Israel Kills Palestinian Militant Commander in a Rocket Fire amid Peace Calls
Israel killed a senior Palestinian militant commander in heavy airstrikes on Gaza on Monday and Islamist groups renewed rocket attacks on Israeli cities despite mounting international calls for a ceasefire.
Gathogo Wanjiru 
As the worst hostilities in the region in years entered a second week, the U.S. through the Secretary of State Antony Blinken urged all sides to protect civilians and said Washington was working intensively behind the scenes to stop the conflict.
According to Gaza health officials, the Palestinian death toll since the hostilities flared last week stands at 201, including 58 children and 34 women.
The killing of Hussam Abu Harbeed, Islamic Jihad's armed commander for north Gaza, was likely to draw a fierce response from the militant group that is fighting alongside Hamas, the Islamist movement that governs the coastal enclave.
Israel bombed what its military said was 15 km of underground tunnels used by Hamas after Palestinian militants fired rockets from Gaza at the Israeli cities of Beersheba and Ashkelon. Nine residences belonging to high-ranking Hamas commanders in Gaza were also hit, it said.
"We have to continue the war until there is long-term ceasefire - (one) that is not temporary," Osher Bugam, a resident of the Israel coastal city of Ashkelon, said after a rocket fired from Gaza hit a synagogue there.
