Gaza crisis: Israeli army poised to launch ground invasion after hundreds of rockets fired

Four dead in Israel and nearly 20 dead in Gaza, as both sides pushed to the brink of war

Thousands of soldiers are poised to launch a ground invasion into Gaza, the Israeli army has said.

The announcement came after militants in the besieged strip fired over 600 projectiles at its territory over the weekend.

Just 10 days before Israel is set to host the Eurovision song contest, rockets pounded the south of the country while airstrikes pummelled areas across Gaza in the most serious flare-up of fighting since the last war in 2014.

Four Israelis were killed by Palestinian fire, including a civilian who was hit by an anti-tank missile while in their car, according to the Israeli army and hospital sources.

It marks the first time in the last five years that Israeli civilians have been killed by rockets from Gaza. Over 140 others were injured, hospital officials told The Independent.

Gaza’s health ministry, meanwhile, said that 24 Palestinians, including two pregnant women and two toddlers, had been killed and 146 people wounded since fighting began on Saturday morning.

Among the dead was Hamas Khodari, 35, who the Israelis say was a financier of militant group Hamas, which runs the Strip. He was killed in his car by an airstrike in the first targeted killing by Israel in years.

Lieutenant Colonel Jonathan Conricus, a spokesperson for the Israeli army, said it had struck over 260 sites in Gaza. He implied that there would be more targeted killings of militants in the future. He added that Israel’s 7th armoured brigade and Golani infantry brigade have also been deployed to the border “with the intention to prepare for an offensive mission” within Gaza.

A third infantry brigade was placed “on standby”. He declined to comment on reports of a ceasefire.

He said: “Where this will go depends on the level aggression of Palestinian Islamic Jihad and Hamas… Our intention is to continue operating throughout the day.”

Musab Boarim, a spokesperson for Islamic Jihad, warned that Israel “will pay the price for these crimes” in a post on his official Facebook page. Hazem Qassam, a Hamas spokesperson, echoed his words in a statement.

Fighting erupted when armed factions in Gaza launched a barrage of rocket and mortars at southern Israel following the killings of four Palestinians including two militants on Friday afternoon. Two Israeli soldiers had previously been injured in a shooting incident along the border.

Israel said that Palestinian Islamic Jihad was behind the “sniper” attack, which was launched without the coordination or knowledge of Hamas.

The rockets fired from Gaza in retaliation, however, were fired by both armed groups.

Israel said that it has pounded targets including weapons manufacturing sites, arms storage facilities and the buildings of Hamas military intelligence and security offices.

Turkey said an office for its state news agency Anadolu was located in one of the multi-storey building’s hit. The country strongly denounced the strike.

Israel said the other building housed Hamas and Islamic Jihad offices.

Among the dead was a 58-year-old Israeli man, identified as Moshe Agadi who was killed by shrapnel after a rocket hit the yard of his mother-in-law’s home. Dr Ron Lobel, deputy director of the Barzilai hospital in Ashkelon, where most of the deceased had been taken, told The Independent one man succumbed to his injuries in Ashdod on Sunday evening.

In Gaza, a pregnant woman and her baby niece were also killed. Palestinians said that she died in an Israeli airstrike, although the Israeli army claim she was accidentally hit by friendly Palestinian fire.

Civilians on both sides of the border fence described a terrifying 24 hours.

“All we can do is stay at home and pray, we have no place or time to hide, we don’t have anything,” said Asma, 49, a mother-of-two, whose neighbourhood in north Gaza was hit by several airstrikes.

“I think both sides will lose a lot as they cannot control themselves,” added Karima, 40 who lived next to a multi-storey building in Gaza City which was also pounded.

Palestinian children stand atop the remains of a building destroyed during an Israeli air strike on Rafah in the southern Gaza strip on Sunday (Said Khatib/AFP/Getty Images) (SAID KHATIB/AFP/Getty Images)

In southern Israel, civilians said they had just seconds to run to bomb shelters and the air raid sirens had been sounding continuously.

“We ran to the safe room and heard this deafening explosion, we later found out rockets had landed on either side of our home,” said Nadav Tzabari, 30 from Nahal Oz, less than a kilometre from Gaza, as the sounds of rockets whistled overhead.

“All I ask for is my house and our loving community to have peace and quiet again. I wish it for my community and those on the other side of the fence too,” he added.

A Hamas delegation led by its Gaza head Yahya Sinwar had been in Cairo on Thursday for talks with Egyptian officials to hammer out a long-term ceasefire and end a cycle of violence that has gripped Israel and Gaza over the last year.

On Sunday, Egypt struggled again to broker a new truce to stop the fresh flare up.

Israeli soldiers gather near a car that was hit by a rocket fired near Yad Mordechai on Sunday, reportedly injuring its driver (Jack Guez/AFP/Getty Images) (JACK GUEZ/AFP/Getty Images)

But there is little hope of an immediate end to the hostilities. Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who is locked in tense negotiations to form the next government, vowed to continue “massive strikes”. The Israeli cabinet on Sunday evening ordered the army to continue the air raids.

The timing of the attacks is tense as Israel is expected to host the Eurovision Song Contest in Tel Aviv in less than two week's time. Thousands of foreign visitors, together with dozens of celebrities and performers including Madonna, are expected to fly into Israel for the competition.

In a video shared online, Islamic Jihad threatened the competition, splicing footage of Eurovision celebrations in Tel Aviv with footage of the destruction from a long-range rocket attack that hit central Israel in March. It ended the video with footage of its fighters loading a missile launcher and the words “Israel is not Europe”.

An Israeli moderator at a Eurovision press conference on Saturday said despite the violence they were “continuing as usual, like we planned”.

The explosion of violence also took place just a day ahead of the holy month of Ramadan starting on Sunday.

The United States, the European Union and Britain condemned fighters in Gaza for “indiscriminate” use of rockets on civilians.

Mark Field, a minister of state at the British Foreign Office, said he was “deeply saddened by civilian deaths in Israel and Gaza”.