Israel-Palestine Conflict Highlights: The conflict between Israel and Palestinian militants continues to escalate. In a phone call with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, United States President Joe Biden reportedly expressed support for a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, but stopped short of demanding an immediate stop to the eight days of Israeli airstrikes and Hamas rocket barrages. Hamas, the Islamist group that controls Gaza, launched the rocket attacks last week, in retaliation for Israeli police clashes with Palestinians near al-Aqsa Mosque, Islam's third holiest site, in East Jerusalem. According to Israel’s defence forces, more than 2,000 rockets had been fired from Gaza into Israel since the start of the conflict, around half of them intercepted by the ‘Iron Dome’ air defence systems. Civil unrest between Jews and Arabs in Israel itself dealt a strong blow to efforts by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's opponents to unseat the Israeli leader after a series of inconclusive elections, giving rise to expectations that Israelis will go to the polls for an unprecedented fifth time in just over two years.
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Israel-Palestine Conflict LIVE Updates | Hungary FM slams EU's 'one-sided' statements on Israel
Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto slammed the EU's "one-sided" statements on Israel as his European counterparts called for a ceasefire between Israel and the Palestinians.
"I have a general problem with these European statements on Israel... These are usually very much one-sided, and these statements do not help, especially not under current circumstances, when the tension is so high," Szijjarto told AFP in an interview.
EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell on Tuesday called for the implementation of a ceasefire to stop fighting between Israel and the Palestinians.
"The priority is the immediate cessation of all violence and the implementation of a ceasefire," Borrell said after a video conference of EU foreign ministers, adding the statement was backed by all the bloc's member states except Hungary.
Szijjarto himself did not attend the meeting. Hungary has recently used its veto power to block EU statements on China.
In the interview with AFP, Szijjarto insisted that blocking decisions "is a right of every country in the European Union".
"EU diplomacy should not consist only of judgements, negative statements and sanctions," he said.
"So I think less judgement, less lecturing, less criticism, less interference and more pragmatic cooperation could give back a lot of strength to the European Union."
Israel's intense bombing campaign has killed 213 Palestinians, including 61 children, and wounded more than 1,400 people in Gaza in more than a week of fighting against Islamist group Hamas, according to the health ministry in Gaza.
The death toll on the Israeli side rose to 12 on Tuesday when a volley of rockets Hamas fired at the southern Eshkol region killed two Thai nationals working in a factory and wounded several others.
Source: AFP
Israel-Palestine Conflict LIVE Updates | Israeli forces wound 5 Lebanon protesters near border: Report
Five people protesting on the Lebanon-Israel border against air strikes in Gaza were wounded Tuesday by tear gas cannisters and smoke bombs fired by Israeli forces, Lebanese state media said.
"A number of demonstrators climbed a concrete border fence, raised Hezbollah flags and banners, and threw stones," the official National News Agency reported.
"Israeli forces fired tear gas and smoke bombs, leaving five people wounded."
A Lebanese demonstrator was killed by Israeli fire on Friday after he tried to cross the border fence into northern Israel.
Israel-Palestine Conflict LIVE Updates | Israel troops targeted by gunfire in West Bank as Palestinian shot dead
Israeli troops were targeted by gunfire in the occupied West Bank on Tuesday, the army said, as the Palestinian health ministry said a man was killed in a separate shooting.
The violence came as Palestinians across the West Bank and in east Jerusalem observed a general strike in support of those under bombardment in the Gaza Strip, with clashes reported throughout the territories.
The Israeli army said that "during a violent riot" near Ramallah, "a number of rioters fired extensively" Israeli soldiers who "responded with fire".
Israel-Palestine Conflict LIVE Updates | EU set to call for Israel-Palestinian peace talks with US, Russia
European Union foreign ministers are set on Tuesday to call for a ceasefire between Israel and Palestinian Islamist group Hamas, offer more humanitarian aid and try to relaunch peace talks, Malta's foreign minister said.
EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell began an emergency call with member states' foreign ministers after criticism of the West's response to violence that flared last week, including from Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan.
