Israel bombs Gaza two hours after ceasefire came into effect at 19:00 GMT with Palestinian militias in the Strip, in response to the launch of two rockets after the Egyptian-brokered deadline for a ceasefire.

“The army is currently attacking the Gaza Strip”confirmed a military spokesman in a brief statement.

Technically, both sides violated the ceasefire that ended five days of war escalation in which 34 Gazans — one of them in Israel — and an elderly Israeli woman were killed.

The agreement, brokered by Egypt, included the commitment to “stop attacking civilians and homes”.

The Israeli army and Palestinian armed groups in the Gaza Strip had agreed on a ceasefire after five days of rockets and missiles.

Israel’s Iron Dome air defense system (right) intercepts rockets (left) fired from Gaza City on May 13, 2023. Photo: AFP

The escalation began Tuesday with Israeli attacks on Islamic Jihad, a group considered a “terrorist organization” by Israel, the European Union and the United States.

It is about largest outbreak of violence between the two sides since August 2022.

Shortly before the ceasefire announcement, Israeli General Herzi Halevi, head of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, welcomed Israel’s “achievement of important objectives during this campaign (…)”.

The The Al-Quds Brigades, the armed wing of Islamic Jihad, had recently announced that they would continue their “rocket fire on Israeli cities”. “before the continuation of killings and bombings” of populated areas.

protest against war

In Gaza, which has been ruled by the Islamist Hamas movement since 2007, the Interior Ministry accused Israel of targeting its attacks “at civilian targets and residential buildings”.

He also called on human rights organizations to put pressure “on Israel to end crimes” that are “the responsibility of international justice”.

Citizens carry placards as they demonstrate against the war against Gaza in Tel Aviv on May 13, 2023. Israeli airstrikes slammed into Gaza and militants continued to fire rockets as deadly fighting resumed after a night of relative calm. Photo: AFP

In the Israeli city of Tel Aviv, more than 2,000 protesters protested against the war overnight, AFP reporters reported.

According to the Israeli army, a Palestinian rocket landed on an Israeli farmland in Shokeda, less than 10 kilometers from the Gaza Strip, injuring a Palestinian worker who died in hospital.

This death brings the number of Palestinians killed in clashes since Tuesday to 34. 33 of them in the Gaza Strip. On the Israeli side, an octogenarian died on Thursday in Rehovot, in central Israel.

The Palestinians killed included six Islamic Jihad commanders, as well as fighters from the movement and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), another armed group.

AFP journalists on Saturday verified the damage caused by Israeli bombings in residential areas such as Beit Lahia, in the north of the Strip, and Deir al Balah, further downtown.

Palestinians attend the funeral of top military leaders of the Islamic Jihad movement Khalil Al Bahtimi and Tarik Izz Al-Dine and their relatives after Israeli airstrikes in Gaza City, May 9, 2023. Israel carried out several attacks on the military leadership of the Islamic Jihad Movement in the Gaza Strip. Photo: — HAITHAM IMAD

“I don’t see a ceasefire,” said 58-year-old Muhammad Muhanna from the rubble of his home in Gaza. “The entire Palestinian people are suffering. We did?”.

Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammed Shtayyeh demanded “United Nations intervention to end Israel’s crimes against the people”. [palestino] in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank.

Send thousands of missiles

The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) on Friday confirmed the deaths of at least 13 civilians, seven of them minors. The Israeli army claims four civilians, three of them minors, were killed by Palestinian rockets that fell in the Strip.

The army claimed to have hit 371 “terror targets” and noted that some 1,230 rockets had been fired at Israel, more than 370 of which were intercepted by the air defense system.

The Gaza Strip is an impoverished and sparse Palestinian area where 2.3 million people live. Since 2007, when the Islamist Hamas movement took full control of the enclave, it has been subject to a strict Israeli blockade.

The area has been the scene of several wars with Israel since 2008.

In August 2022, three days of clashes between Israel and Islamic Jihad left 49 Palestinians dead, including at least 19 children, according to the UN. On that occasion, more than a thousand rockets were fired from Gaza towards Israel, causing injuries.