Death toll grows as Israel-Gaza violence escalates

There have been more casualties in Gaza and Israel, as a heavy exchange of fire between Palestinian militants and the Israeli military continues.
Militants have fired more than 300 rockets towards Israel since Monday night, killing two Israelis.
Israel says it has hit 150 targets in Gaza in response. Health officials say 26 Palestinians have been killed.
The international community has urged both sides to end the escalation, which follows days of unrest in Jerusalem.
The militant group Hamas, which controls Gaza, said it was acting to defend Jerusalem’s al-Aqsa mosque from Israeli “aggression and terrorism” after the site, which is holy to Muslims and Jews, saw clashes between Israeli police and Palestinians on Monday that left hundreds injured.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Hamas had “crossed a red line” by firing rockets towards Jerusalem for the first time in years.
After a meeting with military chiefs on Tuesday afternoon, Mr Netanyahu warned that they had agreed to increase both the strength and the frequency of the Gaza strikes, adding that Hamas “will be hit in ways that it does not expect”.
The past few days have seen the worst violence in Jerusalem since 2017.
It followed mounting Palestinian anger over the threatened eviction of families from their homes in occupied East Jerusalem by Jewish settlers, fuelled by a month of altercations between protesters and police in the predominantly Arab part of the city.

Olusola Akintonde