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The UN, US and UK have called for more protection for the civilians caught in intense violence between Israel and Palestinian militants.

Footage of children being pulled from the rubble in Gaza and people running for shelter in Israel have sparked international alarm.

The conflict is now in its second week, with little sign of a ceasefire.

More than 200 people, including 59 children, have died in Gaza, and 10, including two children, in Israel.

Israel says most of those killed in Gaza are militants and that any civilian deaths are unintentional.

Hamas, the militant group that runs the territory, does not acknowledge this.

In the early hours of Monday, Israel conducted dozens more air strikes on the Gaza Strip, after Palestinian militants fired barrages of rockets at southern Israeli cities.

There is mounting international concern over the violence, with world leaders and humanitarian organisations urging for measures to be taken to avoid residents being hurt, killed, or having their lives upended by the destruction.

In the UK, Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s spokesman said Israel must avoid civilian causalities, but expressed concern that “Hamas is again using civilian infrastructure and populations as cover for its operations”.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken urged both sides to protect civilians, especially children, while reiterating that Israel “as a democracy has an extra burden” to do so.

The United Nations has also expressed concerns about the damage to infrastructure in the already impoverished Gaza Strip, home to two million people.

It said that 40 schools and four hospitals had been “completely or partially destroyed” in recent days. It also warned that fuel supplies there were running out, threatening basic services.

The World Health Organization’s emergencies chief, Dr Mike Ryan, said all attacks on healthcare needed to stop immediately.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel has called for an end to the fighting, while speaking with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

However, she reaffirmed Israel’s right to defend itself against the attacks, according to her spokesman.
France and Egypt are among the other nations calling for an immediate ceasefire.

The outbreak in violence began after weeks of rising Israeli-Palestinian tension in occupied East Jerusalem that culminated in clashes at a holy site revered by both Muslims and Jews.

Hamas, which controls Gaza, began firing rockets after warning Israel to withdraw from the site, triggering retaliatory air strikes.

Meanwhile, An Israeli air strike in Gaza has killed Hussam Abu Harbeed, an Islamic Jihad leader, the armed group said.

The killing, on Monday, was likely to draw a fierce response from the group that is fighting alongside Hamas, the movement that governs the Gaza Strip.

The Israeli military said in a statement that Harbeed had been “behind several anti-tank missile terror attacks against Israeli civilians”.
Soon after Harbeed’s killing, Islamic Jihad said it had fired rockets at the Israeli coastal city of Ashdod.

At least three Palestinians were also killed by an Israeli air strike on a car in Gaza City on Monday, medics said, after a night of heavy Israeli air raids.

Israel’s military said Gaza fighters had fired about 60 rockets towards Israeli cities overnight, down from 120 and 200 the two previous nights.

Hamas said its attacks were in retaliation for Israel’s “ongoing aggression against civilians” and called civilian casualties “pre-meditated killing”.

At least 200 Palestinians, including 58 children, have been killed in the Gaza Strip since the latest violence began a week ago.
More than 1 300 Palestinians were also wounded. — Reuters