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GAZA CITY - Palestinian militants Hamas fired a barrage of rockets at Israel's economic hub Tel Aviv on Tuesday in retaliation for an Israeli strike that destroyed a 12-storey building in Gaza, as the foes traded their heaviest fire for several years.

The sharp escalation, sparked by violence in Jerusalem, has killed at least 28 Palestinians in the blockaded Gaza Strip and three Israelis, prompting international calls for calm.

Several nights of clashes between Palestinian protesters and Israeli police, particularly around the flashpoint Al Aqsa Mosque compound, spiralled on Monday night into a barrage of Islamist rocket fire from Gaza and deadly Israeli air strikes in retaliation.

An Israeli woman was killed as rockets hit Rishon Letzion near Tel Aviv, while in nearby Holon, AFP photographers saw several cars and a bus on fire.

Israel suspended traffic at its main airport on Tuesday due to "massive rocket fire", the aviation authority told AFP, and air traffic websites showed flights redirected to nearby Cyprus.

Hamas, which controls Gaza, said the tower block struck earlier had been a residential building, but AFP reporters said it also houses offices of several Hamas officials.

In the crowded coastal enclave, 10 children were among those killed since Monday night, while 150 people were reported wounded, many rescued from the smouldering ruins of buildings.

At one stage Hamas claimed to have fired more than 100 rockets in under five minutes to overwhelm air defences.

At least 84 Israelis have been injured.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned that Israel planned "to further intensify the power of our attacks".

'Fighting will intensify'

Israel's army said more than 600 rockets had been fired since Monday from Gaza towards Israel mainly by Hamas, which rules Gaza, and the Islamic Jihad group.

Many landed inside Gaza or were taken out by Israel's Iron Dome air defence system.

Army spokesman Jonathan Conricus said Israel estimated it had killed 20 Islamist militants in Gaza, warning that "our expectation is the fighting will intensify".

Asked about unconfirmed reports that Hamas was seeking a ceasefire, Conricus said: "I don't think my commanders are aware, or particularly interested."

A Palestinian was also killed and another wounded Tuesday by Israeli army gunfire in the north of the occupied West Bank, a Palestinian security source told AFP.

The Israeli forces reported an attempted drive-by shooting, saying "two assailants were neutralised at the scene".

The United States on Tuesday urged both sides to avoid "deeply lamentable" civilian deaths.

"Israel does have a right to defend itself," State Department spokesman Ned Price said, adding: "We don't want to see provocations."

'You escalate, we escalate'

Weeks of tensions boiled over when Israeli riot police clashed with crowds of Palestinians at Jerusalem's Al Aqsa Mosque, on the last Friday of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.

Nightly clashes since then at the compound, which is holy to both Muslims and Jews, and elsewhere in east Jerusalem have left at least 700 Palestinians injured.

Hamas had warned Israel on Monday to withdraw all its forces from the mosque compound and the Jerusalem district of Sheikh Jarrah, where looming evictions of Palestinian families have fuelled protests.

Sirens wailed across Jerusalem just after the deadline as people in the city, including lawmakers in the Knesset legislature, fled to bunkers for the first time since the 2014 Gaza conflict.

Hamas' Qassam Brigades warned Israel: "if you respond we will respond, and if you escalate we will escalate".

Diplomatic sources told AFP that Egypt and Qatar, who have mediated past Israeli-Hamas conflicts, were attempting to calm tensions.

But Egypt's Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry told an emergency Arab League meeting that although Cairo had "extensively reached out" to Israel and other countries, "we did not get the necessary response".

Large protests were held in solidarity with Palestinians around the world, including in London, as well as in Muslim-majority countries including Kuwait, Oman, Pakistan, Tunisia and Turkey.

In Jordan, protesters gathered outside the Israeli embassy, burning Israeli flags and chanting "Shame, shame the embassy is still there" and "Death to Israel".

Jerusalem braced for more protests in which Palestinians hurl rocks, bottles and fireworks at Israeli officers in riot gear, who respond with rubber bullets, stun grenades and tear gas.

"They shot everyone, young and old people," claimed Palestinian man Siraj, 24, about Israeli security forces in a confrontation in which he suffered a spleen injury from a rubber bullet.

