The countering Israeli
and Palestinian attacks prompted the U.N. Security Council to call an
emergency closed door session late Wednesday in an attempt to
de-escalate the crisis.
"In short, the message
that must resonate from this meeting is 'the violence has to stop,'"
Hardeep Singh Puri, president of the Security Council for the month of
November, told reporters.
International diplomats
hope to stave off a repeat of Israel's widely condemned 2008 strike that
saw its forces go into Gaza after a similar spate of rocket attacks by
Palestinian militants.
Even as the Security
Council's member nations late Wednesday called for "maximum restraint so
the situation does not deteriorate any further," Israeli and
Palestinian officials reported countering airstrikes and assaults during
the early morning hours.
At least three people
were killed and four wounded when a rocket struck an apartment building
in Kiryat Malakhi on Thursday, according to an Israeli police spokesman.
Israeli forces, meanwhile, claimed to have killed seven militants in
strikes on Thursday, while a Palestinian militant group put the number
at three. Dozens of Palestinians, including children, have reportedly
been wounded in the airstrikes, according to a Palestinian health
official.
The Israel Defense Force
said overnight it targeted "100 medium and long range rocket launch and
infrastructure sites across the Gaza Strip," according to a statement
released Thursday morning. That followed reports of more than 40 rockets
fired from Gaza into Israel, according to CNN's Sara Sidner, who was
reporting on the Israeli side of the Erez Crossing on Gaza's northern
border.
At one point, 13 rockets
were fired in quick succession from Gaza into Israel, "and you can see
the trail of smoke," she said. That's in addition to the 35 rockets
reportedly fired overnight at Israel, she said.
Sidner and a CNN film
crew were forced to take cover after rockets struck near the border
crossing. "Military here says it appears the crossing is being
targeted," she said.
The latest round of
countering strikes follows claims by Palestinian military groups of more
than 75 strikes by Israeli warplanes and ships on Wednesday.
The strikes Wednesday
killed the chief of the al-Qassam Brigade, Hamas' military arm, and at
least eight others, according to Israeli and Palestinian officials, an
attack that saw al-Qassam threaten the Israel Defense Force on its
Twitter feed.
It wrote:
"@idfspokesperson Our blessed hands will reach your leaders and soldiers
wherever they are (You Opened Hell Gates on Yourselves)."
Ahmed al-Ja'abari, the
popular and influential head of Hamas' al-Qassam Brigade, was killed
when the car he was riding in was targeted by an Israeli strike,
according to Israeli and Palestinian officials.
Riyad Mansour, the Palestinian representative to the United Nations, said the killing amounted to an assassination.
"We condemn the killing of any Palestinian, regardless of their political affiliation," he said.
"Assassination is
illegal from the point of view of international law, and Israel is
committing a crime through the assassination of Palestinian individuals
and Palestinian leaders."
Israeli government spokesman Mark Regev said, al-Ja'abari headed "a terror military machine."
"This is the man with
blood on his hands. This man is a known and wanted terrorist," he said.
"In taking him out, Israel was acting legitimately."
It is unclear what, if
any, impact the Security Council's call for restraint will have after
days of attacks and counter attacks that have seen militant groups to
fire rockets into southern Israel that in turn prompts Israeli
retaliatory strikes.
The Israeli and
Palestinian representatives at the United Nations traded blame, with
Israel's representative dismissing claims by Mansour that the attacks
were timed to derail a November 29 vote on a Palestinian bid for
enhanced status at the United Nations.
"This all started by an
anti-tank missile that was launched against an Israeli jeep. From who?
From Hamas, an internationally recognized terrorist organization, that
has turned Gaza into a dump of ammunition coming in from weapons from
Iran, from Libya, from Sudan that have been launched against Israeli
civilians day in and day out," Ron Prosor, Israel's representative to
the United Nations, told reporters.
"This is unacceptable.
Every state, every nation, every government has a right to defend its
cities. We will not allow that to continue. Any distortion of that
sequence of events or facts will not only not lead to peace in the
region but on the contrary will lead to additional violence."
The Israel Defense Force warned residents in several communities in Gaza on Thursday to stay away from Hamas and its facilities.
"For your own safety,
take responsibility and avoid being present in the vicinity of Hamas
operatives and facilities and those of other terror organizations that
pose a risk to your safety," the leaflets said.
The IDF said the warning was valid until "quiet is restored to the region."
President Barack Obama
spoke with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Egyptian
President Mohammed Morsi of Egypt about the crisis in Gaza, Susan Rice,
the U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, said during the Security
Council meeting, according to a readout provided by the United States.
"President Obama told
Prime Minister Netanyahu that he understands and supports Israel's right
to self-defense in light of countless rocket attacks on Israeli
civilians being launched from Gaza. The President urged that Prime
Minister Netanyahu make every effort to avoid civilian casualties, and
agreed that Hamas needs to stop the attacks on Israel and allow the
situation to de-escalate," she said.
Rice said Obama also spoke with Morsi, "given Egypt's critical role in regional security."
"Both agreed that everyone's interests are best served by ensuring that this situation does not escalate
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