WAR CLOUDS HANG OVER GAZA AMID FADING HOPES
Israeli strikes pummel Gaza as fighters target southern Israeli towns by launching scores of rockets in the worst violence since 2014 war
The aftermath of an Israeli air strike in Gaza City yesterday, where renewed violence threatened to thwart efforts to end months of unrest.
Palestinian fighters in Gaza, including Hamas, issued a joint statement yesterday announcing an Egyptian-brokered ceasefire with Israel.
The groups said they would abide by the truce as long as Israel did the same, but there was no immediate comment from the Israeli side.
Meanwhile, Kuwait and Bolivia have requested an urgent meeting of the UN Security Council to discuss the escalation of violence.
This comes as the worst escalation between Israel and Palestinian fighters in Gaza since the 2014 war threatened to plunge the enclave into another full-blown conflict yesterday and international mediators raced to pull both sides back from the brink.
Hamas fired dozens of rockets into southern Israel yesterday, killing one person, and Israeli strikes killed two Palestinians as the most serious exchange of fire between Israel and fighters in the enclave for years continued.
Hamas threatened to increase its rocket attacks if Israel carried out any more deadly air strikes across the enclave.
The rulers of Gaza said they would fire rockets at the southern Israeli towns of Beersheba and Ashdod if provoked, a significant threat from the group that has tried to disavow rocket launches emanating from the Strip this year.
A day earlier, violence in Gaza left four Palestinians and an Israeli dead, threatening to put an end to Egyptian and UN efforts at a truce.
Israeli strikes pummelled Gaza, striking more than 100 sites linked to the territory’s rulers Hamas, the military said. They came in response to up to 370 rockets that were fired into Israeli territory in less than 24 hours.
Gaza’s Health Ministry raised the total Palestinian death toll from violence on Monday and yesterday to six. Five of those Israel said were people aligned with Gazan militant groups. At least 25 Palestinians were wounded in the territory in the past 24 hours, the ministry said.
The clashes came after a botched undercover Israeli raid that killed one Hamas commander, six fellow fighters and an Israeli officer after the group’s fighters discovered Israeli special forces in a civilian car near the southern Gazan city of Khan Younis.
Israel said it was an intelligence-gathering mission but Hamas vowed revenge for the operation.
A Hamas leader, Ismael Radwan, said the Israeli operation “let the mediators know that the real murderer is the Israeli occupation, who keep attacking our people”. He said that Israel “does not care about the Egyptian efforts”. The UN, Egypt and the EU yesterday raced to halt the escalation.
UN Middle East envoy Nickolay Mladenov called the situation “extremely dangerous” and said on Twitter that “restraint must be shown by all”. He said the UN was working with Egypt to broker an end to the renewed fighting.
Schools were closed in Gaza and in southern Israel as both sides warned the other that it would respond forcefully to any further violence.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu cut short a visit to Paris and returned to Israel on Monday for consultations with security officials.
Michael Oren, a senior Israeli official, said the state “will do whatever it takes” to defend itself. “We expect the world to stand with us,” he said.
The EU’s ambassador to Israel, Emanuele Giaufret, called for a halt in indiscriminate rocket fire at civilians.
“Everyone must step back from the brink,” he said.
Late on Monday, an Israeli air strike hit the Hamas Al Aqsa TV station in the Gaza Strip, forcing it to go off the air. Minutes earlier, it halted its programming. It broadcast a still image of its logo after the building was hit by a warning missile.
Israeli missile defences intercepted more than 100 rockets from Gaza and most others fell in open areas, although some hit houses and other civilian structures, the military said.
The body of a man was pulled from the ruins of a building in southern Israel, emergency services said.
The escalation came despite Mr Netanyahu’s decision to allow Qatar to transfer millions of dollars in aid to the Gaza Strip for salaries and fuel to ease an electricity shortage.
The agreements had led to calmer protests along the Gaza border.
Violence in Gaza left four Palestinians and an Israeli dead, threatening to put an end to Egyptian and UN efforts at a truce