"I think I'm not being too optimistic (to say) that at a minimum, what will probably come out (of the EU meeting) is the call for a ceasefire, an offer of humanitarian aid, and then seeing how to restart the political process," Bartolo told Reuters via video link after the ministers' call began.
Israel-Palestine Conflict LIVE Updates | Pentagon chief supports de-escalation in Israel-Palestinian conflict
U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin expressed his support for a de-escalation in fighting between Israel and Palestinian Islamist group Hamas in a call with his Israeli counterpart on Tuesday, the Pentagon said.
"Austin reiterated the United States' unwavering support for Israel's right to defend itself and to protect Israeli civilians, and lamented the loss of innocent Israeli and Palestinian lives," Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said.
"Austin expressed his support for de-escalation of the conflict and the restoration of calm," Kirby added.
Source: Reuters
Israel-Palestine Conflict LIVE Updates | Angela Merkel, Jordan king call for 'swift' Mideast ceasefire
German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Jordan's King Abdullah II urged a "swift" ceasefire in the conflict between Israel and Palestinian militant group Hamas in a video call Tuesday, her spokesman said.
"They agreed that initiatives for a swift ceasefire should be supported to create the conditions for the resumption of political negotiations," the spokesman, Steffen Seibert, said in a statement.
Source: AFP
Israel-Palestine Conflict LIVE Updates | Germany calls for truce in Israel-Gaza violence, offers more aid
Germany called for a ceasefire in fighting between Israel and Palestinian Islamist group Hamas and offered more aid to help Palestinians on Tuesday before emergency European Union talks that are expected to highlight divisions over the conflict.
The call for a truce follows U.S. President Joe Biden's support for a ceasefire during a call with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday.
Germany made the comments before a video call of the EU's 27 foreign ministers chaired by chief Josep Borrell to discuss how to end the conflict, although diplomats warned that differing opinions over the Middle East would marginalise the bloc's role.
"An end to the violence is the first priority," German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas said in a video statement streamed on social media, as the fiercest hostilities between Israel and the Palestinians in years continued.
"Today, I will lobby for a better humanitarian supply in Gaza," Maas said, pledging 40 million euros ($48.86 million) to ramp up humanitarian aid for civilians in Gaza.
Israel-Palestine Conflict LIVE Updates | UN agency says 52,000 displaced in Gaza, Amnesty wants war crimes investigation
More than 52,000 Palestinians have been displaced by Israeli air strikes that have destroyed or badly damaged nearly 450 buildings in the Gaza Strip, the UN aid agency said on Tuesday.
In a separate statement on the conflict, rights group Amnesty International said Israel air strikes on residential buildings might amount to war crimes. Israel says it hits only legitimate military targets and that it does all it can to avoid civilian casualties.
About 47,000 of the displaced people have sought shelter in 58 UN-run schools in Gaza, Jens Laerke, a spokesman for the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) in Geneva, told reporters.
Israel-Palestine Conflict LIVE Updates | Two Thai workers killed in rocket attack on Israel: police
Two Thai workers were killed in southern Israel by rocket fire from Gaza on Tuesday, police said, raising to 12 the death toll in the Jewish state since the conflict broke out.
"In the last wave of rockets that landed in the Eshkol region, two people were killed," police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said, identifying the dead as workers from Thailand.
A week ago, a Thai national was wounded by another rocket fired from Gaza, and a farm labourer from Thailand was killed in the 2004 Israel-Gaza war.
Magen David Adom, Israel's equivalent of the Red Cross, said seven other foreign workers were wounded by shrapnel in the latest attack, one of them seriously.
They were all taken to Soroka hospital in the southern town of Beersheba.
According to the United Hatzalah volunteer rescue service, the Gaza rocket hit a packaging factory near the border.
Source: AFP
Israel-Palestine Conflict LIVE Updates | Egypt sends medical aid to Gaza after Israeli strikes
Egypt has sent 65 tonnes of medical aid to neighbouring Gaza after a week of Israeli strikes left more than 200 Palestinians dead and hundreds more wounded, health officials said.
With hospitals in Gaza overwhelmed by patients, the critical surgical supplies include specialist burns treatment as well as "ventilators, oxygen tanks (and) syringes," Health Minister Hala Zayed said late Monday.
