Funerals Held In Gaza As Israel Renews Air Raids
At least 28 Palestinians killed in Israeli strikes on Gaza as Hamas fires rockets into Israel, after days of rising tensions in Jerusalem.
The Israeli military renewed its bombardment of the besieged Gaza Strip on Tuesday morning, targeting several areas after rockets were fired from the enclave.
At least two people have been killed on Tuesday, health authorities in Gaza said. The new attacks come hours after at least 28 Palestinians – including 10 children – were killed in overnight Israeli air strikes on the strip after Hamas launched rockets from the coastal territory towards Israel, according to the health ministry in Gaza.
The rocket fire came after Gaza’s rulers Hamas issued an ultimatum demanding Israel stand down its security forces from the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound in occupied East Jerusalem after days of violence against Palestinians.
Israeli police stormed the compound on Monday for a third consecutive day, firing rubber-coated steel rounds, stun grenades and tear gas at Palestinian worshippers inside the mosque in the final days of the holy month of Ramadan.
More than 700 Palestinians were hurt in Jerusalem and across the occupied West Bank over the past 24 hours.
Here are the latest updates:
4 mins ago (15:31 GMT)
‘Streets of Gaza almost empty’
Reporting from the Gaza Strip after Israeli strikes killed 28 people, including 10 children, Al Jazeera’s Safwat Al Kahlout, said the situation in the besieged coastal enclave was tense.
“The streets of Gaza are almost empty. People are staying home because of the intensive air strikes that Israel is carrying out,” said Kahlout.
“At this time of Ramadan, markets and the streets are usually overcrowded,” he added.
“We have been seeing the exchange of fire between the Israelis and the Palestinian armed groups. The last one was just a few seconds before we went on air,” he explained.
Smoke billows from Israeli air strikes in Gaza City [Anas Baba/AFP]20 mins ago (15:15 GMT)
PA receives letter from Biden administration: Palestinian media
President of the Palestinian Authority (PA) Mahmoud Abbas has received a letter from US President Joe Biden, reported Palestinian news agency, Wafa.
The letter discussed the latest escalations in Jerusalem and along the Israeli-Gaza border, according to the agency.
Speaking from Washington DC, Al Jazeera’s Kimberly Halkett said that there was no confirmation of a letter being sent from the Biden administration to the PA.
She added however that US President Biden was facing increasing pressure to get involved in resolving the tensions between Palestine and Israel.
People inspect rubble of a destroyed building after Israeli warplanes launched airstrikes over Gaza Strip [Ali Jadallah/Anadolu Agency]35 mins ago (15:00 GMT)
Thousands in Lod mourn killing of Palestinian
Thousands of people took part in funeral processions for 33-year-old Musa Hassuna, a Palestinian citizen of Israel who was shot dead on Monday by a Jewish Israeli in Lod, southeast of Tel Aviv.
The gunman behind the shooting has reportedly been arrested.
55 mins ago (14:39 GMT)
Gaza death toll reaches 28, says health ministry
The death toll caused by Israeli strikes on the Gaza Strip has reached 28, said the Palestinian ministry of health in Gaza.
The victims included 10 children and one woman, said the ministry.
At least 152 people were also injured in the raids, it added.
Palestinians mourners carry the bodies of Ameera Soboh and her son, Abed Soboh, during their funeral in the aftermath of Israel’s overnight air strike on Gaza City [Mohammed Saber/EPA]1 hour ago (14:30 GMT)
‘A horrible moment’: Gaza resident on Israeli strikes
Gaza resident Mahmoud Ahmed, 21, recounted events from Israel’s air strikes on Gaza which killed 26 people, including nine children.
“I suddenly heard the neighbors knocking on the door. Each one was telling the other to flee. It was a horrible moment,” Ahmed told Al Jazeera’s Hana Salah.
“Tens of families rushed into the street before Israeli war planes destroyed their homes. We avoided a potential massacre,” Ahmed told Al Jazeera.
“People are still staying outside of their homes, because we don’t know when they will be targeted again,” he added.
A man holding his child runs away after Israeli warplanes launched airstrikes over Gaza Strip [Ali Jadallah/ Anadolu Agency]1 hour ago (14:17 GMT)
Israeli strikes hit Gaza, again
At least 14 strikes hit various areas of the Gaza Strip, reported Al Jazeera Arabic’s correspondent in Gaza.
Footage from the Strip showed plumes of smoke rising through the skies.
No casualties were so far reported.
