Israel army coats Gaza borders as Hamas fires rockets, air strikes

Israeli troops gathered at the Gaza border on Thursday and Palestinian militants pounded Israel with rockets into intense hostilities that caused international concern and touched on encounters between Jews and Arabs in Israel.

Palestine: Israeli troops gathered at the Gaza border on Thursday and Palestinian militants pounded Israel with rockets into intense hostilities that caused international concern and touched on encounters between Jews and Arabs in Israel.

Days of destruction between Jewish Israelis and the Arab minority in the country worsened overnight, with synagogues attacking and street fighting erupting in some communities.

Concerned that the violence that flared up on Monday could get out of limitation, the United States is assigning an envoy, Hady Amr, to the province. But the efforts to end the worst hostility in years do not seem to have made any progress so far.

In renewed airstrikes on Gaza, Israel hit a six-story residential building in the city of Gaza that he said belongs to Hamas. This Islamic group dominates the Palestinian enclave.

At least 83 people have been executed in Gaza since violence intensified Monday, medics said, and it has hit hospitals already under severe pressure during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Asad Karam, 20, a construction worker, is standing next to a road damaged during the airstrikes. An electric pole collapsed along the road, and its wires were cut off.

One rocket crashed into a building near Israel’s commercial capital Tel Aviv, injuring five Israelis, police said in the tardiest Palestinian rocket attacks. Sirens erupted in cities in southern Israel, sending thousands to shelters.

Seven people have been killed in Israel, the army said.

“The whole of Israel is being attacked. It’s a terrifying situation to be in,” Margo Aronovic, a 26-year-old student, said in Tel Aviv.

Israel was preparing combat troops along the Gaza border and was in “different stages of preparing for ground operations,” a military spokesman said, a move that would commemorate similar attacks during the Israel-Gaza battles in 2014 and 2008-2009.

Health authorities in Gaza stated they were investigating the deaths of numerous people overnight who they told were inhaling potentially toxic gas. Samples are examined and they have not yet had to draw any final conclusions.

US President Joe Biden said he hoped the fighting would “end sooner rather than later”. A British minister has urged Israel and Hamas to take a step back from the escalation. Read More.

‘OPEN’ CONFRONTATION

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has pledged to “proceed to act against the military capabilities of Hamas” and other groups in Gaza. Hamas is considered a terrorist organisation by the United States and Israel.

On Wednesday, Israeli forces shot kill a senior Hamas commander and shelled several structures, including heights and a bank, which Israel said were linked to the faction’s activities.

Hamas indicated a provocation, with its leader, Ismail Haniyeh, saying, “The confrontation with the enemy is open.”

Israel propelled its offensive after Hamas discharged rockets at Jerusalem and Tel Aviv in retaliation for Israeli police collisions with Palestinians near the Al-Aqsa Mosque in East Jerusalem during the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan.

Turkey, whose host of Hamas leaders has contributed to a clash with Israel in Istanbul over the past few years, has called on Muslim countries to show a united and clear stance on the violence between Israel and Gaza.

In the fighting in Israel, where some of the 21% Arab minority had violent pro-Palestinian protests, the attacks by Jews on Arabs passing by in ethnically mixed areas intensified. Read More.

One police officer was in severe condition after being killed by Arabs in the Arab-Jewish city of Lod, where authorities imposed a curfew.

More than 150 arrests were made overnight in Lod and Arab villages in northern Israel, police said.

Israeli President Reuven Rivlin has called for an end to “this madness”.

“We are threatened by rockets being fired at our citizens and streets, and we are engaged in a senseless civil war among ourselves,” said the president, whose role is largely ceremonial.

FLIGHT CANCEL

A number of foreign transport companies have canceled flights to Israel due to the unrest.

The deaths in Israel include a soldier killed during the patrol on the Gaza perimeter and six civilians, including two children and an Indian worker, medical experts said.

Gaza’s health ministry said 17 of the people exterminated in the enclave were children and seven women. The Israeli military said about 400 of the 1,600 rockets fired by Gaza factions fell short, potentially causing Palestinian civilian casualties.

The conflict has led Netanyahu’s opponents to negotiate the formation of a governing coalition to oust him following Israel’s March 23 by-elections.

Although the latest problems in Jerusalem die was the immediate cause of hostilities, Palestinians are frustrated by setbacks in their pursuit of an independent state in recent years.

These include Washington’s recognition of the disputed Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, an American plan to end the conflict they saw as favorable to Israel and the establishment of buildings.