Gaza tower housing AP, Al Jazeera is seen during a missile strike in Gaza city, May 15, 2021. (Photo by Reuters)

Hamas’ military wing has vowed to continue to fire rockets at central Israeli-occupied territories after the Israeli military destroyed Al Jalaa tower in Gaza, which housed a number of media outlets.

After the bombing of the civilian tower in Gaza, residents of Tel Aviv and the center must be on standby, Abu Ubaida, a spokesman for the Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades, said on Saturday.

Earlier, Israel launched airstrikes on Al Jalaa tower after giving a one-hour ultimatum for the evacuation of the 12-story building, razing it to the ground. The tower housed Al Jazeera, the Associated Press, along with Arab and local press.

The Palestinian resistance group continued to fire rockets at Israeli-occupied towns near the Gaza border, with warning sirens ringing out in Sderot, Kibbutz Nahal Oz, and Kerem Shalom.

Al-Qassam Brigades announced earlier that they had fired tens of rockets at Sderot and Fijeh and Kissufim military camps. They also targeted Kerem Shalom site with a number of heavy mortar shells and Badr-1 rockets.

Later on Saturday, al-Qassam Brigades launched a barrage of rockets at occupied cities and towns and the Gaza envelope.

Rocket warning sirens were heard in numerous southern Israeli-occupied territories as well.

All settlers of Eshkol region were instructed to enter bomb shelters until instructed otherwise, as Palestinian resistance’s rockets continued to target southern Israeli occupied territories.

The enemy, by continuing their aggression and committing a massacre in the al-Shati camp and demolishing civilian buildings and towers, is committing an act of folly for which it will pay dearly, al-Qassam Brigades said.

The latest attacks came in response to a pre-dawn airstrike by Israeli warplanes against al-Shati refugee camp, which killed eight children and two women from the Abu Hatab family and injured 15 others.

Hamas political bureau chief Ismail Haniyeh said the attack on the camp showed the Israeli regime’s failure to confront the power of the resistance movement.

Hazem Qassem, a spokesman for Hamas, said the Israeli raid was a full-fledged war crime, adding that such act of brutality by the Zionist regime confirms the righteousness of the resistance’s decision to confront the Israeli regime’s aggression.

Khaled Meshaal, head of the Hamas movement’s office in the diaspora, said Israel must stop defiling al-Aqsa Mosque and respect the Palestinian people’s freedom of worship in order for the escalation to come to a halt.

Israel also must stop the crime of displacing Sheikh Jarrah residents, release the detainees who were arrested by its forces in recent events and end its aggression against Gaza, Meshaal said, according to the Palestinian Information Center.

The Israeli occupation played with fire and pulled the trigger that set off the current crisis when its forces stormed al-Aqsa Mosque, and the resistance in Gaza had warned Israel for several days to stop its aggression against Jerusalem al-Quds, he added.

The Hamas leader described the ongoing confrontation with Israel as a national struggle to liberate Palestine, adding that no one can deprive Palestinians of their right to resist the Israeli occupation.

Sheikh Ekrima Sabri, head of the Higher Islamic Council in occupied Jerusalem al-Quds, affirmed that calm would return to Palestine if Israel kept its hands off al-Aqsa Mosque, its gates and vicinity.

In his Friday sermon, Sheikh Sabri said Israeli forces and settlers unprecedentedly and persistently violated al-Aqsa Mosque’s sanctity during the holy month of Ramadan.

He also urged the Arab and Muslim nations to stand by the Palestinian people and help them end the Israeli blockade on Jerusalem al-Quds and the Gaza Strip.

In the meantime, pro-Palestinian protesters took to the streets across the globe to condemn the Israeli regime’s atrocities and express solidarity with Palestinians.

Protesters held rallies in Berlin, Paris, London, Madrid, and other cities, where they carried placards reading Stop Bombing Gaza and chanted Free Palestine.