Israeli rockets hit Gaza

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip — Israeli airstrikes leveled a seven-floor office building and severely damaged a two-story shopping center early today, signaling a new escalation in seven weeks of Israel-Hamas fighting.

The strikes in the southern town of Rafah came just hours after Israel bombed an apartment tower in Gaza City, collapsing the 12-story building with 44 apartments.

The targeting of large buildings appears to be part of a new military tactic by Israel. Over the weekend, the army began warning Gaza residents in automated phone calls that it will target buildings harboring “terrorist infrastructure” and that they should stay away from those areas.

Meanwhile, Gaza militants continued to fire rockets and mortar shells at Israel, including at least 10 today, the military said.

Elsewhere, five more rockets were fired from Syria and fell in open areas in northern Israel. It was not immediately clear whether they were fired by pro-government forces or rebel groups.

Amid persistent violence, Egypt has urged Israel and the Palestinians to resume indirect talks in Cairo on a durable cease-fire but stopped short of issuing invitations.

Several rounds of indirect talks between Israel and Hamas have collapsed, along with temporary cease-fires that accompanied them. The gaps between Israel and the Islamic militant group on a new border deal for blockaded Gaza remain vast, and there’s no sign either is willing to budge.

In the town of Rafah, Israeli aircraft bombed the seven-story Zourab building which houses an office of the Hamas-run Interior Ministry. Witnesses said the building was leveled and that the strikes caused severe damage to nearby shops, homes and cars.

Another strike hit a nearby shopping center with dozens of shops, sparking a fire that gutted the two-story building. After daybreak Sunday, smoke was still rising from the site as shop owners inspected the damage. Windows and doors had been blown out in nearby buildings.

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

President Mahmoud Abbas met Saturday with Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi. Abbas had traveled a day earlier to the Persian Gulf emirate of Qatar, where he met the head of Hamas’ political bureau, Khaled Meshaal. Hamas was represented in the Palestinian delegation to the Cairo talks but took a harder line than most of the other Palestinian factions, including Abbas’ Palestinian Authority.

Meshaal, meanwhile, acknowledged in an interview with Yahoo News on Saturday that the abduction and killing of three Israeli teenagers in June was carried out by Hamas members but reiterated his contention that the organization’s leadership did not know of the kidnap plot in advance.

Earlier this week, another Hamas official said in Turkey that Hamas’ military wing had carried out the abductions and killing of the three teens, one of whom was a dual U.S.-Israeli citizen. Hamas previously has praised the attack but disavowed knowledge of it.