LATEST: UN Says More Than 460,000 Gazans — 25% of Population — Displaced

In a sign of the likely expansion of the 47-day war in Gaza, an Israeli airstrike levelled a 14-story building in Gaza City on Saturday, injuring scores of people.

Two Israeli missiles, within seconds of each other, toppled the Zafer Tower and its 44 apartments in the upscale Tel al-Hawa neighborhood.

Casualties were limited because of an evacuation after an Israeli “knock on the door”, a smaller warning missile that hit the tower five minutes before the main strike. However, at least 22 people were wounded, including 11 children and five women, according to Gaza hospital officials.

The Israeli military claimed the building hosted a “war room” used by Hamas’ military branch. A spokesperson declared, “Nothing is immune anymore. If a 14-story building holds terror activity, the building will be brought down.”

Another Israeli strike overnight destroyed a seven-story building in Rafah, targeting an office of Hamas’s Interior Ministry. Nearby shops, homes, and buildings were severely damaged, and another attack demolished a two-story shopping center.

After daybreak Sunday, smoke is still rising from the site as shop owners inspect the damage. Windows and doors were blown out in nearby buildings.

The Israeli military says the two buildings were attacked because they housed facilities linked to terrorists, but do not provide further details. The Gaza City apartment tower toppled Saturday was targeted because a Hamas command center operated from there, the army says.

The Israel Defense Forces said more than 100 rockets were fired from Gaza across the border on Saturday. No casualties were reported.

The airstrikes and rockets overshadowed attempts in Egypt to restart ceasefire talks that collapsed last Tuesday.

Palestinian Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas, after a meeting with Egyptian President Abdel Fatteh El-Sisi, insisted, “As soon as a ceasefire goes into effect, the two sides can sit down and discuss their demands.”

Abbas’s discussions in Cairo followed two rounds of talks in Qatar on Thursday and Friday with exiled Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal.

UN: More Than 460,000 Gazans — 25% of Population — Displaced

As Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu tells Gazans to leave their homes because of military attacks following Hamas’ “terrorist activities”, the United Nations reports on the scale of the displacement of the population:

Defense Minister: We Will Assassinate More Hamas Leaders

Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon has promised more assassinations of Hamas leaders: “Even when they are hiding out among women and children…we know to get to them.”

Ya’alon continued, “If the heads of Hamas think they can wear us out… they are wrong. We’re not rushing anywhere. We have patience.”

He said Israel will pound Gaza “for now from the air” but assured that it has “other ways” of accomplishing its objectives.

Ya’alon’s remarks complemented those of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, opening the weekly Cabinet meeting, that military operations will not be halted until security and calm have been restored.

Netanyahu supported the warning of the Israeli military — by texts, recorded messages, and leaflets — to Gaza’s people to evacuate their omes:

I call on Gaza residents to leave any location from which Hamas is conducting terror activities. Every such place is a target for us. We have seen in recent days that there isn’t, and won’t be, any immunity for someone who fires on the citizens of Israel.