Israel heading for ‘full-scale WAR’ in Gaza, UN warns as Hamas says ‘we’re ready’ for conflict & riots erupt
THE UN has warned Israel is heading for a "full-scale war" in Gaza as Hamas vows "we're ready" for conflict and riots erupt near Tel Aviv.
Rockets streamed out of Gaza and Israel pounded the territory with airstrikes this morning in the most deadly outbreak of violence since the 2014 war - with no endgame in sight.
🔵 Read our Israel-Gaza live blog for the very latest updates...
As 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".
"Leaders on all sides have to take the responsibility of de-escalation," he said.
Israel threatened Hamas with days of bombings after a strike on Jerusalem on Monday.
Israeli Defence Minister Benny Gantz said "this is just the beginning" of Israel's strikes, vowing the operation would aim to restore peace "for the long-term".
And in a televised address last night, Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh vowed: "If Israel wants to escalate, we are ready for it."
Latest events:
- Hamas launched an offensive after a 13-storey residential block in the Gaza Strip collapsed
- Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declared a state of emergency in the city of Lod
- National Police Commissioner Kobi Shabtai called the events "unprecedented"
- Israel unleashed dozens of airstrikes in the course of a few minutes on Wednesday morning
- The death toll in Gaza rose to 48 Palestinians - including 14 children and three women
- Five Israelis, including three women and a child, have been killed
- The UN Security Council plans to hold its second emergency meeting in three days today over the escalating violence
Today, Prime Minister Boris Johnson urged Israel and the Palestinians to "step back from the brink and for both sides to show restraint".
"The UK is deeply concerned by the growing violence and civilian casualties and we want to see an urgent de-escalation of tensions," he said.
More than 1,000 rockets have been fired towards Israel by Palestinian militants since Monday evening, the Israeli army said.
Gaza's Islamist rulers Hamas said it launched an offensive last night after a 13-storey residential block in the Gaza Strip collapsed following an Israeli airstrike.
The building housed an office used by the political leadership of Hamas.
A wall of dark grey smoke rose over Gaza City this morning after Israel unleashed dozens of airstrikes in just a few minutes, targeting police and security installations, witnesses said.
The Israel Defense Forces said it struck 130 targets in Gaza overnight after 200 rockets were fired at Israel.
Soon after the strikes this morning, Hamas announced it would resume its attacks, and fired 100 rockets at the Israeli desert town of Beersheba.
The Hamas-run Interior Ministry said airstrikes destroyed the central police headquarters in Gaza City, a compound with several buildings.
And Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declared a state of emergency in the Jewish-Arab Israeli city of Lod on Tuesday night.
Lod Mayor Yair Revivo introduced a curfew and requested additional security forces after crowds fought with cops, set a synagogue on fire and torched 30 cars.
A father and daughter were killed in the carnage.
"All of Israel should know, this is a complete loss of control," the mayor said, Times of Israel reports.
What triggered the violence?
Clashes erupted on Friday as Muslims packed the Al-Aqsa mosque to pray during the holy fasting month of Ramadan.
Violence had been building in the Holy City and occupied West Bank for the previous week.
Palestinians hurled stones, bottles and fireworks at Israeli police who fire rubber bullets and stun grenades. The site is sacred to Jews as the location of two biblical-era temples.
More than 220 people, mostly Palestinians, were wounded.
On Saturday, prayers at the mosque compound are held peacefully but violence flares elsewhere in east Jerusalem.
Some 121 Palestinians are wounded overnight, many hit by rubber bullets and stun grenades, the Palestinian Red Crescent says.
Israeli police say 17 of its officers are wounded.
Much of the recent unrest stems from the long-running legal effort by Jewish settler groups to evict several Palestinian families from their homes in the Jerusalem neighbourhood of Sheikh Jarrah.
A lower court ruling earlier this year backing the settlers' decades-old claim infuriated Palestinians.
A Supreme Court hearing on a Palestinian appeal had been set for Monday and risked inflaming tensions further.
On Sunday, the justice ministry delays the hearing in light of "the circumstances".
Scuffles between Palestinians and Israeli police in east Jerusalem continue overnight into Sunday.
In the evening, Israeli police again face off against mostly young Palestinians at several locations in east Jerusalem.
Some 331 Palestinians are wounded, according to the Palestinian Red Crescent, in renewed clashes between Palestinians and police at the mosque on Monday ahead of a planned march to commemorate Israel's capture of Jerusalem in 1967.
"This is unthinkable. Synagogues are being burned. Hundreds of cars set alight. Hundreds of Arab thugs are roaming the streets. Civil war has erupted in Lod."
National Police Commissioner Kobi Shabtai called the events "unprecedented".
While the violence has been widely condemned, there is no sign that either side is willing to back down.
Netanyahu has vowed to expand the offensive, saying "this will take time".
The death toll in Gaza rose to 48 on Wednesday, including 14 children and three women, the Health Ministry said, and more than 300 Palestinians have been injured, including 86 children.
Six Israelis, including three women and a child, were killed by rocket fire, and dozens of people were wounded.
The violence erupted last Friday after weeks of tensions boiled over and Israeli cops clashed with crowds of Palestinians at Jerusalem's Al-Aqsa mosque - on the last Friday of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.
According to Channel 12 in Israel, Palestinian officials have reached out to their Jewish counterparts in a bid to agree a ceasefire.
Yet Israel has refused with officials saying Hamas has not paid a sufficient price for the rocket attacks, according to reports.
Donald Trump accused President Joe Biden of "weakness" and lack of support for the Jewish state.
"Under Biden, the world is getting more violent and more unstable because Biden's weakness and lack of support for Israel is leading to new attacks on our allies," he said in a statement.
"America must always stand with Israel and make clear that the Palestinians must end the violence, terror, and rocket attacks, and make clear that the US will always strongly support Israel's right to defend itself."
The Biden administration on Tuesday called for calm and restraint by Israel and the Palestinians, urging both sides to avoid "deeply lamentable" civilian deaths.
But "Israel does have a right to defend itself," State Department spokesman Ned Price told reporters.
The Israeli military said 630 missiles were fired from Gaza yesterday with 150 failing to reach Israeli territory.
Some 200 missiles have been intercepted by Tel Aviv's Iron Dome defence system which destroys rockets which are fired towards populated areas.
Israel had sent 80 jets to bomb Gaza and massed tanks on the border as rocket barrages hit Israeli towns.
Officials said infantry and armour were being dispatched to reinforce the tanks already gathered on the border, evoking memories of the last Israeli ground incursion into Gaza to stop rocket attacks - in 2014.
More than 2,100 Gazans were killed in the seven-week war that followed, according to the Gaza health ministry, along with 73 Israelis, and thousands of homes in the area were destroyed.
The International Committee of the Red Cross urged all sides to step back and reminded them of the requirement in international law to try to avoid civilian casualties.
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