Source-AFP
Israel-Palestine Conflict LIVE Updates | Israel re-shuts Gaza crossing after mortar fire
Israel said it had closed a crossing into Gaza shortly after opening it Tuesday to allow in humanitarian goods, after mortars were fired at the area as aid trucks passed through.
Israel had opened the Kerem Shalom crossing to allow in "trucks carrying civil aid donated by international aid organisations to the Gaza Strip," said COGAT, the Israeli military branch responsible for civil affairs in the Palestinian territories.
"After a firing of mortar bombs towards the Kerem Shalom Crossing... it has been decided to stop the entry of the rest of the trucks," the COGAT statement said.
Source: AFP
Israel-Palestine Conflict LIVE Updates | No respite from Israel-Gaza fighting as diplomatic efforts intensify
The UN Security Council was to hold an emergency meeting Tuesday amid a diplomatic push to end the devastating conflict between Israel and Gaza's armed groups that has killed more than 220 people, most of them Palestinians.
Israel maintained its heaviest-ever daily rate of bombardment of the blockaded enclave overnight, sending a fireball and a black plume of smoke into the sky following one heavy strike, an AFP journalist reported.
With AFP inputs.
Israel-Palestine Conflict LIVE Updates | Palestinians go on strike as Israel, Hamas trade fire
Palestinians across Israel and the occupied territories went on strike in a rare collective action against Israel’s policies on Tuesday as Israeli strikes rained down on Gaza and militants fired dozens of rockets from the Hamas-ruled territory.
With the war in Gaza showing no sign of abating and truce efforts apparently stalled, the general strike and expected protests could again widen the conflict after a spasm of communal violence in Israel and protests across the occupied West Bank last week.
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Macron, Egypt's Sisi, Jordanian king to hold talks seeking Israel-Hamas ceasefire: FranceFrance's President Emmanuel Macron, his Egyptian counterpart Abdel Fattah al-Sisi and Jordan's King Abdullah II will hold talks today aimed at seeking a ceasefire in the conflict between Israel and Hamas, the French presidency said.
Sisi is currently in Paris for summits on Africa while Abdullah will join by video conference, the French presidential office said. (Input from AFP)
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The European Union (EU) is set to call for a ceasefire in fighting between Israel and Hamas at an emergency video meeting today, but divisions over West Asia will marginalise the bloc's role, diplomats told Reuters.
Israel-Palestine Conflict LIVE Updates |
Israel Defense Forces on Twitter: “An assailant armed with an IED, an improvised "Carlo" submachine gun and a knife arrived in Hebron, and attempted a combined attack on IDF soldiers. Our soldiers spotted the assailant, responded with fire and neutralised him.”Hebron is a town in the southern West Bank.
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UN hails Israel decision to open crossing for aid into GazaThe United Nations has hailed Israel’s decision to open the Kerem Shalom crossing to allow aid into Gaza, and urged the opening of a second location to let in humanitarian workers.
"We very much welcome the Israeli authorities' opening of Kerem Shalom crossing for essential humanitarian supplies," Jens Laerke, a spokesman for the UN humanitarian agency OCHA, told reporters in Geneva, saying the Erez crossing should also be opened. (Input from AFP)
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The 'Iron Dome' is a ground-to-air, short-range air defence system that neutralises enemy rockets and missiles.
The concept was born after the 2006 Israel-Lebanon War when Israel faced thousands of rockets fired by Hezbollah. The missile defence system took years to develop and was tested in combat for the first time in April 2011.
The system has been mainly deployed to intercept short-range missiles and rockets coming in from the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip.
Israel-Palestine Conflict LIVE Updates |
In first, Gaza logs no deaths from overnight Israeli strikesGaza health officials said today that they had no reports of Palestinians killed overnight in ongoing Israeli strikes on the enclave, the first apparent reduction of casualties since fighting erupted last week.
