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16-05-2021
By SJA Jafri + Bureau Report + Agencies
JERUSALEM/ GAZA CITY/ MELBOURNE/ LONDON/ NEW YORK/ ISTANBUL/ TEHRAN/ KARACHI: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed to “continue to respond forcefully” to rocket attacks as conflict with Palestinians in Gaza enters a seventh day.
Israeli air strikes in Gaza killed at least three Palestinians early on Sunday, health officials said.
Palestinian militants fired rockets towards Tel Aviv, causing people there to flee to bomb shelters.
The international community has called for an end to the escalating conflict.
On Saturday, US President Joe Biden phoned Mr Netanyahu and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to express concern about the situation.
A UN Security Council meeting is set to take place later on Sunday.
Since the fighting began on Monday at least 148 people have been killed in Gaza, according to Palestinian officials, and Israel has reported 10 dead, including two children. Israel says dozens of militants are among the dead in Gaza, while Palestinian health officials say its death toll includes 41 children.
Speaking in a televised address late on Saturday, Netanyahu said the strikes will continue for “as long as necessary” and asserted that everything possible was being done to limit civilian casualties.
“The party that bears the guilt for this confrontation is not us, it’s those attacking us,” said Netanyahu.
The flare-up of violence over the last six days came after weeks of increasing Israeli-Palestinian tension in East Jerusalem, which culminated in clashes at a holy site revered by both Muslims and Jews. Hamas, the Palestinian militant group that runs Gaza, began firing rockets after warning Israel to withdraw from the site, triggering retaliatory air strikes.
How did the fighting escalate on Saturday?
Ten members of one family were killed by an Israeli air strike at a refugee camp west of Gaza City.
A five-month-old baby, Omar Al-Hadidi, was the only survivor, after his mother, four siblings, aunt and four cousins died.
The baby’s father, Mohammad Al-Hadidi, was not at home at the time. “There were no rockets there, just women and children, no rockets, just peaceful children celebrating [Muslim festival] Eid, what have they done to deserve this?” he told Reuters news agency.
A doctor treating Omar said: “He was in a bad condition. His thigh bone is broken and he has bruises all over his body but thankfully after first inspection he is stable.”
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said Palestinian militants had fired 278 rocket launches from Gaza, with homes hit in the southern cities of Ashdod, Beersheba and Sderot.
The IDF also said “many dozens” of rockets that crossed into Israel were intercepted by the Iron Dome missile defence system.
A rocket hit a street in Ramat Gan, a suburb of Tel Aviv, killing a man. He was reportedly hit by shrapnel in his apartment
What happened to the Gaza tower block?
Earlier on Saturday, an Israeli air strike destroyed a high-rise building housing media organizations, including The Associated Press and Al-Jazeera, plus a number of offices and apartments.
In a statement released shortly afterwards, the Israeli military said the building housed military assets belonging to Hamas, the Palestinian militant group that rules Gaza. The building’s landlord has denied this.
United Nations Secretary General Antonio Gutteres said he was “deeply disturbed” by the strike on the building.
“The secretary-general reminds all sides that any indiscriminate targeting of civilian and media structures violates international law and must be avoided at all costs,” a spokesman for Gutteres said.
The Associated Press (AP) said the block was hit roughly an hour after Israeli forces ordered people to evacuate.
The news organization’s CEO, Gary Pruitt, said: “This is an incredibly disturbing development. We narrowly avoided a terrible loss of life. A dozen AP journalists and freelancers were inside the building and thankfully we were able to evacuate them in time.”
What was said in Biden’s phone calls?
The White House said President Biden told Prime Minister Netanyahu that he continued to support Israel’s right to defend itself. He expressed concern over deaths on both sides and, following the tower-block strike, called for journalists to be protected.
Biden also spoke, for the first time since taking office, with President Abbas, telling him he was committed to “strengthening the US-Palestinian partnership”. He also said the Hamas rocket fire into Israel had to stop.
President Abbas, who is based in the occupied West Bank, has little power in Gaza, which is run by Hamas militants. But the US will not speak to Hamas, as it regards them as a terrorist organization.
Biden told both leaders that he remained committed to finding two-state solution to the conflict.
US envoy Hady Amir is in Tel Aviv to take part in talks with Israeli, Palestinian and UN officials, and reinforce what US diplomats said was the need for a “sustainable calm”.
Furthermore, Israel’s bombardment of the Gaza Strip entered its seventh consecutive day, with air raids hitting a refugee camp – killing at least 10 Palestinians, including eight children and flattening a high-rise building housing the offices of media organizations, including Al Jazeera, Associated Press (AP) and Reuter.
In a televised speech Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel will continue to strike Gaza “as long as necessary”.
Meanwhile, Palestinians on Saturday gathered in parts of the occupied West Bank to protest against continued Israeli occupation and the ongoing bombardment of Gaza.
At least 145 Palestinians, including 41 children, have been killed in the Gaza Strip since Monday. Some 950 others have been wounded. In the occupied West Bank, Israeli forces have killed at least 13 Palestinians.
At least 10 people in Israel have also been killed, with two new deaths reported on Saturday. The Israeli army said hundreds of rockets have been fired from Gaza towards various locations in Israel and they have added reinforcements near the enclave.
Thousands of Palestinian families are taking shelter in United Nations-run schools in northern Gaza amid the Israeli offensive.
Meanwhile, from Melbourne, London, Berlin, Paris and New York to Karachi, Istanbul, Kashmir, Tehran and Rabbat, thousands of people have gathered in big cities across the world to protest against Israeli attacks on Gaza.
Demonstrators on Tuesday also rallied to denounce the ongoing crackdown at the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound in Jerusalem’s Old City, as well as Israeli plans to forcefully expel Palestinians from their homes in occupied East Jerusalem.
Some protesters carried banners reading “Free Palestine”, “Israel is a terrorist state”, and “Occupation No More”.
The Israeli raids on Gaza come after weeks of mounting tension over the looming forced expulsion of Palestinian families from Sheikh Jarrah, a Palestinian neighborhood in occupied East Jerusalem that Jewish settlers have been trying to expel them from for decades.
The situation escalated when Israeli police stormed Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem’s Old City, the third-holiest site in Islam and wounded hundreds of Palestinian worshippers during several days of violence. Protests broke out across the occupied territories and inside Israel.
