Israel attacks Gaza, the dead toll rises.

            According to Palestinian health officials, the death toll from violence in Gaza reached 32 on Sunday, including six children, as Israel maintained its assault on the region for the third day in a row. According to the militants, a second top commander of a Palestinian armed group was also killed by an Israeli airstrike. Israel continued its attack on Gaza while the Palestinian Islamic Jihad movement (PIJ) reacted with a volley of rockets fired at it.

 

Khaled Mansour was killed late on Saturday by an Israeli strike, which also claimed the life of the militant group's northern commander. Mansour oversaw operations for the Islamic Jihad in the southern Gaza Strip. Six children were among the 32 victims of violence in Gaza since Israel's most recent strikes on Friday, according to the health ministry in the Palestinian territory on Sunday. The attacks also left more than 215 people injured. Israel continued its operation against the Islamic Jihad organization while in the West Bank, seizing 20 individuals in nighttime raids, the army reported on Sunday.

 

According to the Israel army, on Sunday, Palestinian insurgents replied by firing rockets at Israel, setting off air raid sirens in Jerusalem. Later thereafter, the Islamic Jihad acknowledged that the group had launched rockets at Jerusalem. According to Israeli Justice Minister Gideon Saar, a member of the security council that makes decisions, the operation is still going on despite the hundreds of rockets that Islamic Jihad has fired in retaliation.

 

On Sunday, Jews celebrating two ancient temples visited a significant mosque complex in Jerusalem that they revere as a relic of those shrines, raising the possibility of yet another flashpoint. Such visits are seen as a political and religious assault by Palestinians. Mansour and two other fighters were murdered in an Israeli bombing in the southern Gaza city of Rafah on Sunday, according to the Al-Quds Brigades of Islamic Jihad. The attack also destroyed many homes and resulted in the deaths of five civilians, including a toddler and three women, according to the armed wing of PIJ.

 

For the time being, it appeared that Hamas, the more powerful armed organization that controls Gaza, would stay out of the fighting and limit its response. Only a year ago, Israel and Hamas engaged in warfare. This was one of four major wars and numerous lesser conflicts that have taken a terrible toll on the two million Palestinians who live in the impoverished territory.

 

The electricity distributor reported that the only power station in the strip shut down owing to a lack of fuel after Israel blocked its border crossings. Daily life in the strip has come to a complete standstill. The health ministry in Gaza warned that the next 72 hours might see the suspension of essential services due to a lack of electricity, calling them "crucial and challenging."

 

Dounia Ismail, a local of Gaza City, claimed that Palestinians have developed the habit of packing a "survival bag" with supplies like cash and medicine. She told AFP that "this most recent escalation brings back memories of terror, anxiety, and the sense that we are all alone." Meanwhile, since Friday, civilians in southern and central Israel have been compelled to take cover in air raid shelters. Two persons were hospitalized with shrapnel wounds, according to the Magen David Adom rescue service, and 13 others had minor injuries while fleeing. Nadav Peretz, a local of the Israeli settlement of Kibbutz Nahal Oz in the Gaza Strip, claimed to have spent the entire weekend "in the bomb shelter or close by." The 40-year-old stated, "We recognize that there is an uninvolved civilian population on the other side, too, and on both sides, children deserve to enjoy their summer vacation.

 

Although affiliated with Hamas, Islamic Jihad frequently operates autonomously. Most of the West has both on its "terrorist organizations blacklist." Since assuming control of Gaza in 2007, Hamas has engaged in four battles with Israel, including the most recent one in May 2019 saw a flare-up with Islamic Jihad following Israel's murder of Jabari's predecessor, Baha Abu al-Ata. Hamas stayed out of the fight during that battle. Hamas is under pressure from some to restore peace to improve the economic situation in Gaza, therefore its actions at this time could be critical.

 

On Sunday, attention will partially shift to Jerusalem, where some Jews will observe the Tisha Be'av memorial day by visiting the Al Aqsa mosque complex, also known as the Temple Mount in Judaism. Ismail Haniyeh, the leader of Hamas in Doha, has issued a warning against allowing Jews to "storm" the compound on Sunday, claiming that it could result in an "uncontrollable" security crisis given the recent events in Gaza. Tensions at the compound in Israel-annexed east Jerusalem have previously sparked wider violence.