The intensity of Palestinian rocket attacks on Israel also waned between midnight and 10.00 am local time, a Reuters witness said. Israeli rocket alerts indicated the latest salvoes were focussed on border communities rather than targets deeper within Israel. (Input from Reuters)
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In this image: Rockets being launched towards Israel from the southern Gaza Strip on May 17, 2021 (Image: Said Khatib/AFP)
Israel-Palestine Conflict LIVE Updates |
Indonesians protest at US embassy over Israel's airstrikesPro-Palestinian protesters marched to the heavily guarded US embassy in Indonesia’s capital today to demand an end to Israeli airstrikes in the Gaza Strip.
Waving Indonesian and Palestinian flags and signs that read “Free Palestine,” several hundred demonstrators gathered along a major street in Jakarta that runs outside the embassy. More than 1,000 police were deployed around the compound, which is blocked off by concrete road separators.
Indonesia, the world's most populous Muslim majority nation, does not have formal diplomatic relations with Israel. (Input from The Associated Press)
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Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) on Twitter:"A UAV (unmanned aerial vehicle) approached the Israeli border near the Jordan Valley earlier this morning. It was later intercepted by the Israeli Air Force."IDF did not specify where the aircraft might have come from.
Local media reports claim that the Israeli Air Force shot down the UAV.
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The UN Security Council session scheduled for later today is the fourth since the conflict escalated and was called after the United States, a key Israel ally, blocked adoption of a joint statement calling for a halt to the violence yesterday for the third time in a week.
Israel-Palestine Conflict LIVE Updates |
To the outside world, the scenes of rocket fire, bombing raids and angry protests in West Asia last week may have looked familiar. To the people of Israel and the Gaza Strip, they were anything but routine.
In Pictures | Israel-Palestine conflict: Fear, grief grip Gaza anew amid familiar glare
Israel-Palestine Conflict LIVE Updates | International community must move actively to stop Israeli violations in Jerusalem, Gaza: Jordanian King
Jordanian King Abdullah II, in a call with United Nations Secretary General António Guterresyesterday, said that “provocative Israeli actions” against Palestinians has led to the ongoing escalation.
“International community must shoulder its responsibility, move actively to stop Israeli violations in Jerusalem and aggression on Gaza,” Jordan’s Royal Hashemite Court tweeted, quoting King Abdullah II.
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UN Security Council to meet on GazaThe United Nations Security Council is preparing to hold an emergency meeting amid a flurry of urgent diplomacy aimed at stemming hostilities between Israel and Hamas that have left over 200 dead, news agency AFP has reported.
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Ambassador Munir Akram, Pakistan’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations: “The solidarity required by our Palestinian brothers today is a solidarity based on principle. Israel has no business to be in the occupied territories of Palestine; to be in E-Jerusalem; to attack Gaza; to launch fascist movements, lynching and killing Palestinians.”Pakistan does not recognise Israel and the two countries don’t have diplomatic relations.
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Key Gaza border crossing to reopen for humanitarian aid: Local media reportIsrael will reopen the Kerem Shalom border crossing with Gaza today to allow for the transfer of gas, food and medicine to Palestinian residents, according to a news report by The Jerusalem Post.
The border was closed amid escalating tensions last week. Kerem Shalom is Gaza's main commercial crossing with Israel.
Israel-Palestine Conflict LIVE Updates | Pattern of Israeli attacks on Gaza residential homes must be investigated as war crimes: Amnesty International
Amnesty International has called on the International Criminal Court (ICC) to investigate multiple Israeli military strikes on “residential homes without prior warning” as they “may amount to war crimes or crimes against humanity”.
The human rights organisation said in some cases, no prior warning was given to the civilian residents to allow them to escape. “Under international humanitarian law, all parties must distinguish between military targets and civilian objects and direct their attacks only at military objectives. When carrying out attacks, parties must take all feasible precautions to minimise harm to civilians,” said Saleh Higazi, Amnesty International’s Deputy Director for the Middle East and North Africa.
Israel-Palestine Conflict LIVE Updates | Egypt aims to restore regional role with Gaza mediation
Egypt is seeking to restore its regional clout by mediating between Israel and Hamas. In 2014, Egypt brokered a fragile ceasefire after a devastating weeks-long war between arch-foes Israel and Hamas, the Islamist group which rules the densely populated Palestinian enclave.