Amnesty International accused Israel of using "abusive and wanton force against largely peaceful Palestinian protesters".

BEIT HANUN, Palestinian Territories - Young brothers Ibrahim and Marwan were filling sacks of straw in northern Gaza when an Israeli strike came from the skies. In an instant, they and three other relatives were killed.

Bloodstains could still be seen on Tuesday outside their house in Beit Hanun in the northern Gaza Strip, close to a barrier separating the Palestinian territory from Israel.

The boys had been packing straw to sell at a local livestock market, said their cousin, also called Ibrahim.

He and the two brothers, aged 10 and 14, "had prepared three sacks, and I had just left to take one to put on the cart," he told AFP.

"We were laughing and having fun, when suddenly they began to bomb us, everything around us caught fire."

"I saw my cousins set alight, and torn into pieces," said the 14-year-old, breaking down in tears.

"Why did they leave me? I would have wanted to die as a martyr like them."

Their cousins, three-month old baby Yazan and 10-year-old girl Rahaf, were also killed in the strike.

Another family member, 22-year-old Ahmad, died later Tuesday from his injuries. He had been due to be married on Saturday.

None had had enough time to take shelter when the first Israeli strikes hit Gaza on Monday evening in retaliation for a volley of rockets launched from the Palestinian territory into southern Israel.

At least 30 dead

The Hamas group, which runs the Gaza Strip, has rained hundreds of rockets on Israel in solidarity with hundreds of Palestinians wounded since Israeli riot police clashed with large crowds of worshippers at Jerusalem's Al Aqsa Mosque on Friday.

Hamas had on Monday warned Israel to withdraw all its forces from the mosque compound, which is holy to both Muslims and Jews, as well as the Jerusalem district of Sheikh Jarrah, where looming evictions of Palestinian families have fuelled anger.

Just after the Israeli strikes began, the Israeli army said it had targeted a Hamas commander in Beit Hanun. And the movement swiftly confirmed the death of Muhammad Fayyad.

At least 30 people have been killed, mostly Palestinians, since the start of the air strikes on Monday evening. More than 125 have also been wounded in Gaza.

On the Israeli side, two people were killed and dozens injured in Ashkelon, an Israeli town lying close to Gaza.

Hamas said it had unleashed 137 rockets on the town on Tuesday. Later Tuesday it also unleashed a barrage of rockets close to Tel Aviv, killing one person and forcing the closure of Israel's main airport.

'Innocent child'

Hundreds of people brandishing Palestinian flags attended Tuesday's funerals of several of the victims in Beit Hanun, which lies just one kilometre from the Erez crossing point into Israel.

As the procession of mourners reached the cemetery, a volley of rockets thrust into the skies heading towards Israeli territory.

Mourners shouted: "Allah Akbar" -- "God is greatest".

Sitting in the cemetery was Abu Hussein Hamad stroking the face of his 11-year-old son, Hussein, for the last time before he was buried.

"What did this innocent child do?" he asked, tears welling up in his eyes.

Hussein was killed in the same strike as the five members of the al-Masri family, his neighbours.

"I promised to buy him new shoes for the Eid Al Fitr," said the sobbing father, referring to this week's celebrations to mark the end of the holy month of Ramadan.

Nearby, Hussein's grandmother also couldn't hide her emotions.

"They killed him," she said. "He hadn't committed any crime."

OCCUPIED JERUSALEM — Israel launched deadly air strikes on Gaza on Monday in response to a barrage of rockets fired by Hamas and other Palestinian fighters, amid spiralling violence sparked by unrest at Jerusalem's Al Aqsa Mosque compound.

At least 20 people were killed, including nine children and a senior Hamas commander, and 65 others wounded, Gaza authorities said.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned that Hamas had crossed a "red line" by directing missiles towards Jerusalem and that Israel would "respond with force".

Israeli forces said 150 rockets had been launched from Gaza, dozens of which were intercepted by the Iron Dome Aerial Defence System, with no casualties reported.

Hamas sources confirmed to AFP that one of their commanders, Mohammed Fayyad, had been killed.

Tensions in Jerusalem have flared since Israeli  forces clashed with Palestinian worshippers on the last Friday of the Muslim holy fasting month of Ramadan in the city's worst disturbances since 2017.

