Israel’s Netanyahu vows to step up attacks on Hamas

Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned Tuesday that Israel would step up attacks on Gaza’s Islamist rulers Hamas as the foes traded heavy fire that killed at least 28 people.

The recent development is an escalation of tensions that were sparked in Jerusalem.

World powers are urging calm while Muslim countries are voicing outrage amid the worst flare-up of violence in years that saw Hamas rain down rockets on Israel, while the Jewish state launched attacks with fighter jets and attack helicopters.

Gaza’s Hamas said it launched 130 rockets towards Israeli city Tel Aviv on Tuesday night, as sirens warning of incoming rocket fire blared in Tel Aviv and central Israel on Tuesday night.

Israel’s Channel 12 TV reported at least one person was critically wounded by the rockets, according to the Israeli National ambulance service, after at least one rocket directly hit on a building in the city’s suburb of Holon.

According to Israel’s KAN broadcaster, the country has halted all flights in Tel Aviv’s Ben Gurion Airport

Netanyahu warned that the Israel Defence Forces would now intensify their attacks, which the army said have targeted military sites and claimed the lives of at least 17 Hamas and Islamist Jihad commanders.

Netanyahu said in a video released by his office that Hamas “will be hit in ways that it does not expect adding they will further intensify the power of their attacks.