Middle East conflict continues with increased bombing raids

TEL AVIV, Israel (NBC) – The conflict in Israel and Gaza is entering its second week with no signs of letting up. The Israeli military says it latest airstrikes have destroyed militant tunnels and the homes of some Hamas leaders. Palestinian residents say this was the heaviest barrage of attacks since fighting began.

The Israeli bombings in Gaza are, by now, the most intense of this conflict. Overnight, the Israeli military said 54 fighter jets, mostly customized American F-16s, attacked nearly 10 miles of tunnels it says Hamas is using to launch rockets at Israeli cities, more than 3,000 rockets in the past seven days alone. But as precise as Israeli strikes can be, Palestinians civilians are dying.

The airstrikes have destroyed three apartment buildings in Gaza City this weekend in the deadliest attack so far.

South of Tel Aviv, NBC News spoke to Israeli Defense Forces spokesman Lt. Col. Jonathan Conricus by the Iron Dome defense system that Israel says has intercepted around 90% of Hamas rockets that seemed likely to cause deaths or significant damage. He said, “We’ve struck hundreds of other underground targets inside Gaza. And that’s the one incident where we saw houses collapsing as a result. So we’re looking into it. And I want to be clear, it is not our aim, we have no business killing civilians, it doesn’t do us any good.”

But in Gaza, that means little to Nadine Abd Ellatif. She’s just 10 years old but she’s already seen more death than most see in a lifetime. “I want to cry,” she said. “Want to let out my anger out of my body because they’re killing people that they don’t deserve to die. They’re just living their own. So they come and kill them. We don’t deserve this.”

Nadine has a strong message for Americans: “We can’t do anything, we’re just dying. The American people stop giving weapons to the occupiers. That’s the way that you can help us.”

Israel still has thousands of troops positioned along the border with Gaza but so far those troops have not advanced and not carried out any ground invasion.

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