By Weiyi Cai, Josh Holder, Lauren Leatherby, Eleanor Lutz, Scott Reinhard and Karen Yourish NYT
A week of fighting has left more than 200 people dead in Israel and the occupied territories, the vast majority of them Palestinians killed by Israeli airstrikes in the Gaza Strip.
Deaths in Israel and the occupied territories
The violence has intensified over the past eight days as diplomatic efforts have stalled and Israel has scaled up its bombing campaign against Hamas.
The war is being fought on multiple fronts. According to the Israeli Air Force, Hamas, the militant group that rules the Gaza Strip, has fired more than 3,300 rockets toward Israeli cities and towns, killing at least 10 people. Israeli forces and settlers have killed 20 Palestinians during unrest in the West Bank, a Palestinian human rights group said. And a wave of mob attacks hit at least one mixed Arab-Jewish city in Israel.
But the worst devastation is in Gaza, a densely packed coastal enclave of about two million people. Israeli forces have struck homes, refugee camps, medical facilities and other buildings.
Israeli officials have said the assault is aimed at destroying Hamas’s ability to make and launch missiles and a network of underground tunnels used by Hamas to move people and equipment. But the strikes have killed at least 212 people, including at least 61 children, according to local health authorities, drawing international condemnation.
Deaths in Gaza
On Saturday, an Israeli airstrike destroyed a well-known tower that housed some of the world’s leading news media organizations, including The Associated Press and Al Jazeera. The strikes have destroyed 132 buildings in Gaza and left 2,500 people homeless, according to Palestinian officials.
Towers destroyed in Gaza City
The conflict exploded into daily bouts of violence on May 10, after the Israeli police raided the Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem, one of Islam’s holiest sites, to stop what they said protesters were throwing stones. Gaza militants fired rockets toward Jerusalem.
Eight days of violence
Day 1 May 10 | Israeli airstrikes began Monday after militants fired a salvo of rockets toward Jerusalem.
28 killed in Gaza
3 killed in Israel
Day 2 May 11 | By Tuesday night, more than 30 Palestinians had been killed, including 10 children.
4 killed in Gaza
1 killed in Israel
Day 3 May 12 | Waves of mob violence between Jews and Arabs spread across Israeli cities as rockets and missiles streaked overhead.
21 killed in Gaza
4 killed in Israel
Day 4 May 13 | Israel intensified its campaign of airstrikes against Hamas, pulverizing buildings, offices and homes.
34 killed in Gaza
2 killed in Israel
Day 5 May 14 | Violence erupted in several places on the West Bank, as Israeli soldiers fired on demonstrators, some of whom threw stones and lit fires.
39 killed in Gaza
0 killed in Israel
Day 6 May 15 | Israel destroyed a building housing the offices of two major news media outlets, thousands of Palestinians fled their homes and Hamas militants fired more rocket barrages toward the Tel Aviv area.
13 killed in Gaza
1 killed in Israel
Day 7 May 16 | In the conflict’s most lethal episode so far, dozens of Palestinians were killed early Sunday morning in an airstrike on several apartments in Gaza City.
53 killed in Gaza
0 killed in Israel
Day 8 May 17 | The Israeli Army released 110 rockets and bombs on some 35 targets in a predawn bombardment that lasted about 20 minutes.
20 killed in Gaza
1 killed in Israel
Sources: Palestinian Ministry of Health; Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs
Reports of civil unrest in Israeli cities
The violence is the worst since 2014, when Israel’s seven-week invasion of Gaza and Hamas’s rocket fire ultimately claimed 2,200 lives, rendered large areas of the Gaza Strip uninhabitable and paralyzed Israel’s south. It took nearly three months for Israelis and Palestinians to reach a cease-fire.
