The war between Israel and Hamas flares up with rockets from Gaza that are also on Tel Aviv and the Jewish state decided to continue “without time limits” in an “extensive” conflict that has already caused dozens of victims. After yesterday’s clashes, a rain of missiles hit Israel throughout the day: about 480, plus another 130 fired in the evening towards Tel Aviv, where alarm sirens sounded several times.
One of them hit a building in Rishon Lezion, not far from the city, killing a woman and causing several injuries. The Israeli army responded with dozens and dozens of attacks on Hamas and Islamic Jihad targets: one of them hit a 12-story building, causing the entire structure to collapse. According to Israeli sources, before the attack the residents had been warned several times to leave the building which would house “commands of terrorist organizations”.
On the one hand, there are at least 30 dead (even “ten children”, according to the Gaza authorities) and 175 wounded, including important commanders of the Palestinian armed factions. While in Israel – protected by the Iron Dome anti-missile interception system – there are three victims: the woman who died near Tel Aviv and two others hit by a rocket that hit a building in Ashkelon. There are more than 70 injured in this city alone, while the entire population of southern Israel is forced into shelters.
An oil pipeline belonging to an Israeli state energy company was also hit by a missile attack from Gaza, an Israeli government official and an energy sector official said. The video broadcast by Channel 12 showed flames rising from what appeared to be a large tank of fuel near Ashkelon.
After a day of escalation, Benyamin Netanyahu announced that he had decided together with the military to “further increase the power and pace of the attacks” of what has been called Operation Guardians of the Walls. “Hamas – the Israeli prime minister threatened – will receive a blow he does not expect”. For this, 5 thousand reservists were recalled and the Golani Brigade and the tanks of the 7th Armored Brigade were deployed close to the border with Gaza.
“All the commands – the Chief of Staff Aviv Kochavi urged – must prepare for a more extensive conflict without time limits”. The dark atmosphere of the wars of 2012 and 2014 returned to the Strip, as Hamas and Jihad celebrated their Operation Sword of Jerusalem – with a clear reference to the clashes on the Temple Mount – which saw the coastal town of Ashdod hit. from a hail of 40 Grad rockets.
On Ashkelon then Hamas claimed the firing of the Sijeel missiles, capable of avoiding the interception of the Iron Dome: “It is a response – explained Hammed a-Rakeb, a Hamas leader – to attacks launched in precedence by Israel against apartments where military commanders were located ». Not surprisingly, given that as admitted by Netanyahu himself and by Kochavi, Israel wants to strike first of all the elite in command of the military arms of the Palestinian factions. Among them was killed Iyad Fathi Faik Sharir, commander of the anti-tank units of Hamas.
A possible truce, mediated by Egypt, appears remote at the moment: Israel has flatly denied that this is the hour. «The purpose of the operation in progress – specified Defense Minister Benny Gantz – is to hit Hamas hard, weaken it and make it regret its decision to launch rockets. Each bomb has an address. We will continue in the next hours and days ». In the latest attack on the Strip, the Jewish state used 80 aircraft, including some F-35s.
The events in Jerusalem have become the catalyst of a war that in recent years had been touched on several times. Those events had another heavy consequence for Israel: the open intolerance of a part of Arab-Israeli society.
Serious accidents occurred in many towns with mixed populations. Especially in Lod, Arab demonstrators attacked Jewish residents in some districts of the city. Two demonstrators were shot and one of them died shortly after. According to the media, the shooting was a Jew who feared lynching by demonstrators who had already attacked a police station, a museum and a rabbinical college.
Clashes also occurred in Ramle and again in Lod. “The Israeli Arabs – Netanyahu attacked – behaved wildly and we do not accept this behavior as rowdy”. It is unlikely that in this situation the repeated calls of the international community to de-escalation will be heard. In the evening, Joe Biden’s United States appealed to both sides to end “the deplorable civilian deaths” and re-launched the two-state solution as the only possible way out of the Middle East crisis. But tonight it’s still bomb time.