Israeli strikes on Gaza kill 28 as its offensive enters third day

A rocket launched from the Gaza Strip hit a residential building in Israel on Thursday, killing one, amid stalled attempts to agree a ceasefire after days of violence between the two sides that have left at least 28 Palestinians dead.

The rocket hit a four-storey apartment building in Rehovot, south of Tel Aviv, and wounded five people, the Magen David Adom medical service said.

At least 547 rockets were fired from Gaza toward Israel as of 2:30 p.m. local time (7:30 a.m. ET), according to the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), as Palestinian militants retaliated against ongoing heavy airstrikes from the Israeli military. The IDF has been targeting what it says are Islamic Jihad operatives and infrastructure along the strip since Tuesday.

Four leaders of the Palestinian militant organization have so far died in the bombardments. Al-Quds Brigades Commander Ali Hassan Ghali, who was in charge of the Al-Quds Brigades rocket unit, died in the strikes Thursday morning, the militant group said in a statement.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) had already tweeted early Thursday that they had “targeted Ali Ghali, the commander of Islamic Jihad’s Rocket Launching Force,” along with what they said were two other Islamic Jihad operatives in Gaza.

Among the 28 Palestinians killed since Tuesday, 15 people died on Tuesday, seven people on Wednesday, and six on Thursday, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health in Gaza.

A further 86 people have been injured since airstrikes on Gaza started at dawn on Tuesday, the ministry added.

While Iron Dome and David's Sling interceptors have shot down 96% of rockets engaged, according to the military, one hit a residential building in Rehovot on Thursday. Medics said an elderly man was killed, the first person killed in Israel in the latest round of fighting, and five other people were wounded.

After more than a year of resurgent Israeli-Palestinian violence that has killed more than 140 Palestinians and at least 19 Israelis and foreigners since January, the latest escalation drew international calls for a ceasefire.

But Cairo, which hosted senior Islamic Jihad official Mohammad al-Hindi for talks, was circumspect about prospects.

"Egypt's efforts to calm things down and resume the political process have not yet borne fruit," Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry told reporters.

Meeting Jordanian, French and German counterparts in Berlin, Shoukry urged "peace-sponsoring countries to intervene and stop the attacks" and said Israel must "stop the unilateral measures that aim to destroy the future of the Palestinian state".

Islamic Jihad spurns coexistence with Israel and preaches its destruction. Among terms for a truce, it wants an end to Israeli strikes against its leaders. Israel has rejected that.

"We have resumed the 'elimination' policy - big time," Israeli Foreign Minister Eli Cohen told Channel 12 TV. "If and when we enter a ceasefire, it won't be with preconditions."

Israel appeared to be hoping that Islamic Jihad, depleted of rockets and commanders, would halt hostilities unilaterally. Hagari declined to be drawn on the faction's remaining arsenal.

Both in blockaded Gaza, where residents have been experiencing decades of a worsening humanitarian crisis, and in surrounding Israeli towns, schools and businesses remained shut.

"We can't sleep at night because we worry about bombardment," said Mohammad Abu el-Subbah, 24, outside a bakery in Gaza City. "People have no clue what will happen next, whether there will be a truce or the war will continue."

At least 80 people were wounded in the air strikes that destroyed five buildings and damaged more than 300 apartments, said Salama Marouf, chairman of the media office for Hamas, the group that rules the densely populated coastal territory.

Israel's military said over 100 rockets - many of them improvised - had fallen short, killing four Palestinians, including a 10-year-old girl. Islamic Jihad denied that.

"Once again Israel tries to escape its responsibility for the killing of civilians through fabrications and lies," faction spokesman Dawoud Shehab said.

Israel has kept crossings for the movement of people and goods closed since Tuesday. Israeli authorities estimated that between 30% and 60% of communities around Gaza have evacuated as a precaution. On Wednesday, sirens sounded as far as the commercial capital Tel Aviv, 60 km (37 miles) north of Gaza.

As the firing continued in Gaza, the military said it had arrested 25 people in the occupied West Bank associated with Islamic Jihad. In the West Bank town of Tulkarm, the Palestinian health ministry said Israeli forces shot dead a 66-year-old man. The military said troops returned fire after one of them was shot and wounded by gunmen.

Israel captured Gaza and the West Bank, areas Palestinians want for an independent state with East Jerusalem as its capital, in a 1967 war. Israeli forces and settlers withdrew from Gaza in 2005. Statehood talks have been frozen since 2014.