Israel bombs Hamas targets across Gaza Strip as cross-border conflict escalates

Israeli aircraft bombed Hamas targets across the Gaza Strip early today in a further escalation of cross-border conflict two weeks before the country’s election.

The office of Hamas’s political leader and its military intelligence headquarters were among 15 targets, according to the Israel Defence Forces. Seven Palestinians were wounded in the air strikes, Gaza’s health ministry said.

Dozens of rockets were fired from the Gaza Strip into Israel and air raid sirens sounded across the south.

The clashes followed the firing of a rocket from Gaza yesterday that destroyed the home of a British-Israeli family in Mishmeret, about 75 miles to the north.

Glass company boss Robert Wolf and his wife Sarah, originally from London, were at home with their son and his family when air raid sirens sounded and they scrambled for a shelter seconds before the rocket struck.

The attack prompted prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who is facing a tight election battle, to cut short a visit to Washington and return home.

“Israel will not tolerate this, I will not tolerate this. Israel is responding forcefully to this wanton aggression,” he said.

Gaza’s Hamas rulers last night announced that Egyptian mediators had brokered a ceasefire but the firing continued overnight before calm appeared to return.

Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Qatar and Kuwait today criticised a US decision to recognise Israel’s annexation of the Golan Heights from Syria in 1981.

“It will have significant negative effects on the peace process in the Middle East and the security and stability of the region,” a statement on Saudi Arabia’s state news agency SPA said.