Inside the Israeli city of Ashkelon, where Hamas launched new attacks

Ashkelon, a coastal city in Israel, known to be a famous archaeological site and the world’s largest seawater reverse osmosis desalination plant is barely hanging on. On Day 4 of the war, it became “hell” when Palestinian terror group Hamas rained down rockets on the city.

The action came as Israel continued to pound Gaza, with the Israeli Air Force announcing that fighter jets hit 70 targets on Tuesday night. In fact, people on the ground in Gaza have told Western journalists the Israeli response is the most ferocious air assault they have ever witnessed.

As we step into Day 5 of the war, let’s take a closer look at what happened in Ashkelon and what is likely to happen next.

‘Leave home’

Ashkelon, a coastal city in Israel and just 13 kilometres away from the Gaza Strip border, became a victim of Hamas rocket attacks on Tuesday in response to Israel’s pounding of Gaza.

Just hours before the barrage of rockets were launched, the spokesperson for Hamas’s Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades Abu Obeida issued a warning, asking residents to leave. “In response to the enemy’s crime of displacing our people and forcing them to flee their homes in several areas of the Gaza Strip, we give the residents of the occupied city of Ashkelon a deadline to leave before 5 pm (7.30 pm IST),” he said on his Telegram channel.

Shortly after that, the air reverberated with sirens and then came the rockets, causing devastation and destruction.

Rockets rain down

After issuing their alert, Hamas began its barrage of attacks on the coastal city, forcing people to cower inside their homes. NDTV reported that most of the people were taking refuge in basement shelters.

Residents said that the skies of Ashkelon lit up on Tuesday as Hamas launched rocket after rocket and that they were seeing the worst of the war. An Israeli by the name Yaacov told ANI that he had fled his home after Hamas’ warning and it was thanks to the local administration that he and his family, including two children, took shelter at a local shelter. “We are here because rockets fell on the roof of our neighbour’s house; our windowpanes were destroyed.”

Reporters on the ground said that Hamas’ continuous rocket attack had turned the city into a ghost town – streets are deserted, people shuttered inside their homes and new impact craters in residential neighbourhoods from incoming rocket strikes.

A woman whose house was damaged in the fresh attack, told Reuters, “It’s horrible, just to think that if we were here, God forbid, there is no safe room here, nothing. It’s stressful, very stressful… it’s stressful, it’s not normal to raise children this way.”

Dr Tomer Aaronson, a surgeon at the Barzilai Medical Centre in Ashkelon, told CBC News, “Welcome to hell. I have never seen such brutality.” He added that the situation is hard to grasp and that the country is going to have “a national post-traumatic stress syndrome. This is going to take decades (to get past).”

He said home in Ashkelon already felt different, with the noise of the attacks getting louder, closer and the violence feeling more intense and personal.

Even journalists reporting on the ground spoke of how they had to duck and take cover as Hamas unleashed one missile after another.

Sky News’ international affairs editor Dominic Waghorn reporting from Ashkelon said that several people had been injured after windows were blown in flats overlooking the blast.

Reuters further reported that Israel’s military, backed by a helicopter and drones, clashed with militants inside the Israeli territory late on Tuesday. Soldiers killed three militants in the incident, when they were trying to start a fire in an industrial area close to an oil terminal located just over 10 km (6 miles) from the Gaza Strip that has been shut in the wake of the attacks.

However, amid all this, Israel’s Iron Dome was hard at work, intercepting the missiles from Hamas.

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The heavy toll of the war

The war which began on Saturday (7 October) following Hamas’ unprecedented attacks has already taken a heavy toll. According to Israeli authorities, the death toll had passed 1,200 with the vast majority of deaths being civilians. This is an increase of 200 people since the last toll.

Meanwhile, the most recent Palestinian toll from the Gaza health authority has put the death toll in the enclave at 900 since Saturday. Among the dead are 260 children and 230 women. The United Nations on Tuesday also said that over 260,000 people have been forced to flee their homes in the Gaza Strip, as heavy Israeli bombardments from the air, land and sea continue to hit the Palestinian enclave.

Humanitarian worker Hozayfa Yazji speaking of the attacks in Gaza told BBC, “I do not accept targeting civilians from both sides by any means. To this retaliation in Gaza… In my mind, it’s a collective punishment.

“I’m looking out of my window and people just running in the streets of Gaza and they don’t know where to go. There is no hope.”

Meanwhile, there’s a likely possibility that Israel will step up its attack and even launch a ground invasion in Gaza soon. This became even more imminent after Israeli Defence Minister Yoavv Gallant, on Tuesday told soldiers near the Gaza fence: “Hamas wanted a change and it will get one. What was in Gaza will no longer be. We started the offensive from the air, later on we will also come from the ground.”

Israel has been receiving support from other countries at this time with the United States being most vocal and expressive of their support. President Biden on Tuesday said that the Hamas’ attack on Israel is an unadulterated evil unleashed on the world, and added that at least 14 American citizens were killed in the incident.

Biden also said it was Hamas’ stated purpose to annihilate the state of Israel and kill Jewish people.

“There are moments in this life and I mean this literally when pure, unadulterated evil is unleashed on this world. The people of Israel lived through one such moment this weekend. The bloody hands of the terrorist organisation Hamas, a group whose stated purpose for being is to kill Jews,” Biden said in his address to the nation from the White House.

The US president has vowed his administration’s “rock solid and unwavering” support to Israel. The United States has launched a major global diplomatic drive to garner support for Israel and take necessary action against Palestinian militant group Hamas.

With inputs from agencies