Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said
Three Israelis were killed, according to the ZAKA rescue and recovery organization and the Barzilai hospital in Ashkelon. Four Palestinian militants were killed in the airstrikes, according to Gaza health officials, as well as two other Palestinian men.
The IDF denied killing a one-year old baby and the baby’s pregnant mother in Gaza, and said the deaths were caused by a Hamas rocket that misfired.
A 58-year-old man was killed when a rocket hit his house in Ashkelon, according to a statement from Barzilai hospital. He is the first Israeli to be killed by rocket fire since the end of the 2014 war.
Two gunmen from the armed wing of Islamic Jihad were killed overnight in Gaza, according to a statement from the militant group. Two other Palestinian men died in earlier airstrikes on Saturday.
The UN said it is working with Egypt to try to restore a ceasefire and says both sides are putting at risk efforts to relieve the suffering of people in Gaza.
The escalation began Saturday morning with about 50 rockets fired towards Israel within the course of an hour and continued late into the evening.
The IDF said its Iron Dome aerial defense system had intercepted dozens of the incoming rockets.
In response to the rockets, the IDF said it carried out airstrikes on about 200 militant targets in Gaza, including a tunnel, rocket launcher sites and other military compounds used by Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ.
