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LAST UPDATE | 12 May 2021
RELENTLESS ROCKET FIRE and rioting in mixed Jewish-Arab towns have fuelled growing fears that violence between Israel and Palestinians that has claimed 56 lives could spiral into “full-scale war”.
Israel’s Defence Minister Benny Gantz vowed more attacks on Hamas and other Palestinian militant groups in Gaza to bring “total, long-term quiet” before considering a ceasefire.
Islamist militants have launched more than 1,000 rockets since Monday, said Israel’s army, which has launched hundreds of air strikes on Islamist groups in the crowded coastal enclave of Gaza.
The most intense hostilities in seven years have killed at least 48 people in Gaza, including 14 children, three Palestinians in the West Bank, and five Israelis since Monday.
The bloodshed was triggered by weekend unrest at Jerusalem’s Al-Aqsa mosque compound, which is sacred to both Muslims and Jews.
As world powers voiced growing alarm and the UN Security Council readied for another emergency meeting on the bloody crisis, the UN Middle East envoy Tor Wennesland warned that “we’re escalating towards a full-scale war”.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declared a state of emergency in the mixed Jewish-Arab Israeli city of Lod, where police said “wide-scale riots erupted among some of the Arab residents”.
There were fears of widening civil unrest as protesters waving Palestinian flags burnt cars and properties, including a synagogue, clashed with Israeli police and attacked Jewish motorists in several Jewish-Arab towns.
Israel’s President Reuven Rivlin, in unusually strong language, denounced what he described as a “pogrom” in which “an incited and bloodthirsty Arab mob” had injured people and attacked sacred Jewish spaces.
Rivlin said Israelis needed “to be ready and armed, strong and determined, prepared to defend our home”.
‘Step back from the brink’
Palestinian groups, mainly Hamas and Islamic Jihad, have launched more than 1,000 rockets, Israel’s army said, including hundreds at Tel Aviv, where air sirens wailed overnight.
Of these, 850 rockets have hit in Israel or been intercepted by Israel’s Iron Dome air defence system, while the rest have crashed inside Gaza, the army said.
Israel has launched hundreds of air strikes at Gaza, the Israeli-blockaded strip of two million people that Hamas controls, targeting what the army described as Palestinian “terror” sites.
At least 230 Palestinians and 100 Israelis have been wounded.
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson urged both sides to “step back from the brink”.
Yesterday, Foreign Affairs Minister Simon Coveney told Israeli Ambassador Ophir Kariv that the loss of life in Gaza on Monday night was “completely unacceptable”.
In a meeting that lasted 45 minutes yesterday afternoon, the minister is understood to have reiterated Ireland’s firm stance that the loss of life among civilians in Gaza on Monday night was completely unacceptable.
He told the ambassador that Israel has a duty to protect civilians and comply with international humanitarian law.
The minister reiterated his condemnation of the firing of rockets from Gaza and the impact on Israeli civilians.
He urged the Israeli authorities to urgently take action to de-escalate the situation.
Speaking to RTÉ’s News at One this afternoon, Kariv said: “Israel never targets civilians. What we are seeing here is a fully fledged terrorist attack by Hamas on the Israeli population.”
The Israeli Ambassador added: “Israel is obliged to protect its own citizens. It does so in very difficult circumstances. Hamas is using the Palestinians as human shields. We are defending our citizens, trying to minimise, as much as possible, the civilian casualties on the other side.
The chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, Fatou Bensouda, voiced concern at the escalation and said “crimes” may have been committed.
Bensouda announced in March that she had opened a full investigation into the situation in the Israeli-occupied territories, infuriating Israel, which not a member of The Hague-based court.
‘Everything caught fire’
Gantz earlier warned that “this is just the beginning” of Israel’s campaign, dubbed “Guardian of the Walls”.
Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh threatened to step up its operation, code-named “Sword of Jerusalem”, warning that “if Israel wants to escalate, we are ready for it”.
Israeli army spokesman Jonathan Conricus said he expected the fighting to intensify and, when asked about unconfirmed reports that Hamas might seek a ceasefire, said: ”I don’t think my commanders are aware, or particularly interested.”
Violence also flared in the occupied West Bank, where three Palestinians were killed, including two shot in clashes near Nablus and near Hebron.
In Gaza City, people sifted through debris after an Israeli air strike destroyed a 12-storey building near the coast. Hamas said the tower block had been a residential building. AFP reporters said it also housed the offices of several Hamas officials.
