Israel launches deadliest airstrike of engagement

Bombing in Gaza City kills at least 42, including 8 children

The violence showed no sign of abating Sunday as Israel made the single deadliest airstrike yet on Gaza in the weeklong bombing campaign and the number of rockets fired at Israel from Gaza topped 3,000.

The Israeli bombing in Gaza City killed at least 42 people, including 12 women and eight children, and wounded 50 others, according to Palestinian health authorities. They said the toll was likely to climb as rescuers picked through the rubble searching for victims and survivors.

Israel’s military acknowledged civilian deaths in the strike.

An Israeli aircraft “struck underground military infrastructure belonging to Hamas terror organization, which was located under the road in the relevant area,” an Israeli Defense Forces spokesperson said. “The underground military facility collapsed, causing the foundations of the civilian house above to collapse as well, causing unintentional casualties. The aim of the IDF strike was military infrastructure.”

In a separate strike, the Israeli military said it had bombed the home of Yahya

Sinwar, the leader of Hamas, the Palestinian militant group that controls the Gaza Strip, in the southern town of Khan Younis. It released a video of the bombing.

At least 192 people — most of them civilians, including 58 children — have been killed by Israeli planes, drones and artillery since the campaign began May 10, Palestinian officials said.

Israel said it has killed 75

Palestinian militants, primarily Hamas operatives, and accuses the group of using civilians as human shields. In airstrikes that claimed civilian casualties, Israel has often described the targets as weapons caches or militant operations centers.

In Israel, at least 10 people have been killed by Hamas rockets, Israeli authorities said.

Israeli forces have hit more than 1,500 targets, causing serious damage to Hamas infrastructure, including the network of tunnels it uses to move people and weapons, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other top officials said at a press briefing after a meeting of the Security Cabinet.

“Hamas’ underground has gone down the drain,” he said. “The metro has turned from a strategic asset to a death trap for the terrorists.”

He described Israeli forces as “doing everything we can to minimize as much as possible any harm to civilians.”