Israel launched heavy airstrikes Monday aimed at Hamas targets, ignoring international efforts to end the violence that has killed hundreds of civilians. Israeli military said it destroyed 15 kilometers of tunnels and the homes of nine Hamas commanders. The attacks on Monday also killed a top leader of the Islamic Jihad militant group in Gaza whom the military blamed for some of the thousands of rocket attacks launched at Israel in recent days. The war started last Monday, when Hamas militants fired rockets at Jerusalem after hundreds of Palestinians were hurt in clashes with Israeli troops during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. At the same time, Israel was planning to remove Palestinian families from an east Jerusalem neighborhood that it captured after the 1967 Arab-Israeli War. The Israeli military said Hamas and other armed groups had fired more than 3,000 rockets from Gaza over the past week. Israel's missile defense system intercepted most of them, it said. In return, the Israeli military has launched hundreds of airstrikes against targets in Gaza. The latest strikes came a day after Israel’s weekend attack, which killed 42 people and destroyed three buildings. The Gaza Health Ministry said at least 200 Palestinians have been killed in the airstrikes so far, including 58 children and 34 women. Another 1,300 are reportedly wounded. In Israel, ten people have been killed, including two children. Police said an Israeli man also died in hospital on Monday after being attacked and injured in Lod last week after clashes broke out in mixed Jewish-Arab communities in Israel.
