France Unleash Civilian Victims As Israel-Palestine Violence Escalates

As Israel responded with air and tank strikes to hundreds of rockets fired from the Gaza Strip on Saturday, French authorities strongly condemned the attacks on Israel.

According to Reuters quoted by French media, The French Ministry of Foreign affairs "very firmly condemned" the rockets fired from the Gaza Strip on Israeli territory on Saturday

"France affirms the right of Israelis, like the Palestinians, to peace, dignity and security.", the Foreign Ministry said.

"We deplore the civilian victims on both sides", the communiqué added.

War of words and rockets

Gaza militants fired fresh rocket barrages at Israel early Sunday in a deadly escalation that has seen Israel respond with waves of strikes as a fragile truce again faltered and a further escalation was feared.

Gazan authorities reported four Palestinians killed in Israeli strikes in the escalation that began Saturday, but Israel disputed their account of the deaths of a pregnant mother and her baby.

Israel said 430 rockets had been fired from the Palestinian enclave since Saturday and its air defences intercepted many of them.

Beyond the man killed, an 80-year-old woman was seriously injured in a rocket strike on the Israeli city of Kiryat Gat, police and medics said.

A man was also hospitalised in Ashkelon, said police, which spoke of other injuries without providing details.

A house near Ashkelon was damaged while other rockets hit open areas.

Israel strikes back at Gaza militant targets, Turkey denounces strike

The Israeli army said its tanks and planes hit some 200 militant targets in Gaza in response.

They included an Islamic Jihad attack tunnel that stretched from southern Gaza into Israeli territory, it said.

Two multi-storey buildings in Gaza City were destroyed.

srael said one of the buildings included Hamas military intelligence and security offices.

Turkey said an office for its state news agency Anadolu was located in the building and strongly denounced the strike.

Israel said the other building housed Hamas and Islamic Jihad offices.

The UN envoy for the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Nickolay Mladenov, called on "all parties to immediately de-escalate and return to the understandings of the past few months."

The United States condemned the rocket attacks on Israel and said it fully supported its "right to self-defence against these abhorrent attacks."