The escalation has embarrassed Gulf states UAE and Bahrain which normalised diplomatic ties with Israel last year, putting Cairo in the diplomatic driving seat.
"In a region where normalising states are expanding their own relations with Israel, Egypt... has a vested interest utilising its geographic proximity to Gaza to leverage its diplomatic power," Tareq Baconi, a senior analyst at the International Crisis Group told AFP.
An Egyptian intelligence delegation reportedly on the ground in Israel and the Palestinian territories has boosted Cairo's hand as a peace-broker. "The delegation is comprised of intelligence officials and has been there for several days to negotiate a ceasefire," Khaled Okasha, a member of Egypt's Supreme Council for Counter-Terrorism, told AFP. (Input from PTI)
Israel-Palestine Conflict LIVE Updates |
The largely liberal, secular beachside city of Tel Aviv has a reputation for being a hedonistic bubble. But during the past week, the city has been targeted by at least 160 rockets fired out of the Palestinian coastal enclave of Gaza, about 40 miles to the south.
The bombardment of Tel Aviv has been a devastating turn of events for a bustling metropolis that brands itself as Israel’s non-stop party city on the Mediterranean coast and the financial hub of the country.
Over the weekend, incoming alerts and rocket salvos sent crowds of beachgoers running for cover and closed down many of the city’s famed restaurants and bars.
Read the full story here: Tel Aviv, Israel’s bustling financial hub, shaken as rockets rain down
Israel-Palestine Conflict LIVE Updates |
The 'Iron Dome' is a ground-to-air, short-range air defence system that neutralises enemy rockets and missiles.
The concept was born after the 2006 Israel-Lebanon War when Israel faced thousands of rockets fired by Hezbollah. The missile defence system took years to develop and was tested in combat for the first time in April 2011.
The system has been mainly deployed to intercept short-range missiles and rockets coming in from the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip.
Israel-Palestine Conflict LIVE Updates | Top US Democrat was looking to delay $735 million precision missiles sale to Israel: Report
US House Foreign Affairs Committee chairman Gregory Meeks was considering sending the Biden administration a letter in the coming days requesting it delays a $735 million sale of precision-guided missiles to Israel, according to a news report by The Times of Israel.
Meeks reportedly wanted the delay the sale in order to give his panel more time to review the purchase.
Israel-Palestine Conflict LIVE Updates |
Secretary of State Antony Blinken, speaking in Denmark on the first stop of an unrelated tour of Nordic countries, yesterday said that the United States was ready to spring in to help if Israel and Hamas signal interest in ending hostilities — but that the US was not demanding that they do so.
“Ultimately it is up to the parties to make clear that they want to pursue a ceasefire,” The Associated Press quoted Blinken as saying.
Israel-Palestine Conflict LIVE Updates | JUST IN:
Sirens sounding in southern Israel, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) has said.
Israel-Palestine Conflict LIVE Updates |
Meanwhile, six shells were fired from Lebanon towards northern Israel around midnight, but fell short of crossing the border, the Israeli military said, adding that it fired artillery at "the sources of the launches" in Lebanon.
The United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) said that it was intensifying patrols after it detected the firing of rockets from the area of Rashaya Al Foukhar, north of Kfar Choub in southern Lebanon.
UNIFIL added on Twitter that the situation in the area was now calm and that its head of mission remained in contact with all parties to ensure stability.
Israel fought a 2006 war against Hezbollah guerrillas, trading rockets and air strikes, but the border has since been mostly quiet. (Input from Reuters)
Israel-Palestine Conflict LIVE Updates |
United States President Joe Biden expressed support for a ceasefire between Israel and Gaza's militant Hamas rulers in a call to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu yesterday, but stopped short of demanding an immediate stop to the eight days of Israeli airstrikes and Hamas rocket barrages that have killed more than 200 people, most of them Palestinian.
Biden's carefully worded statement, in a White House readout of his second known call to Netanyahu in three days as the attacks pounded on, came with the administration under pressure to respond more forcefully despite its determination to wrench the US foreign policy focus away from West Asia conflicts. (Input from The Associated Press)
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