Israeli fighter jets pounded targets in the Gaza Strip and Hamas militants fired rockets and mortars at cities in southern Israel on Tuesday, as Palestinian demonstrators staging a general strike in solidarity with Gaza faced off against Israeli forces in the occupied West Bank.
The Israeli military said 62 fighter jets dropped 110 “guided armaments” overnight and early Tuesday on targets in Gaza, including Hamas commanders, rocket launchpads and the militant group’s tunnel network in the territory.
Here’s what to know:
Palestinian militants targeted nearby Israeli towns and cities with rockets and large-caliber mortars, the armed groups said in statements Tuesday.
Dramatic footage circulating on social media Tuesday showed a rocket slamming into the side of a high-rise building in Ashdod, a port city north of Gaza.
Israeli police said Tuesday that rocket fire from Gaza killed two Thai workers in the Eshkol region in southern Israel. One Israeli soldier was injured in a mortar attack near the Gaza border and was evacuated to a hospital for treatment, the Israeli military said.
The armed wing of Hamas said earlier that it had “bombarded” the city of Sderot, launched missiles at Ashdod and attacked a group of Israeli soldiers north of Gaza.
The fresh fighting prompted Israel to shutter the Kerem Shalom border crossing it said was opened earlier Tuesday to allow for some aid to enter the besieged enclave.
Israel showed little sign of scaling back its campaign despite growing international pressure and Biden’s call for a cease-fire. Israel has so far declined entreaties from outside mediators, including Egyptians, that it agree to a halt, two officials familiar with the cease-fire talks told The Washington Post. The officials spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss negotiations.
“The IDF [Israel Defense Forces] is not talking about a cease-fire. We’re focused on the firing,” the military’s chief spokesman, Brig. Gen. Hidai Zilberman, told Israel’s Army Radio Tuesday, Reuters reported.
Blinken said the United States received intelligence from Israel on its bombing Saturday of a high-rise building in Gaza that housed media offices of the Associated Press and other outlets, but he declined to comment on the substance of the information.
“We did seek further information from Israel on this question,” the secretary of state said at a news conference in Iceland as a part of his tour of Nordic countries. “It’s my understanding that we’ve received some further information through intelligence channels, and it’s not something I can comment on.”
The 12-story al-Jalaa tower was destroyed during an Israeli bombardment of Gaza City following a barrage of Hamas rocket fire from the Gaza Strip. The leveling of the building prompted international condemnation. Israel said the tower contained military assets belonging to Hamas.
The ongoing fighting in Gaza came amid a nationwide strike by Palestinians in the West Bank and Arab citizens of Israel in solidarity with residents of Gaza.
Demonstrators participating in the strike clashed with Israeli soldiers near Ramallah, the Palestinian Authority’s administrative capital, and in Bethlehem in the West Bank. In Bethlehem, witnesses said Israeli forces fired tear gas and rubber bullets at demonstrators.
Scenes of violent chaos unfolded at the demonstration near Ramallah, where Israeli forces fired on crowds of Palestinian protesters, injuring at least 16, local health officials said.
Earlier images from the demonstration showed protesters chanting and waving Palestinian flags under a cloud of dark smoke from burning tires.
The atmosphere quickly changed, however, and Israeli drones were soon shown on a live broadcast dropping tear gas canisters on demonstrators as medics ferried the wounded to ambulances and protesters threw stones at army vehicles.
The Health Ministry in Ramallah said most of those injured at the protest outside the Israeli settlement of Beit El were wounded by live ammunition. At least three were in critical condition, the ministry said.
Also Tuesday, the Israeli military said that soldiers thwarted an attack by an armed Palestinian man in the restive city of Hebron.
The general strike, organized by an array of grass-roots groups and political parties, also included Arab communities in Israel. In Jaffa, a historically Palestinian neighborhood south of Tel Aviv, shops were shuttered and streets were quiet Tuesday.
In the Beit Sfafa neighborhood, which straddles both East and West Jerusalem, most shops were shut. A worker at a bakery, who declined to give his name, said that most residents were striking but that bakeries and pharmacies were allowed to stay open.
Ines Abdel Razak, a Palestinian activist from Jerusalem, described the strikes as a “moment of mobilization and rising,” adding: “I think we’re all trying to follow and build this momentum.”
In Gaza, the assault has devastated the civilian infrastructure, according to the United Nations and other relief agencies, disrupting power lines, sanitation networks and other basic services.
Israeli airstrikes have damaged or destroyed nearly 450 buildings across Gaza, displacing more than 52,000 people inside the territory, a spokesman for the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said Tuesday in Geneva.
Of those displaced, about 47,000 have sought refuge in 58 U.N.-run schools in Gaza, the United Nations said.
Berger reported from Jerusalem, Balousha from Gaza City and Cunningham from Istanbul. Steve Hendrix in Erez, Israel, and John Hudson in Reykjavik, Iceland, contributed to this report.
No comments:
Post a Comment