Five members of a single family were killed by an Israeli strike in northern Gaza yesterday, including young brothers Ibrahim and Marwan, who were filling sacks of straw at the time.
“We were laughing and having fun when suddenly they began to bomb us. Everything around us caught fire,” their cousin, also called Ibrahim, told AFP.
“I saw my cousins set alight and torn to pieces,” said the 14-year-old, breaking down in tears.
‘We don’t have a safe room’
In Israel’s central city of Lod, a man and a girl were killed today by rocket fire from Gaza. Israel’s foreign ministry identified one of the dead as 16-year-old Nadin Awad, an Arab Israeli.
Her cousin, Ahmad Ismail, told public broadcaster Kan that he was near Nadin when she was killed alongside her father Khalil Awad, 52.
“I was at home, we heard the noise of the rocket. It happened so quickly. Even if we had wanted to run somewhere, we don’t have a safe room,” said Ismail.
An Israeli woman was killed when rockets hit Rishon Letzion near Tel Aviv. In Ashkelon, a town near Gaza which Hamas threatened to turn into “hell”, rockets fired by militants killed two women yesterday.
The crisis started last Friday when weeks of tensions boiled over and Israeli riot police clashed with crowds of Palestinians at Jerusalem’s Al-Aqsa mosque.
Nightly disturbances have since flared in east Jerusalem, leaving more than 900 Palestinians injured, according to the Palestinian Red Crescent.
The unrest has been driven by anger over the looming evictions of Palestinian families from the Jerusalem neighbourhood of Sheikh Jarrah.
Large protests have been held in solidarity with Palestinians around the world, including in London, as well as in Muslim-majority countries including Kuwait, Lebanon, Oman, Pakistan, Tunisia and Turkey.
© – AFP 2021 with reporting by Hayley Halpin
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Shopped local. All local small businesses are happy to do a sale over the phone or on Facebook and I have collected it from the shop at the door. I want to see my village Main Street open again when this is over, not boarded up.
@2thFairy: So far, I have bought every Christmas present from an Irish retailer, but my god some Irish retailers really need to get their act together in terms of online service – I got something delivered from China quicker than from a shop 2kms from my house, I am still waiting for it!
@Lisa Saputo: hear ya
@Lisa Saputo: maybe it’s being made in China
No option for No, none of the above?!
@Marc: I don’t do the commercial side of Christmas/giving & receiving presents… but just getting together for the family dinner with a bit of chat and banter is by far the best part of the holiday for me
@Marc: Worse poll I’ve seen on the journal for options. There is no option I can click on to see results. No I have not done any Christmas shopping as every were is closed!
@IrishRedLFC: I donate the money to a homeless charity instead, much better use of the money normally wasted on items we don’t need in this unnecessary annual box ticking exercise of buying one for everyone in the audience ;)
@IrishRedLFC: it all adds up… 5K+ donated to date… ya must be flúicin loaded yerself if thats tight in your dept!
@Marc: A bit harsh the Journal deleted @IrishRedLFC just for calling someone a tight bas…. :|
@Marc: Christmas was always commercial…. sure wasn’t the babby jesus only just born when the three kings burst through the door..”look what I got ya” – Tommy Tiernan
@Brianán McBride: Just click the “Vote” button with nothing selected (as I only discovered myself today) and voila!
Have most of it done. All online. Mostly local too.
Where’s the “Not doing Christmas shopping” option?
Yes, all online this year, poor postman..
5hit! Is it Christmas eve already?
I have done loads of online shopping and a bit of click and collect also. Will leave some of it for December but I feel like shops will be emptied by the 2nd. We will have to wait and see!!
@Seeking Truth: yeah I think so too..there wont be a cracker in sight
Can someone please ask Tony if its ok to do Christmas shopping?
Did most of mine online.. thank you Amazon. PS5 will be a no show for xmas but hopefully in the new year. I tried to shop local but way too expensive
@Christina Colling: there’s more being released this week Christina
Why do people bother? Shop for what? It’s like any other week just get the usual! Why do people need to be excessive especially this year!? No need
@Jonnie Marre: yawn. Humans have feasted right through the ages, keeps us busy and staves off the dullness of everyday life. Buy yourself a bottle of something nice and get into it
Usually shop local and leave it to the last few days. Have found some great bargains to be had on the 24th.
The “Can’t afford it” option.
I work in retail that supplies all the major shops with electronics And it’s very very quiet at the moment…
The quiet before the storm maybe??
have your say