Tensions escalate in Gaza Strip after ceasefire breaks down

(Baonghean.vn) - Three senior members of the Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of Hamas, were killed in a midnight airstrike by Israel on a house in Gaza.

The militant group said on Thursday that the three members killed were Mohammed Abu Shamala, Raed al-Attar and Mohammed Bahoum, part of its 15-member leadership. Just a day before the bombing of the house in northern Gaza, Israel struck the family of Hamas's supreme leader, Mohammed Deif. Hamas said the attack did not kill Deif, but his wife and 7-month-old son were killed.

Hamas has accused Israel of killing 21 people since Tuesday, August 19, and announced that its next target in retaliation will be Tel Aviv airport.

Violence between Israel and Hamas flared again on Tuesday, August 19, after a ceasefire collapsed and peace talks in Cairo failed, a result both sides blamed on the other. The Egyptian-brokered talks aimed at bringing the war in Gaza to a lasting end. Hopes of ending the massacre that has claimed the lives of more than 2,000 Palestinians (mostly civilians) and 67 Israelis (mostly soldiers) were once again dashed. Violence returned, even more fiercely than before, with more than 225 rockets fired from Gaza between Tuesday and Thursday, many of them intercepted by Israel's Iron Dome system, the Israeli military said. During that time, Israel struck 150 targets in Gaza. (CNN reported on August 21)

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