A Palestinian woman carrying her son flees her home during Israeli air and artillery strikes, as she walks near the site of a tower building destroyed in earlier strikes in Gaza City May 14, 2021. REUTERS/Mohammed Salem
GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip: Israeli artillery pounded northern Gaza early Friday bringing the front lines closer to dense civilian areas and paving the way for a potential ground invasion.
The stepped-up fighting came as communal violence in Israel erupted for a fourth night, with Jewish and Arab mobs clashing in the flashpoint town of Lod. The fighting took place despite a bolstered police presence ordered by the nation’s leaders.
Masses of red flames illuminated the skies as the deafening blasts from the outskirts of Gaza City jolted people awake.
In northern and eastern parts of Gaza, the sound of artillery fire and explosions echoed early on Friday. Witnesses said many families living near the border left their homes, some seeking shelter at United Nations-run schools.
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.
Israel has attacked hundreds of targets in Gaza, causing earth-shaking explosions across the densely populated territory.
The Gaza Health Ministry says the death toll has risen to 119 killed, including 31 children and 19 women, with 830 wounded. The Hamas and Islamic Jihad groups have confirmed 20 deaths in their ranks.
