Human Lives Human Rights: At least 31 Palestinians, including six children and second Palestinian Islamic Jihad commander killed in Israeli air strikes on Gaza.
Emergency workers race against time to rescue people trapped, as resident buildings turn into rubble in Israeli raids.
The Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) movement and Hamas condemned the assassination of Khalid Mansour, commander of the southern division in Gaza of the al-Quds Brigades (Saraya al-Quds), the military wing of the PIJ.
Mansour was killed in an air strike that hit an overcrowded area in Rafah city, in the south of the Gaza Strip, late on Saturday.
At least seven people were killed in the attack, including two other PIJ fighters, Ziad Ahmed al-Mdalal and Rafat Saleh Sheikh al-Eid, as well as a 14-year-old child and two women.
“The Islamic Jihad movement in Palestine and its military arm, Saraya al-Quds, mourn the martyrdom of the fallen fighters and civilians who were killed in a violent Zionist aggression that targeted a residential area in the al-Sha’ut camp in the city of Rafah,” the group said in a statement.
“While we mourn the dead, we confirm that their death will not go in vain, and that our fighters will not let their blood dry before they attack the enemy’s settlements with our rockets,” it said.
The Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of Hamas, issued a similar statement mourning Khalid Mansour and Taiseer al-Jabari, head of the northern division of al-Quds Brigades, who was killed on Friday.
Meanwhile, scores of Israeli ultra-nationalists, including settlers, stormed Al-Aqsa Mosque in occupied East Jerusalem on Sunday morning.
Protected by heavily armed Israeli forces, the storming began at around 7am local time and continued for three hours, as Israelis marked the Jewish holiday of Tisha B’av.
According to local Palestinian media, at least 1,000 Israeli had stormed the site in the morning.
Small groups of Muslim worshippers who were inside the mosque during the raids were assaulted by Israeli forces.
Skirmishes occurred between Israeli ultra-nationalists and Palestinian residents, outside the mosque.
