As deadly fighting between Israel and the Gaza terror group Hamas continued for a tenth day on Wednesday, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas accused Israel of conducting “state terror” and “war crimes,” the Times of Israel reports. Abbas heads the Palestinian Authority which has partial self- rule in areas of the West Bank, while Islamic Jihadist group Hamas has controlled the Gaza Strip since 2007.
Tensions are running high in mixed Jewish and Arab cities across Israel. One of the most volatile places is Lod just three miles from Israel’s Ben Gurion International Airport.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says that he is “determined to continue this operation until its aim is met,” despite U.S. President Joe Biden’s effective call for a ceasefire.
U.S. President Joe Biden pressured Israel Wednesday to end its military actions even though the Jewish state faced rockets fired by Hamas militants from Gaza.
Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stated Tuesday that the preceding nine days of airstrikes on Gaza have “set Hamas back by years,” BBC News reports. Israel’s ongoing bombardment of specific Hamas terror targets in Gaza has been a response to thousands of rockets indiscriminately fired from the Strip at Israeli cities.
Bedouin rioters targeted Israeli motorists with rocks and burning tires as Hamas militants fired rockets into Israel, killing two people, witnesses and officials said.
President Joe Biden’s administration approved the potential sale of $735 million in precision-guided weapons to Israel, and congressional sources said on Monday that U.S. lawmakers were not expected to object to the deal despite violence between Israel and Palestinian militants.
A leading human rights group is petitioning that governments of Australia, New Zealand, and Britain recognize the systemic killing of some 1.5 million mainly Christian Armenians systemic by Ottoman Empire forces as “genocide.”
Reports late Tuesday that Israel and Palestinian terror groups in the Gaza Strip will cease fire on Thursday morning sparked a flurry of denials from all parties involved, while the White House continued applying behind-the-scenes pressure on Jerusalem to wind down the fighting.
France’s President Emmanuel Macron, his Egyptian counterpart Abdel Fattah al-Sisi and Jordan’s King Abdullah II will hold talks Tuesday aimed at seeking a ceasefire in the conflict between Israel and Palestinian militant group Hamas, the French presidency said.
Palestinians and Arab Israelis were participating in a general strike across Israel, the West Bank and Gaza on Tuesday in protest of Israeli policies toward Palestinians.
Israel’s military said Monday that a new heavy wave of airstrikes on the Gaza Strip destroyed militant tunnels and the homes of nine Hamas commanders, raising concerns in the White House.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Blue and White chairman Benny Gantz are in talks to form another unity government as Israel continues to face rocket barrages from the Gaza Strip, Channel 12 News reported.
Six rockets were fired from Lebanon toward Israel late Monday, but they apparently fell short of the border fence. The IDF responded with artillery fire, the army said.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) on Monday said that it launched strikes at five homes of high-ranking Hamas commanders in aerial attacks, adding that all of the houses were used as part of Hamas’s terrorist infrastructure.
The United Nations suggested Sunday that the Israeli-Palestinian was escalating into a broader Middle East conflict after Palestinian medics said Israeli airstrikes on Gaza City flattened three buildings killing at least 42 people.
Israel’s military has denied allegations that it deliberately targets media offices and accused the militant group Hamas of using journalists as human shields.
Gaza City shook from north to south early Monday as Israeli fighter jets attacked several locations.
Israel came under heavy criticism on Saturday for striking a 12-story tower in Gaza housing the offices of foreign media affiliates such as the Associated Press, Al Jazeera and other news outlets. The United States government, AP and Al Jazeera each publicly expressed their concerns with the operation moments after the strike.
Rocket sirens continued to blare throughout the night in Ashkelon and Beersheba, with two separate barrages being aimed at each city, as Gaza terror groups continue their assault on Israel late into the night.