Nearly 1,500 rockets have been fired from the Gaza Strip into various Israeli cities since the military escalation between Hamas and Israel began on Monday evening, the army said on the night of Wednesday May 12 to Thursday May 13. Israeli. However, at the start of the day, the Israeli military had spoken of about 1,000 rockets being launched.
According to the army, the launch of 350 rockets has ” failed “ and “Hundreds” others were intercepted by the “Iron Dome” missile shield. Hamas said it launched more than 100 rockets at Israel on Wednesday evening.
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The north of the country on alert
For the first time since the start of the conflict between Israel and Palestine, the Israeli army on Thursday announced a rocket alert in the north of the country. So far, projectiles fired from the Gaza Strip by Hamas had set off alarm sirens in southern and central Israel, but not in the north.
Early Thursday morning, sirens sounded again in metropolitan Tel Aviv, where residents rushed to shelters, but also in the Jezreel Valley, located in the Galilee (north) of the country.
Meanwhile, the Israeli air force struck Hamas positions in the Gaza Strip, a Palestinian micro-territory populated by two million inhabitants, targeting, among other things, locals linked to military operations. “Counter-intelligence” of Hamas and the residence of Iyad Tayeb, a commander of the movement.
Third Palestinian killed in West Bank on Wednesday
A Palestinian was “Neutralized” during a confrontation with the Israeli army near the city of Nablus, a large city in the north of the West Bank. The“Attack” also left two injured, according to the Israeli military. That brings the death toll to three in Wednesday’s clashes between Palestinians and Israeli military forces in the occupied West Bank.
Earlier in the day, a 16-year-old Rachid Abouara was killed by gunshots to the head and chest in the village of Aqaba, north of the city of Nablus, according to the Palestinian health ministry. And Hussein al-Titi, a 26-year-old Palestinian, was killed in clashes with the Israeli army in the Al-Fawwar refugee camp near the Palestinian city of Hebron.
The Israeli army said the events took place during a “Operational activity”, when “A violent riot has been started”, during which the soldiers have “Spotted one of the demonstrators who were about to launch a block on the troops from a roof”. “The soldiers reacted by opening fire”, according to an army statement.
According to the latest report by the Minister of Health in the Gaza Strip, the clashes of the past few days have left 67 dead and 388 injured in this impoverished Palestinian territory of two million inhabitants.
Clashes persist
If, a few hours before the end of Ramadan, the month of Muslim fasting, the Esplanade des Mosques seemed to have found an air of calm on Thursday, many cities in Israel have been the scene of gatherings.
Far-right activists demonstrated across the country on Wednesday evening, sparking clashes with police, and sometimes Israeli Arabs. Police said “React to violent incidents in several cities, including Lod, Acre and Haifa”.
And the country accused the shock of the broadcast, live on television, and at prime time, of the lynching of a man, considered Arab by his attackers, by far-right activists near Tel Aviv. These unbearable images show a man forced out of his car and beaten by a crowd of several dozen people until he lost consciousness.
“What has been happening in recent days in the cities of Israel is unbearable … nothing justifies the lynching of Arabs by Jews and nothing justifies the lynching of Jews by Arabs”, Benjamin Netanyahu said overnight, saying that Israel was facing a “Fighting on two fronts”.
A public meeting of the Security Council called for
Faced with this intensification of the fighting, Tunisia, Norway and China asked, Wednesday evening, the holding on Friday of a new urgent meeting of the UN Security Council on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, which will this time be public, diplomatic sources report.
This session, in which Israel and the Palestinians are expected to participate, will be the third of the Security Council since Monday. During the first two videoconferences, held behind closed doors, the United States opposed the adoption of a joint declaration by the Security Council aimed at stopping the clashes, ruling it “Counterproductive” at this point, according to diplomats.
Washington, however, announced on Wednesday evening the dispatch of an envoy to Israel and the Palestinian Territories to once again urge the ” de-escalation “. But Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who spoke to President Joe Biden by phone in the evening, said he wanted to ” Carry on “ to strike and weaken “Military capabilities” of Hamas.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken also spoke with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas. ” I expressed my condolences for the loss of life. I stressed the need to put an end to the rocket attacks and to lower the tensions ”, tweeted the US official.