Nightly unrest since then at Al Aqsa compound has left hundreds of Palestinians wounded, drawing international calls for de-escalation and sharp rebukes from across the Muslim world.

Diplomatic sources told AFP that Egypt and Qatar, who have mediated past Israeli-Hamas conflicts, were attempting to calm tensions

Adding to the sense of chaos, a huge fire engulfed trees in the compound that houses the mosque, Islam’s third holiest site, as hundreds of Israelis watched from the Western Wall esplanade below.

Hamas, which controls the Gaza Strip, earlier on Monday warned Israel to withdraw all its forces from the mosque compound and the East Jerusalem district of Sheikh Jarrah, where looming evictions of Palestinian families have fuelled angry protests.

Sirens wailed across Jerusalem just after the 15:00 GMT deadline set by Hamas as people in Jerusalem, including lawmakers in the Knesset legislature, fled to bunkers for the first time since a 2014 Gaza conflict.

A spokesman for Hamas’ armed wing the Qassam Brigades said the rocket attacks were in response to Israeli actions in Sheikh Jarrah and around the Al Aqsa Mosque.

“This is a message that the enemy must understand well: If you respond we will respond, and if you escalate we will escalate.”

The United States said it “condemns in the strongest terms the barrage of rocket attacks fired into Israel in recent hours. This is an unacceptable escalation”.

‘Escalating aggression’ 

Fears of further chaos in the Old City had temporarily eased when Israeli organisers of a march to celebrate Israeli 1967 capture of East Jerusalem cancelled the event.

But then came the Hamas warning, followed by the rockets, which also forced the evacuation of the Western Wall and other sites.

Fighters in Gaza have recently also deployed incendiary balloons that have sparked dozens of fires in Israeli territory.

On Monday evening, as during the previous nights since Friday, Palestinians hurled rocks at Israeli officers in riot gear who fired rubber bullets, stun grenades and tear gas.

That came after morning clashes which left the ground littered with rocks, stun grenade fragments and other debris as loud booms and angry screams echoed from the ancient stone walls.

There were dozens of newly wounded demonstrators. The Palestinian Red Crescent had earlier put the toll from Monday’s clashes at more than 334 wounded, including more than 200 who were hospitalised, five of them in critical condition.

The violence since Friday has been fuelled by a long-running bid by Jewish settlers to evict several Palestinian families from their nearby Sheikh Jarrah neighbourhood.

A supreme court hearing on a Palestinian appeal in the case originally set for Monday was pushed back by the justice ministry due to the tensions.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas condemned what he called Israel’s “barbaric aggression”.

MARIB, Yemen — Markets in Yemen's embattled Marib city are bustling with people gearing up for the Eid Al Fitr holiday, despite fighting that has raged nearby between government forces and Houthi rebels.

While shoppers this week crowded the streets of the city to buy clothes, sweets and nuts for the feast marking the end of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, pro-government forces stood guard with rifles in hand.

Since February, loyalists have faced a fierce Houthi campaign to take over the city and its surrounding oil fields, which make up the government's last significant foothold in the north of the war-torn country.

But residents are eager to celebrate the holiday, even in the shadow of the long conflict that has devastated the country and plunged it into what the UN calls the world’s worst humanitarian crisis.

“The turnout this Eid is just like every other year,” Mohammed Ibrahim, a shop owner, told AFP. “Despite what’s happening around Marib, thank God, everything is good.”

Marib, about 120 kilometres east of the rebel-held capital Sanaa, had witnessed relative stability since the war erupted in 2014 — becoming a safe haven for hundreds of thousands who fled frontline fighting.

Its loss to the Iran-backed Houthi would be a major blow for Yemen’s government, which is backed by a Saudi-led coalition, and could unleash a humanitarian disaster for the region’s civilians.

Both sides sustained heavy casualties at the peak of the fighting, which went into a lull earlier this month during talks in Oman aimed at securing a ceasefire, only to flare up again in recent days.

‘Great joy’ 

But far from the frontlines, twinkling lights have been strung up around shops and stores in Marib, where families browsed through the many stalls selling products ranging from raisins and candy to sandals and watches.

Customers could be seen haggling with a vendor selling new clothes for the holiday, while others walked around and chatted with absolutely no health measures in place or masks to curb the spread of the novel coronavirus.

