GAZA CITY: Israeli tank fire killed a Palestinian woman in her Gaza home on Thursday, the second day of the worst clashes between the army and Hamas fighters since the devastating 2014 war.
The confrontation came as a new tunnel was discovered reaching into Israel from the Palestinian enclave.
Israeli tanks stationed on the border have also fired multiple times at what the army said were Hamas targets.
Late on Thursday afternoon, tank shelling that followed a mortar attack from the Khan Yunis area in southern Gaza killed Zeina Al-Amour, 54, according to the Nasser hospital that pronounced her death.
A 21-year-old was also wounded in artillery shelling in the area.
Overnight air raids wounded four people, three of them children, medical and security officials said.
The Palestinian attacks were targeting Israeli forces working near the border fence searching for tunnels crossing under the border, like those whose destruction it cited as one of the main achievements of the 2014 conflict. The army announced a new tunnel was found on Thursday, after a first one was discovered in mid-April.
The flare-up has raised concerns over the fate of a cease-fire between Israel and Hamas, the rulers of Gaza, that has held since the 50-day war left more than 2,251 Palestinians and 73 Israelis dead. Hamas’s armed wing, the Ezzedine Al-Qassam Brigades, accused Israeli forces of encroaching into Gazan territory and said it was ready to respond.
Hamas “will not allow the continuation of Zionist aggression on the Gaza Strip,” it said in a statement. Israeli Army spokesman Lt. Col. Peter Lerner said the new tunnel discovered Thursday had been about 30 meters (100 feet) deep.
Lerner did not say how far into Israel the tunnel stretched or when it was built, but confirmed the discovery was made by Israeli forces on the Gazan side of the border.
The confrontation came as a new tunnel was discovered reaching into Israel from the Palestinian enclave.
Israeli tanks stationed on the border have also fired multiple times at what the army said were Hamas targets.
Late on Thursday afternoon, tank shelling that followed a mortar attack from the Khan Yunis area in southern Gaza killed Zeina Al-Amour, 54, according to the Nasser hospital that pronounced her death.
A 21-year-old was also wounded in artillery shelling in the area.
Overnight air raids wounded four people, three of them children, medical and security officials said.
The Palestinian attacks were targeting Israeli forces working near the border fence searching for tunnels crossing under the border, like those whose destruction it cited as one of the main achievements of the 2014 conflict. The army announced a new tunnel was found on Thursday, after a first one was discovered in mid-April.
The flare-up has raised concerns over the fate of a cease-fire between Israel and Hamas, the rulers of Gaza, that has held since the 50-day war left more than 2,251 Palestinians and 73 Israelis dead. Hamas’s armed wing, the Ezzedine Al-Qassam Brigades, accused Israeli forces of encroaching into Gazan territory and said it was ready to respond.
Hamas “will not allow the continuation of Zionist aggression on the Gaza Strip,” it said in a statement. Israeli Army spokesman Lt. Col. Peter Lerner said the new tunnel discovered Thursday had been about 30 meters (100 feet) deep.
Lerner did not say how far into Israel the tunnel stretched or when it was built, but confirmed the discovery was made by Israeli forces on the Gazan side of the border.
