Israeli warplanes launch fresh air raids on Gaza
Setler population surpasses half a million mark in West Bank; activists rally in support of women prisoners
Israeli aircrat struck in Gaza on Thursday in response to Palestinian rocket fire, days ater the United States called for calm, but there was no immediate sign of a wider escalation in violence following days of tension.
With no reports of serious casualties, the exchange followed a familiar patern that signalled neither side was seeking a wider conflict.
Separately, Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said Israel, which collects taxes on behalf of the Palestinian Authority (PA), would use 100 million shekels ($29 million) from PA funds to compensate victims of Palestinian atacks, against stipends the PA pays to assailants’ families, said.
There was no immediate comment from the PA. The military said its air strikes targeted rocket and weapons production sites used by Hamas, in response to Wednesday’s rocket launch.
No Palestinian groups claimed Wednesday’s rocket fire.
Powerful explosions shook buildings and lit up the night sky over Gaza as sirens sounded in Israeli towns and villages around the strip warning of incoming rocket fire before dawn on Thursday.
The Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine (DFLP) said it had fired some of the rockets in response to the air strikes and the “systematic aggression” against Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails.
Top US diplomat for the Middle East, Barbara Leaf, and US special representative for Palestinian affairs, Hady Amr, remained behind to continue de-escalation talks between the sides and were due to meet Palestinian officials on Thursday.
In Gaza, activists rallied in support of women prisoners held by Israel ater far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben-gvir, who oversees prisons, said he would push ahead with plans to toughen conditions for Palestinian prisoners.
Hamas official Mushir Al-masri, who atended the rally, said the latest Ben Gvir decisions “added fuel to the fire.”
“The issue of prisoners has always been on the agenda of the Palestinian resistance, and the screams by female prisoners inside the jails of the Zionist enemy risk a tough confrontation in which the Palestinian resistance will not stand handcuffed,” said Masri.
Separately, an official from the Islamic Jihad said a delegation from the group’s political office, led by the faction’s chief-in-exile Ziyad Al Nakhala, would visit Cairo on Friday for talks that would also include the Palestinian-israeli conflict.
The official said the visit was scheduled before the latest violence but he said the current escalation in Gaza and the West Bank would inevitably be discussed.
Cairo has also invited Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh for separate talks next week, said a Palestinian official familiar with Egyptian mediation.
Meanwhile, Israel’s West Bank setler population now makes up more than half a million people, a pro-setler group said on Thursday, crossing a major threshold.
Setler leaders predicted even faster population growth under Israel’s new ultranationalist government.
The report, by Westbankjewishpopulationstats. com and based on official figures, showed the setler population grew to 502,991 as of Jan.1, rising more than 2.5 per cent in 12 months and nearly 16 per cent over the last five years.
“We’ve reached a huge hallmark,” said Baruch Gordon, the director of the group and a resident of the Beit El setlement. “We’re here to stay.”
“I think that in the coming years of this government there will be more building than there has been in the last 20 years of governments,” Gordon said.
“All setlements are illegal. There is no legitimacy for setlements or the presence of setlers in the Palestinian territories,” said Nabil Abu Rudeineh, a spokesman for Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. “The increase in the number of setlers is the result of Israeli government policies that do not believe in the two-state solution,” which would create an independent Palestinian state next to Israel.
The setler population report does not include annexed east Jerusalem, home to more than 200,000 setlers.
The West Bank and east Jerusalem are together home to some 3 million Palestinians.
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