacking peaceful and innocent citizens."
The prime minister also alluded to video footage of a group of Jewish nationalists dragging a man whom they believed to be Arab out of his car and beating him in the central city of Bat Yam. "Nothing justifies this and I will tell you that nothing justifies the lynching of Jews by Arabs and nothing justifies the lynching of Arabs by Jews."
Israelis worried that the battle inside the country may be harder to stop than the air war still being waged with Gaza.
Chaos prevailed in Israeli cities with mixed Jewish-Arab populations on Wednesday night, marking an escalation in the country's worst communal violence in two decades. The Israeli media and local residents alike have warned about the threat of civil war in the country, even as Israel and Hamas have been engaged in the most intense exchange of rockets and bombs since the 2014 Gaza war.
In some cases, Arab Israelis protesting in support of Palestinians in Gaza and Jerusalem have squared off against right-wing Jewish Israelis and police, and these confrontations have sparked riots and looting. In other cases, groups of vigilante Jews have marched through Arab areas, targeting shops and individuals with violence. And in yet other cases, Arabs have attacked Jews passing through Arab neighborhoods.
Arab citizens of Israel also blame the unrest on police for essentially yielding their towns to right-wing Israeli mobs. Israeli nationalists say they are mobilizing because their Jewish communities feel unsafe. Both sides accuse the police of not protecting them.
Israeli Public Security Minister Amir Ohana defended those "law-abiding citizens" who carry weapons to assist the police. Arab Israelis said this amounted to an incitement of violence against them.
Buses and cars carrying nationalist Jews have descended on Lod, a city in central Israel with a mixed population, Israeli media reported. Many of them are young settlers from the occupied West Bank and have been organized over WhatsApp. On Wednesday, they marched through Arab areas of the city, waving Israeli flags and some armed with guns, in defiance of a state of emergency declared earlier by the Israeli government.
"We are in such a state of anarchy," said Nati Ron, who said he went to Lod on Wednesday night to defend its Jewish residents "from a pogrom" because he said the police would not.
As the night progressed, police were largely out of sight. Arab residents set up their own street defenses, also defying the 8 p.m. curfew.
Information for this article was contributed by Josef Federman, Fares Akram. Ilan Ben Zion, Samy Magdy, Isabel DeBre and Ashraf Sweilam of The Associated Press; and by Steve Hendrix, Shira Rubin, Michael E. Miller, Hazem Balousha, Sarah Dadouch, John Hudson and Miriam Berger of The Washington Post.