2 hours ago (13:56 GMT)
Netanyahu says Israel stepping up Gaza strikes
Israel will step up its Gaza strikes, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said after Palestinian rocket launches killed two women in a southern city.
“At the conclusion of a situational assessment, it was decided that both the might of the attacks and the frequency of the attacks will be increased,” he said in video statement.
3 hours ago (12:48 GMT)
Death toll rises to 26, Gaza health ministry says
Ashraf al-Qudra, spokesperson for Gaza’s healthy ministry, said the death toll from Israeli raids since Monday night has risen to 26.
Nine of those who lost their lives were children, al-Qudra said.
At least 122 people others were wounded, he added.
3 hours ago (12:40 GMT)
Two Israelis killed in Hamas rocket fire: Haaretz
Two Israelis have been killed after rocket fire from Gaza hit Ashkelon, Israeli daily Haaretz reported.
The victims were two women, one aged in her 40s, the other in her mid-60s, the Magen David Adom emergency service told AFP, while the city’s Barzilai Medical Center said it was treating 70 people.
3 hours ago (12:32 GMT)
British MPs condemn Israeli attacks on Gaza, Al-Aqsa
Jeremy Corbyn, a British Member of Parliament (MP) former leader of the UK Labour Party, said: “Deliberately provocative attacks on the Al-Aqsa mosque and the ongoing home invasions #SheikhJarrah have led to horrendous violence in Jerusalem.”
Israel should “rectify the current situation and not exacerbate it,” he said in a Twitter post.
Zarah Sultana, another Labour MP, said Israel’s “brutal attacks must be condemned”.
“Tonight, seeing footage of Israeli airstrikes kill men, women and children in Gaza, I send my solidarity, my love and my prayers to the Palestinian people,” she wrote on Monday night.
3 hours ago (12:30 GMT)
Palestinians in Gaza mourn killing of loved ones
Hundreds of Palestinians in Gaza gathered to mourn some of those who were killed in overnight Israeli raids.
Funeral processions took place for 57-year-old Amira Abdel Fattah Subuh, and her son, 17-year-old Abdulrahman, who were killed when their home was struck in the al-Shati refugee camp on the edge of Gaza City.
“I bid farewell to the most precious person in my heart, my mother, and I ask God to have mercy on her,” Subuh’s son told Maan news agency.
Meanwhile, in northern Gaza, thousands gathered to mourn eight others, including a Hamas military commander, who died overnight as a result of Israeli air strikes.
Hamas launches over ’70 rockets in less than 30 minutes’
Al Jazeera’s Nida Ibrahim, reporting from the occupied West Bank city of Ramallah, said Hamas’s armed wing fired their “largest barrage” yet from the enclave towards Israel.
“That’s more than 70 rockets in less than 30 minutes,” Ibrahim said, according to a statement released by Hamas’s armed wing, the Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades.
In total, more than 300 rockets have been fired from the Gaza Strip towards Israel since Monday.
The al-Qassam Brigades earlier said Israel crossed “all red lines” in Al-Aqsa, and that it is its duty to respond.
4 hours ago (11:06 GMT)
Jordanian FM says maintaining peace and stability is ‘key’
Jordan’s Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi said maintaining peace and stability in Jerusalem is “key”.
“Our focus right now on ensuring that the escalation stops, and for that to happen we do believe that all illegal and provocative measures … must stop,” he said, referring to Israel’s actions in Sheikh Jarrah and in the Al-Aqsa mosque.
“The status quo needs to be preserved, and the rights of the Palestinians need to be respected.”
5 hours ago (10:40 GMT)
Netanyahu ‘ready to do’ anything to stay in power: Knesset member
Sami Abu Shehadeh, Palestinian Knesset member and leader of the Balad party, said Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu allowed for an “escalation” in a bid to remain in power.
Speaking to Al Jazeera, he said: “In order to survive this political crisis he finds himself in now, and in order for him not to lose control and not to lose his seat as prime minister … he is ready to do anything.
“All the escalation we are seeing now has a clear political target from Netanyahu’s point of view, and he is ready to do anything to keep himself in power including this massacre that we are going to see in Gaza,” Shehadeh said.
“What is happening here is a clear political decision that Netanyahu is responsible for to keep power.”
5 hours ago (10:07 GMT)
Thousands of Israeli soldiers ordered to mobilise
The Israeli army said in a statement Defense Minister Benny Gantz called in troop reinforcements near the fence with Gaza.