And while some customers complained of price inflation and of the struggles of war, many said they found comfort in the city’s ability to remain a sanctuary for now.

“Despite the Houthi missiles and the high prices, there is great joy in the hearts of the citizens of this city because there is security and safety,” Hamdi Ahmed, a store owner, told AFP.

The UN has sought to broker a deal between the warring sides, but intense diplomacy has yet to yield results.

“For Yemenis, the battle of Marib has an existential importance — for their lives, their children, their future,” the head of Yemen’s office of the presidency, Abdallah al-Alimi, said on Friday.

For Yehya Al Ahmedi, a city resident, it is clear that the people of Marib do not want Houthi rule.

“The Houthi have not learnt the lesson... as they continue to try and enter the city, that the people reject them and the reality rejects them,” he told AFP.

“They will continue to kill themselves on the outskirts of the city, and the people here will live in the joyous atmosphere of Eid... as if there is no war.”

TEHRAN — Iran said on Monday it may extend an agreement allowing UN inspectors to monitor some key activities if talks with world powers on its nuclear programme continue “on the right track”.

Talks have been held in Vienna aimed at getting the US to return to a 2015 deal abandoned under former president Donald Trump and lift sanctions, and to bring Iran back to full compliance with nuclear obligations it retreated from in response.

An agreement reached with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in February is due to expire later this month, potentially impeding the talks in the Austrian capital.

Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh said an option after May 21 could be to extend that date “in case the talks are on the right track and Tehran agrees as well”.

“Since we are in no rush to conclude these talks, in addition to not allowing them to drag on... we do not want any date to prevent our negotiating team from precisely carrying out Tehran’s instructions,” he told reporters.

The “temporary solution” reached in February allowed UN inspectors access to Iran’s declared nuclear sites.

But Iran suspended so-called “voluntary transparency measures” — notably inspections of non-nuclear sites, including military ones suspected of nuclear-related activity.

Tehran also denied the IAEA access to recordings from monitoring equipment that the UN agency installed at its sites to verify its compliance.

The Atomic Energy Organisation of Iran said cameras would keep running at the sites but the withheld footage would be deleted if US sanctions are not lifted by the end of the three-month period.

The changes to the monitoring and inspection regime, ordered last year by Iran’s conservative-dominated parliament, are part of a series of retaliatory measures Iran has adopted in response to Trump’s 2018 withdrawal from the deal.

Iran’s Chief Nuclear Negotiator Abbas Araghchi said on Friday he hoped the Vienna talks could reach a conclusion “in the shortest time possible”.

Araghchi said the Americans had “expressed readiness to lift a large part of their sanctions” but added that they had not yet gone far enough.

According to Khatibzadeh, the parties at Vienna “are facing many details and intricacies” during the talks that “do not allow us to announce” the complexities directly.

He added the United States had “accepted a major part of what it has to do” but stressed Iran had also called for the lifting of sanctions that were “meant to destroy” the deal when imposed by the previous US adminstration.

“It is no secret that we have serious disagreements in this field,” he said.

KARBALA, Iraq — A leading Iraqi anti-government activist was shot dead on Sunday, security sources and activists said, sending protest movement supporters onto the streets to demand an end to such bloodshed and official impunity.

Ihab Al Wazni, a coordinator of protests in the Shiite shrine city of Karbala, was a vocal opponent of corruption, the stranglehold of Tehran-linked armed groups and Iran's influence in Iraq.

He was shot overnight outside his home by men on motorbikes using a gun equipped with a silencer, in an ambush caught on surveillance cameras. His death was confirmed by security forces and activists.

Wazni had narrowly escaped death in December 2019, when men on motorbikes used silenced weapons to kill fellow activist Fahem Al Tai as he was dropping him home in Karbala, where pro-Tehran armed groups hold major sway.

Both were key figures in a national protest movement that erupted against Iraqi government corruption and incompetence in October 2019.

Around 600 activists from the movement have been killed, whether on the streets during rallies or targeted on their doorsteps.

Protests broke out in Karbala, Nassiriya and Diwaniya in southern Iraq in reaction to Wazni's killing, as people called for an end to the bloodshed and to rampant corruption.

