Israel fired heavy artillery and staged more air strikes on Friday against Palestinian terrorists in the Gaza Strip amid ongoing rocket fires in Israel's central business district.
As hostilities approached on the fifth day, with no sign of the end, Israeli forces said in a statement shortly after midnight that air and ground forces were attacking the area controlled by Hamas. Rocket barrages from Gaza were immediately followed.
Although the statement did not provide further details, Israeli military correspondents who were regularly told by the military said that there was no ground invasion and that the soldiers were firing on the Israeli side of the border.
Residents of northern Gaza, near the Israeli border, said they did not see the sign of Israeli forces inside the valley but reported that large arms and air strikes were burning.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Thursday the campaign would "take a long time". Israeli officials have said Hamas, Gaza's strongest military force, should take drastic measures to prevent any further hostilities.
The UN Security Council will publicly address the escalating violence between Muslims and Palestinian persecutors on Sunday, strategists said after the United States had earlier boycotted the meeting on Friday.
The sound of gunfire and explosions was heard in the northern and eastern parts of Gaza until Friday morning. Eyewitnesses say many families living near the border have left their homes, some seeking asylum in United Nations-run schools.
Violence has also spread to the Jewish and Arab communities in Israel, which is a new base in the long war. Synagogues were attacked, and fighting broke out on the streets of other cities, prompting the president of Israel to warn of a civil war.
At least 109 people have been killed in Gaza, including 29 children, in the past four days, Palestinian medical officials said. In Thursday alone, 52 Palestinians were killed in the area, the highest number of days since Monday.
Seven people have been killed in Israel: a soldier guarding the Gaza border, five Israeli nationals, including two children, and an Indian worker, Israeli officials said.
Concerned that the worst atrocities in the region in recent years could be controlled, the United States was sending a delegation, Hady Amr.
Truce's efforts by Egypt, Qatar and the United Nations have not yet made a mark of progress.
U.S. President Joe Biden on Thursday called for an escalation of violence, saying he wanted to see a significant reduction in rocket attacks.
Following the announcement of a weekly meeting of the Security Council, Linda Thomas-Greenfield, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, wrote on Twitter: "The United States will continue to engage in dialogue at the highest level in order to reduce tensions."
Troops fired rocket salvoes in Tel Aviv and neighboring cities on Thursday, and Iron Dome's anti-missile program captured many of them. Communities near the Gaza border and the southern desert city of Beersheba were also targeted.
Five Israelis were injured by a rocket that hit a building near Tel Aviv on Thursday.
Netanyahu said Israel had already deployed nearly a thousand troops to the area.
The view shows the location of Israeli air strikes during the Israeli and Palestinian violence, in Gaza City on May 13, 2021. REUTERS / Mohammed Salem
Israeli soldiers inspect artillery shells near the border with Gaza, southern Israel, May 13, 2021. REUTERS / Amir Cohen
Light roads appear when the Israeli Iron Dome anti-missile system catches rockets from the Gaza Strip toward Israel, as seen in Ashkelon, Israel on May 13, 2021. REUTERS / Amir Cohen
1/5
Israeli soldiers inspect artillery shells near the border with Gaza, southern Israel, May 13, 2021. REUTERS / Amir Cohen
THE MEETING OF THE ACTORS LAUGHED
The ambassadors said the United States, Israel's closest ally, was opposed to a request by China, Norway and Tunisia for a public, actual UN Security Council meeting on Friday to discuss the violence.
United States Secretary of State Antony Blinken told reporters that such a meeting would be better next week to allow time for negotiations with a view to gaining expansion.
Standing on the side of a Gaza road damaged by Israeli air strikes, Assad Karam, 20, a construction worker, said: "We are facing Israel and COVID-19. We are between two enemies."
In Tel Aviv, Yishai Levy, an Israeli singer, pointed to a shrapnel that went down the sidewalk outside his home.
"I want to tell the Israeli army and the government, not to stop until you have completed this mission," he told YNet television.
Israel has launched its offensive after Hamas fired rockets at Jerusalem and Tel Aviv in retaliation for Israeli and Palestinian police clashes near the al-Aqsa mosque in East Jerusalem during the Islamic fasting month of Ramadan.
Many foreign airlines have canceled flights to Israel due to the unrest.
'Interrupting' HAMAS
Brigadier-General Hidai Zilberman, a spokesman for the Israeli army, said attacks on the production of military rockets and the launch of sites "disrupted Hamas operations", but so far have not been stopped.
He said between 80 and 90 soldiers had been killed during the attack on Israel.
Zilberman said Israel was "building troops on the Gaza border", which raised speculation about a possible land strike that would be reminiscent of similar attacks during the 2014 and 2009 wars between Israel and Gaza.
Israeli military journalists, however, said it was still unlikely that a large amount of ground could be penetrated, citing high-risk casualties.
Hamas spokesman Abu Ubaida responded with contempt for the construction of the army, urging Palestinians to stand up.
"Stop as you wish, from the sea, the earth and the sky. We have prepared for you the kind of death that would make you curse yourself," he said.
So far more than 1,750 rockets have been fired at Israel, of which 300 are in the Gaza Strip, Israeli forces said.
Hostility has fueled tensions between Israeli Jews and 21% of minor Arabs living with them in certain communities. Jewish and Arab groups attacked people and vandalized shops, hotels, and cars all night long.
Although the unrest in Jerusalem was a source of enmity, the Palestinian people are frustrated by the backlash of their aspirations for independence from recent years, including Washington's acceptance of rival Jerusalem as Israel's capital.
On Israel's political side, Netanyahu's chances of staying in power after the March 23 by-elections appeared to be improving after his main rival, centrist Yair Lapid, suffered a great deal in his efforts to form a government.
Posts
