The Israeli military has continued its bombardment of the besieged Gaza Strip early on Wednesday, targeting several areas after rockets were fired from the enclave.
It is the most intense airstrikes in Gaza since the bombardment in 2014.
Health authorities in Gaza said at least 36 Palestinians – including 10 children – were killed in Israeli air strikes on the Strip since late on Monday, after Hamas launched rockets from the coastal territory towards Israel. At least 250 others were injured.
At least five people in Israel have also been killed.
The rocket fire came after Hamas, which rules Gaza, issued an ultimatum demanding Israel stand down its security forces from the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound in occupied East Jerusalem after days of violence against Palestinians.
Israeli police stormed the compound on Monday for a third consecutive day, firing rubber-coated steel rounds, stun grenades and tear gas at Palestinian worshippers inside the mosque in the final days of the holy month of Ramadan.
More than 700 Palestinians were hurt in Jerusalem and across the occupied West Bank in recent days.
Here are the latest updates:
1 hour ago (05:35 GMT)
Palestinians in Gaza evacuate amid Israeli bombardment
Residents of Gaza have evacuated from their homes amid intense bombardment by Israeli forces of several areas in the Palestinian territory.
The Israeli army has reported hitting several targets across Gaza, including in the southern Khan Younis neighbourhood early on Wednesday.
2 hours ago (05:09 GMT)
Israel strikes hit targets in Gaza’s Khan Younis
A video posted on social media by the Safa Press agency showed the aftermath of a series of Israeli strikes on Wednesday morning in Khan Younis, in the southern Gaza Strip.
Israel earlier announced that it has launched its largest bombardment of the Palestinian territory since its operation started on Monday.
There were no immediate reports of additional casualties in the last bombardments.
3 hours ago (04:08 GMT)
Israel hits several police stations in Gaza
Israeli air strikes on Wednesday morning, the heaviest since the operation started on Monday, hit several police stations in the Gaza Strip.
Al Jazeera’s Safwat al Kahlout, reporting from Gaza, said that the main police headquarters in the Palestinian territory was also “completely destroyed.”
Kahlout also reported that the death toll from the Israeli strikes has risen to 36, with 250 others injured.
Al Jazeera has also received reports that houses of senior commanders of Hamas were also hit.
Overnight, tens of families have been left homeless after their homes were also destroyed by Israeli air strikes, Kahlout reported.
A social media post by Omar El Qattaa showed the moment Israeli strikes hit several targets in Gaza.
3 hours ago (03:46 GMT)
Israel tanks ‘on the move’ heading to border with Gaza
According to social media posts and news reports, the Israeli army has reportedly deployed its tanks to its southern border with the Palestinian territory of Gaza, signaling a new phase in its operation against Palestinians.
Israeli and Palestinian analysts have also confirmed on Wednesday the movement of tanks near the Israeli border.
Dov Waxman, an analysts from the University of California, told Al Jazeera that Israeli forces have been moving their tanks near the border, but it is still unclear if it is preparing for a prolonged operation.
“I don’t think that the Israeli government would want to initiate a major ground incursion,” he said, even as he cautioned that the situation on the ground could go out of control fomenting more violence.
4 hours ago (02:43 GMT)
Activists, analysts urge Biden to ‘hold Israel to account’
Phyllis Bennis, an analyst at the US-based Institute for Policy Studies, said that “as long as the US is not prepared to hold Israel to account”, any statements from the Biden administration about the ongoing violence would not lead to a de-escalation.
“We keep hearing from President Biden that he wants a foreign policy that’s based on human rights. What we are not seeing is any actual commitment to human rights – and certainly in this case, there’s no willingness to use political capital,” Bennis told Al Jazeera in an interview.
Yara Asi, a non-resident fellow at Arab Center Washington, DC and a post-doctoral scholar at the University of Central Florida, also said that when the US funnels $3.8bn in military aid to Israel annually and provides diplomatic and political cover to the Israeli government in international arenas such as the United Nations, it is “disingenuous” for Washington to try to be disengaged.
“There is no more intimate external actor outside of Israelis and Palestinians than the United States, and this has been the case for decades – and it is continuing,” she told Al Jazeera.
4 hours ago (02:32 GMT)
Rocket launched from Gaza kills two in Lod
At least two more people were reported killed in the Israeli city of Lod, also known as al-Lydd, after a rocket fired from Gaza hit the area.
That brings to five the number of people killed in Israel due to rockets fired from Gaza.
Some news reports identified the latest fatalities as an Israeli woman and her seven-year-old son. Other reports said the two were of Israelis of Arab descent.
5 hours ago (02:15 GMT)
Unrests erupt within Israel in support of Palestinians
Unrests have erupted across Israel on Tuesday night and into Wednesday in support of Palestinian rights.
Social media posts showed fiery protests in Rahat, a predominantly Bedouin city in southern Israel as well as in Qalansawe, an Israeli Arab town in central Israel.
Earleir, the Israeli government declared a state of emergency in Lod, southeast of Tel Aviv also known in Arabic as al-Lydd, amid escalating violence following the killing of a Palestinian citizen by a Jewish Israeli in the city.
5 hours ago (01:40 GMT)
Pregnant Palestinian woman, 5-year-old son killed in latest Israeli strike
A woman, who is four months pregnant, and her five-year-old son, were reported killed following the latest Israeli air strike on their house in Tel al-Hawa, a neighbourhood in the southern part of Gaza.
The deaths of the woman, identified only as Reem, and her son, Zaid, was reported on social media by her brother, Ahmed Saad.
At least 35 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza in the latest strikes, which Israel said were in response to rockets fired by Hamas into Israeli.
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