The Iraqi Communist Party and the Al Beit Al Watani (National Bloc) Party born out of the anti-government protests also said they would boycott Iraq's October parliamentary elections in protest.

In a video recording in the morgue where Wazni's body was initially held, a fellow activist blamed pro-Tehran groups for the killing.

"It is the Iranian militias who killed Ihab," said the activist, who was not named.

'They kidnap and kill' 

"Iran out!" and "The people want the fall the regime!" chanted hundreds of mourners Sunday as they carried Wazni's body to the Shiite shrines in Karbala, under a sea of Iraqi flags.

Police in Karbala said they would "spare no effort" to find "the terrorists" behind Wazni's killing.

Politicians, including Shiite leader Ammar Al Haki, deplored the killing and called for justice.

Around 30 activists have died in targeted killings and dozens of others abducted, some detained briefly, since October 2019.

Such targeted killings are normally carried out in the dead of night by men on motorbikes, and nobody claims responsibility.

Activists and the UN repeatedly blame "militias".

Authorities have consistently failed to publicly identify or charge the perpetrators of these killings.

Prime Minister Mustafa Al Kadhemi took office a year ago, vowing to rein in rogue factions, fight corruption and roll out long-awaited reforms after years of war and insurgency.

He pledged again Sunday to catch "all the killers", but the latest victim's family said it would not accept the traditional visits of condolences until the assailants were unmasked.

Pro-Iran groups view Kadhemi as being too close to Washington while protesters believe he has failed to deliver on his promises.

Wazni had himself had challenged the premier in a Facebook post in February, asking: "Do you know what is going on? You know that they kidnap and kill — or you live in another country?"

Ali Bayati, a member of Iraq's Human Rights Commission, tweeted Sunday that crimes against activists in Iraq "raise again the question about the real steps of the government regarding accountability".

OCCUPIED JERUSALEM — Adnan, a Palestinian from East Jerusalem, vowed rubber bullets fired by Israeli police would not deter him: "Silence is not an option in defence of Arabs in the Holy City", he said.

East Jerusalem, the majority Palestinian part of the city occupied by Israel in 1967, has been hit by some of its worst unrest in years.

Hundreds of Palestinians have been wounded and dozens arrested in confrontations with police who have been hit with stones and other projectiles hurled by mainly young and male Palestinian protesters, who have also torched cars and dumpsters.

Friday night saw violent clashes following evening Ramadan prayers at the Al Aqsa mosque compound, Islam's third holiest site.

For 20 year-old-Adnan, who like many Palestinians in east Jerusalem refused to give his name for fear of Israeli police retribution, protesters are responding to what he said was as a persistent effort by Zionist settlers to expel them from the city.

"We are here, in the street, to say that we are not going leave," he told AFP.

"For years, settlers have attacked us and taken our land but silence is no longer an option."

'Don't want us to live here' 

Several events have triggered the flare up in East Jerusalem, which Palestinians claim as the capital of their future state.

Protester Mohammed, who also refused to give his last name, argued each incident is linked to an unavoidable reality facing Palestinians in the city.

"The Israelis want us to work for them, but they don't want us to live here," he said.

Earlier this year, an Israeli court ruled in favour of Jewish settlers seeking to evict Palestinian families from their homes in the Sheikh Jarrah neighbourhood, just north of the Old City.

The court said the Jewish families had proven a decades-old claim to the land, infuriating Palestinians and triggering months of protests that have intensified in recent nights.

Other incidents have fanned the flames.

Last month, Israeli police closed the staired plaza outside the Old City's Damascus Gate, a traditional gathering spot for Palestinians following evening Ramadan evening prayers.

The closure triggered violent clashes with police who removed the barricades after several nights of unrest.

Next came the clashes at Al Aqsa Plaza following Ramadan’s final Friday prayers, which wounded more than 200 people.

Police said they were responding to projectiles hurled by “thousands” of rioters.

Mohammed said he was among thousands of people at Al Aqsa who were breaking the fast, eating a date and drinking water, “when the police starting attacking us”.

Prayers at Al Aqsa on Saturday for Laylat Al Qadr (Night of Destiny), a peak of Ramadan believed to be the night when the Koran was revealed to the Prophet Mohammed, were largely peacefully.

