:quality(75)/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/elcomercio/TPT7YIV43ZCABM4SVJEDRCZQMU.jpg "At least 83 Palestinians killed, 17 of them children, in Israel's heavy bombing of Gaza")
The escalation of violence between Israel and Hamas intensifies this Thursday on two fronts: intensification of the bombings in the Gaza Strip, from where the Palestinian movements continue to launch rockets in the direction of Israel, and the riots in several cities, symbols so far of the Arab-Israeli cohabitation.
Israeli Defense Minister Benny Gantz on Thursday ordered a “massive” deployment of security forces in these cities where Israelis and Palestinians with Israeli citizens coexist, to combat the internal violence registered in recent days.
Despite calls from the international community to halt the escalation of violence, hundreds of projectiles once again flew over the skies over the Gaza Strip.
Israeli air forces bombed multiple targets, presented as positions related to Hamas, the Islamist movement that controls the Palestinian enclave.
In Gaza, there are already 83 Palestinians killed in the Israeli attacks since Monday, including 17 children, and 487 people have been injured, the Gaza Health Ministry reported on Thursday.
Israeli military spokesmen said they have bombed Gaza more than 600 times since Monday and from the Strip Palestinian armed movements have fired more than 1,600 rockets in the direction of Israel.
Shortly after midnight, rocket alerts went off in the south of the country, but also in Tel Aviv, for the first time since the start of the escalation on Monday, as well as in the north. All flights to the international airport of that city were diverted until further notice.
:quality(75)/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/elcomercio/2TWJ46PIPJGCBMGN3H4BL2RWLE.jpg "At least 83 Palestinians killed, 17 of them children, in Israel's heavy bombing of Gaza 1")
In southern Israel, seven people were killed, including a six-year-old boy, after a rocket hit their home, rescuers said.
Meanwhile, Israeli aviation bombed Hamas positions in the Gaza Strip – a Palestinian enclave with two million inhabitants under Israeli blockade – including premises related to Hamas “counterintelligence” operations and the residence of Iyad Tayeb, a movement commander.
The Islamist movement announced on Wednesday the death of the head of its military wing for the city of Gaza, the main city of the Palestinian territory.
Israeli aviation destroyed a building of more than 10 floors that housed the offices of the Palestinian television channel Al Aqsa, created by Hamas.
:quality(75)/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/elcomercio/NODPZCEAWNCCLPDQTEMZYYNYUA.jpg "At least 83 Palestinians killed, 17 of them children, in Israel's heavy bombing of Gaza 2")
The virulence of the hostilities between Israel and the armed groups in Gaza has reached its worst levels in seven years, after the detonation of the clashes in East Jerusalem in the Esplanade of the Mosques, an ultra-sensitive place for Muslims and Jews.
Riots in “mixed” cities
In parallel with these bombings, there have been more and more riots in the so-called “mixed” cities, where Israelis and Palestinians who have Israeli citizenship coexist.
“Violence inside Israel has reached a level unprecedented in decades,” Micky Rosenfeld, a spokesman for the Israeli police, told AFP.
According to him, some 1,000 border guards were deployed to stop the violence, and more than 400 people were detained.
In Lod, an industrial city where 40% of the population is Palestinian with Israeli citizenship, that is, descendants of the Palestinians who stayed on their land in 1948 after the creation of the State of Israel, tension soared between young Arabs and groups of extremist Jews.
“What is happening in recent days in the cities of Israel is unbearable (…) nothing justifies this lynching of Arabs by Jews and nothing justifies the lynching of Jews by Arabs,” declared Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who He assured that Israel faces a “combat on two fronts.”
:quality(75)/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/elcomercio/FMKYUAFGRBEERPLSGVYGMTEMYQ.jpg "At least 83 Palestinians killed, 17 of them children, in Israel's heavy bombing of Gaza 3")
In the territories occupied by Israeli forces, three Palestinians have already been killed, but again, the bulk of the fighting takes place in Gaza, under the control of the more radical armed Palestinian armed groups.
HIM-HER-IT
Faced with the upsurge in violence, the United Nations Security Council will meet again on Friday, for the third time this week.
During the first two videoconferences, the United States opposed a joint statement to stop the fighting, considering it “counterproductive” for now, according to diplomats.
However, Washington announced the dispatch of an emissary to Israel and the occupied Palestinian Territories to again urge the “de-escalation”, while Moscow called for a meeting of the Quartet for the Middle East (EU, Russia, USA, UN).
:quality(75)/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/elcomercio/BCSFXGHJ4RHCHEN76KC526EEHM.jpg "At least 83 Palestinians killed, 17 of them children, in Israel's heavy bombing of Gaza 4")
Despite this, Netanyahu, who spoke by phone with US President Joe Biden, said he intends to “continue” bombing to weaken Hamas’ “military capacity.”
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abas, who is in the West Bank, spoke with the head of US diplomacy Antony Blinken to ask him to “stop the Israeli attacks.”
For his part, Blinken made it known in a tweet that he had expressed the “need to put an end to rocket attacks and reduce tensions.”