Israel masses troops along Gaza as rocket fire,
air strikes escalate
Nidal Al-mughrabiDan Williams
https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/biden-expects-spiralling-israel-gaza-c...5 minute read
Israel was preparing ground troops along the Gaza border on Thursday and Hamas launched rocket barrages at southern Israel as the fiercest hostilities in years dragged on with no end in sight.
Sirens blared in Tel Aviv overnight and the sound of rockets being shot down by Israel's Iron Dome system filled the sky, sending thousands of Israelis to shelters.
By dawn on Thursday, Israel had renewed its air strikes on the Palestinian coastal enclave, destroying a six-storey residential building in the middle of Gaza City.
At least 67 people have been killed in Gaza
since violence escalated on Monday, according to the enclave's health ministry. Seven people have been killed in Israel, its military said.
Israel has prepared combat troops along the Gaza border and was in "various stages of preparing ground operations," a military spokesman said, a move that would recall similar incursions during Israel-Gaza wars in 2014 and 2008-2009.