Gantz ordered the mobilisation of 5,000 Israeli soldiers to “deepen home front defense,” the statement said.
6 hours ago (09:41 GMT)
Two killed in fresh Israeli raid on Gaza
At least two people have been killed in an Israeli air strike that struck a residential building in Gaza City’s Rimal neighbourhood, Maan news agency said, bringing the total number of deaths to 26.
The two killed were identified as Islamic Jihad commanders. A third commander was severely injured, according to Maan.
At least five other civilians suffered wounds and were being transported to hospital.
A medic treats a wounded boy following an explosion in the town of Beit Lahiya, northern Gaza Strip [Mohammed Ali/AP Photo]6 hours ago (09:17 GMT)
Israeli forces used ‘unwarranted, excessive force’: Amnesty
Rights group Amnesty International said that Israeli forces have used “unwarranted and excessive force” against Palestinian protesters in East Jerusalem.
In a statement, the UK-based rights group said: “Israeli forces have repeatedly deployed disproportionate and unlawful force to disperse protesters during violent raids on al-Aqsa mosque and have carried out unprovoked attacks on peaceful demonstrators in Sheikh Jarrah.
“Israel must not be allowed to continue its rampage against Palestinians who are simply defending their right to exist and protesting against their forced displacement,” the group’s Middle East Deputy Director, Saleh Higazi, said.
7 hours ago (08:42 GMT)
Arab League chief condemns Israeli air strikes on Gaza
Israeli air strikes on the Gaza Strip were “indiscriminate and irresponsible,” Arab League chief Ahmed Aboul Gheit said.
He said that Israel was responsible for a “dangerous escalation” in Jerusalem, and called on the international community to act immediately to stop the violence.
8 hours ago (08:02 GMT)
Tense calm in East Jerusalem’s Old City
Despite signs of relative calm in the Old City, the Palestinian Red Crescent said at least 520 Palestinians have been wounded since Monday, including more than 200 who are hospitalised – five of whom are in a critical condition.
Siraj, a 24-year-old Palestinian man, suffered a spleen injury being hit by a rubber-coated steel bullet a day earlier.
He sat in a wheelchair with his two legs bandaged at East Jerusalem’s crowded Makassed Hospital.
“They shot everyone, young and old people,” he told Al Jazeera, referring to Israeli police.
The hospital’s director, Adnan Farhoud, said most of those wounded suffered injuries to the head, chest and limbs.
Israel trying to ‘redeem its humiliation’ in Jerusalem by striking Gaza
Ali Abunimah, an author and the co-founder of the Electronic Intifada website, called out Israel’s actions in the occupied Palestinian territories.
Speaking to Al Jazeera from Amman, he said: “It’s horrific to see Israel once again deciding to try to redeem its humiliation in Jerusalem by killing Palestinians, particularly children … in Gaza due to Israeli attacks targeting residential homes among many other sites.
“What happened yesterday in Jerusalem was Israel suffered a humiliating defeat when Palestinian popular resistance, without the support of any governments, without the support of the Palestinian Authority … defeated Israel, forced them to cancel the settler march, and is continuing to resist the ethnic cleansing in Sheikh Jarrah,” Abunimah said.
A Palestinian searches for survivors under the rubble of a destroyed rooftop of a residential building which was hit by Israeli missile strikes, at the al-Shati refugee camp in Gaza City [Khalil Hamra/AP Photo]“What Hamas and the other resistance factions were trying to say to Israel is ‘Do not think you can attack Jerusalem and attack Palestinians in the West Bank and count on the resistance not to respond to you’.
“So that was a major strategic miscalculation by Israel because they thought that we can do as we please because we’ve divided the Palestinian people – there are little bits of them in the West Bank, little bits of them in Gaza,” he added.
9 hours ago (06:55 GMT)
Gaza health ministry announces new deaths
Health authorities in Gaza said three people died overnight, including an elderly woman and a man with special needs, taking the total number of those killed in Israeli raids to 24.
At least 103 people were wounded, it added.
10 hours ago (06:02 GMT)
Israel launches more air raids on Gaza
The Israeli army unleashed new air strikes on Gaza and said it struck “130 targets” there since last night “in response” to rockets fired from the strip.
Hamas said it launched dozens of rockets from Gaza after it earlier warned Israel to stop the violence against Palestinian worshippers at Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem.
In a statement issued early Tuesday, Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh said the rocket attacks would continue until Israel stops “all scenes of terrorism and aggression in Jerusalem and Al-Aqsa Mosque”.