Israel’s conflict with the Palestinians is widening

Israel’s conflict with the Palestinians intensified on several fronts, as it faced worsening communal unrest in its cities and mass protests throughout the occupied West Bank as it extended its bombing of Gaza in a sixth day.

Despite the worsening crisis and diplomatic efforts by regional and US governments, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu promised on Friday that Israel’s assault on Hamas, the Palestinian militant group that controls Gaza, “has not yet it’s over “.

As the number of Palestinians killed in Gaza rose to 136, including 55 women and children, U.S. and regional governments fought to achieve a ceasefire. Ten Israelis have been killed, including a child and a soldier.

Israel has rejected a second offer for a Hamas truce, a Western diplomat told FT. Hady Amr, a top U.S. State Department official for Israeli and Palestinian affairs, was in Tel Aviv overnight, while the UN tried to stop fighting for two hours on Sunday to ease hostilities.

For a sixth day, Israeli planes hit the Gaza Strip, home to 2 million Palestinians, and a woman and her four children died overnight when their home in a refugee camp was hit, they said. local health officials.

Israeli warplanes attacked another high-rise building in Gaza City, where news organizations such as Al Jazeera and the Associated Press have their offices, an AP reporter reported. Israel had sent notices to evacuate the building, Al Jazeera reported.

A Netanyahu Arab spokesman told Israeli Channel 12 news that “Hamas is entirely to blame for the deaths of civilians in Gaza.” The spokesman said the militants had placed military targets inside densely populated neighborhoods.

Despite the Israeli bombing, which has been expanded to include artillery fire and tanks, Hamas has launched nearly 2,500 rockets into Israel.

On Friday night, Hamas launched 200 rockets into Ashdod and Beersheva.

In the West Bank, Israeli security forces killed eleven Palestinians after angry protests erupted on Friday, local health officials said.

Unrest in the West Bank could worsen significantly, an aide to Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh told FT after nearly 80 demonstrations on Friday. Some became violent with Palestinians throwing stones at Israeli soldiers.

A mass Palestinian demonstration was scheduled for the following Saturday, on the occasion of the 73rd anniversary of the creation of Israel, which the Arabs call Nakba, a disaster.

The West Bank, which Israel has occupied since the 1967 war, is home to nearly 650,000 Jewish settlers, including at least 200,000 in East Jerusalem. The territory, which is home to Fatah, Hamas’s rival Palestinian faction, had been relatively quiet until yesterday.

In addition to its campaign against Hamas, Israel is struggling to contain the worst domestic community violence in recent years, as groups of Jews and minority Israeli Israeli men have attacked communities and destroyed property in mixed Israeli cities.

Israeli police have arrested about 900 people as they tried to stop the riots in cities with mixed Jewish and Arab populations, and the community struggle exposed a deep rift within the Jewish state.

About 15,000 police officers fought to impose a night curfew on cities such as Lod, Haifa and Jaffa, where an Arab home was shot.

The Arab-Israeli conflict has been dominated for more than a decade by fighting between Israeli forces and Palestinian factions in the occupied territories. But community violence has caused further tension.

Israeli Arabs make up about a fifth of the Jewish state’s population, carry Israeli passports and vote in the country’s elections. But they say they suffer from institutional and social discrimination and their sympathy for the Palestinian cause has made them a target for right-wing Israeli politicians.

This week, Israel relocated several thousand police officers from the West Bank to Israeli cities and towns as it intensified efforts to curb domestic unrest.

The crisis erupted after weeks of tension in and around Jerusalem, which escalated last week after police used rubber bullets, tear gas and stun grenades at Palestinian protesters inside the al-Aqsa mosque.

More than 600 Palestinians were injured and images of police using force against protesters in Islam’s third holiest site, which was a turning point in the Arab-Israeli conflict, inflamed Arab anger.

The al-Aqsa Mosque is located in an area known to Muslims as Haram ash-Sharif, or noble shrine, and for Jews as the Temple Mount, which is sacred to both religions.

As tensions rose, Hamas entered the battle on Monday, firing rockets at Israel and demanding that Jewish settlers in Israel-occupied East Jerusalem stop harassing Arab residents awaiting eviction orders from Israeli courts.

Israel responded by launching its largest military campaign against Hamas since the 2014 war with the Islamist group.

The impoverished territory is now down to about five hours of electricity a day and will likely run out of fuel on Sunday, according to an Israeli security official.

In an attempt to stifle Hamas’ access to resources, Israel has imposed a blockade on the Gaza Strip since 2007.