A man was killed in the Israeli city of Ashkelon late on Monday by a rocket fired by Palestinian militants in Gaza, becoming the first civilian casualty of the most serious fighting between Israel and Hamas since 2014. The Israeli military said around 400 rockets and mortars had been fired from Gaza since Monday afternoon and that Israeli warplanes had carried out more than a hundred airstrikes in response to the fire. “What we're dealing with is a massive barrage of rockets aimed at Israeli civilians,” said Lt Col Jonathan Conricus, an Israeli military spokesman. The 40-year-old civilian was killed when a rocket struck a building in the coastal city of Ashkelon, according to Israeli media. Two women in the same building were seriously injured. One man was killed and two women were injured in a rocket strike on Ashkelon Credit: GIL COHEN-MAGEN/AFP/Getty Images The man has not been identified but is reportedly Palestinian, from the occupied West Bank, and may have been working without permits inside Israel. His body was reportedly found by neighbours after the police had already left the scene. Hamas said it would begin firing more long-range missiles towards the more distant cities of Ashdod and Beer Sheva if Israel continued its airstrikes. Palestinians check the damage in a residential neighbourhood in Gaza City early on November 13, 2018, following Israeli air strikes Credit: MAHMUD HAMS/AFP/Getty Images “What has been happening so far is the traditional retaliation our enemy must have expected. In the next few hours, what our enemy can’t expect will follow,” the group said. Israel said it was targeting military positions belonging to Hamas and other smaller Palestinian factions like Islamic Jihad and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP). Four Palestinian fighters had been killed inside Gaza, according to Palestinian media reports early on Tuesday. There were no reports of civilian casualties inside Gaza. The death toll rose to six by late morning on Tuesday, but it was unclear who the victims were. Israeli warplanes also blew up a building belonging to al-Aqsa Television, a Hamas channel which Israel said was “a strategic terror target” because it broadcast violent propaganda against Israelis. Hamas decried the attack as an effort to suppress coverage of the situation in Gaza. Children in both Gaza and southern Israel spent a sleepless night as aircraft roared overheard and the sky was filled with the explosions of rockets and interceptor missiles. Schools was cancelled Tuesday for children in Gaza and in Israeli towns near the border. Smoke blows up after Israeli fighter jets carried out airstrikes in Gaza Credit: Photo by Mustafa Hassona/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images Israeli families ran towards bomb shelters at the sound of the rocket sirens and families in Gaza huddled in their houses and hoped for the best. “The kids hear the bombing, that’s the worst part,” said one father in Gaza. The UN and Egypt were working to try to broker a ceasefire but by Tuesday morning the fighting was continuing after a brief lull overnight. “The escalation in the past 24 hours is extremely dangerous and reckless,” said Nickolay Mladenov, the UN envoy for Israeli-Palestinian peace. “No effort must be spared to reverse the spiral of violence.” Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, was due to hold a meeting of his security cabinet to discuss the situation. Israel estimates that Hamas and its allies have around 20,000 mortars and rockets, meaning that they could continue firing at the current rate for weeks. "Unfortunately, they are not anywhere near the end of their capabilities,” said Lt Col Conricus. The rapid rate of rocket fire is believed to be an effort to overwhelm Israel’s Iron Dome missile defence system, which has been largely successful intercepting rockets in recent years. “Iron dome so far has been phenomenal but even it is not hermetic and we can’t be under assumption it will intercept everything,” Lt Col Conricus said. The Israeli military said it has sent additional forces to the Gaza border but had not yet called up the reserves, usually a sign that Israel is expecting a large-scale conflict. Residents in Gaza said that Israel appeared to be launching warning strikes with drones against large buildings. They then gave people several minutes to clear the area before striking the buildings with larger bombs from F-16 fighter jets.
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