But unrest persisted in Sheikh Jarrah, where hostilities could heighten further in the days ahead depending on the supreme court’s next moves.

All of Palestine 

The court could decide, as early as Monday, whether the Palestinian families facing eviction can appeal the lower court ruling.

“The Sheikh Jarrah case is the case for all of Palestine,” said Malak Orok, 23, who was demonstrating Saturday with friends in Jerusalem.

“Today it is them [the four families]. Tomorrow it will be us.”

The area has for years been focal point of intense real estate battles between well-funded Jewish settler organisations and Palestinians.

Far-right Israeli lawmaker Itamar Ben-Gvir has embroiled himself into the crisis, visiting Sheikh Jarrah to declare that its houses belong to Jews and called on police to “open fire” on protesters.

AFP reporters have seen Jewish settlers in Sheikh Jarrah armed with revolvers and assault rifles.

Palestinian elections 

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has condemned Israel over the violence but he too has drawn the ire of some protesters.

Abbas’ decision to postpone Palestinian elections, citing Israel’s refusal to guarantee east Jerusalem voting, has been slammed by some critics as a ploy to delay a vote in which his Fateh movement faced setbacks.

Hamas Islamists who control the Gaza Strip had agreed to the vote and blasted the postponement as a “coup” against its new partnership with Fateh.

Hamas banners were on display during Friday’s Al Aqsa clashes and some East Jerusalem protesters have branded Abbas as a “traitor”.

Jaad Assad, 24, told AFP many fellow protesters believe Abbas loyalists were corrupt and “are collaborating with Israelis”.

Assad said generations of Palestinians have faced powerful rivals seeking their ouster but had outlasted all of them.

“With God’s help, we will stay,” he vowed.

CAIRO — Egyptian authorities on Sunday executed a Coptic Christian monk convicted over the 2018 killing of the abbot of an ancient desert monastery, the monk’s family told AFP.

“We were told at 8am (06:00 GMT) this morning that the execution took place in Damanhour Prison and I am on my way to pick up the body,” said Hany Saad Tawadros, the monk’s brother.

Capital punishment for civilian convicts in Egypt, the Arab world’s most populous country, is carried out by hanging.

An Egyptian court last year confirmed the death sentence for the monk Isaiah, whose original name is Wael Saad Tawadros, over the killing of Bishop Epiphanius.

Another monk convicted for his role in the crime was sentenced to life in prison.

“I didn’t even tell the rest of the family because I didn’t want them to be heartbroken. We thank God in any case,” Hany Tawadros said.

Security and judicial sources also confirmed the man’s execution to AFP.

The abbot of the Saint Macarius monastery in the plains of Wadi Al Natrun, northwest of the capital Cairo, was found with a bleeding head wound after being bludgeoned to death in July 2018, in a case that shocked the Middle East’s largest religious minority.

Coptic Christians make up about 10-15 per cent of Egypt’s predominantly Sunni Muslim population of over 100 million, and the country’s vast deserts are home to some of Christianity’s oldest monasteries.

The church later defrocked the pair and placed a one-year moratorium on ordaining new monks.

Prosecutors said Wael Tawadros confessed to beating the cleric with a metal bar as the second monk kept watch.

Authorities blamed the killing on unspecified “differences” between the bishop and the two monks.

In video footage of court sessions shared on social media in recent years, a sobbing Tawadros, wearing white overalls, accused interrogators of stripping him naked and torturing him physically and psychologically.

Stop the Death Penalty Egypt, a local advocacy group calling for the end of capital punishment in the North African country, said on Sunday that its pleas to President Abdel Fattah Al Sisi to revoke the verdict and pardon the monk had been ignored.

“The [monks’] trial was marred by discrepancies, violations and forced confessions taken under duress,” the group said in a statement on social media.

In April, Egypt executed at least nine people over the storming of a police station in 2013 in which 13 policemen were killed.

Amnesty International last month noted “a significant spike” in recorded executions in Egypt, which saw a more than threefold rise to 107 last year, from 32 in 2019.

“Egyptian authorities have displayed a ruthless determination to persist with their escalating use of the death penalty,” Amnesty said in a statement.

“It is extremely concerning that it [the death penalty] is used after unfair trials, with courts routinely relying on torture-tainted ‘confessions’,” it added.