The Levant: 220+ die as Palestine-Israel conflict enters second week

Virendra Pandit 

New Delhi: With over 220 deaths, around 1,500 injuries and no sign of a ceasefire, the Palestinian-Israeli hostilities entered the second week on Monday as global leaders tried to bring peace to the restive Levant region in the Middle East, considered the world’s hottest spot of geopolitics.

Media reported on Tuesday that Israel continued a wave of airstrikes on the alleged militant targets in Gaza Strip, levelling a six-storey building as Hamas militants fired dozens of rockets into the Jewish state.

Palestinian protesters across the region observed a general strike demanding action against Israel.

The fresh conflict has left more than 40,000 Palestinians shelter-less. The displaced people sought refuge in UN schools in Gaza, which was already struggling to cope with a Covid-19 outbreak. Gaza is also running low on fuel for its electricity supply and water, media reported.

Israel’s relentless airstrikes destroyed a building that housed libraries and educational centres of the Islamic University, leaving behind a massive mound of rubble.

Before targeting the building, Jerusalem had warned its residents to leave, forcing them to flee in small hours on Tuesday. There were no reports so far of any fresh casualties, according to media reports.

The current conflict began on May 10 when Gaza’s militant rulers fired long-range rockets toward Jerusalem, supporting Jerusalem’s Palestinian protesters against Israel’s ‘heavy-handed policing’ of the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound. This site, holy to both the Jews and Muslims, has been a perennial flashpoint between the two communities. The local Jewish settlers also threatened the eviction of Palestinian families.

According to the Gaza Health Ministry, at least 212 Palestinians have been killed in heavy airstrikes since, including 61 children and 36 women, with more than 1,400 people wounded.

In Israel, 10 people were reported killed, including a 5-year-old boy and a soldier, in the ongoing rocket attacks launched from civilian areas in Gaza toward civilian areas in the Jewish country.

The Palestinians in Israel and its “occupied” areas like West Bank, observed a general strike to protest the Gaza war and other Israeli policies that many activists and some rights groups denounced as constituting an overarching system of apartheid that denies Palestinians equal rights.

However, Jerusalem has rejected these claims, saying all its citizens have equal rights. It has blamed the war on Hamas, the Islamic militant group that controls Gaza, and accused it of inciting violence across the region.

The Palestinians make up 20 % of Israel’s population.

Last week, Israel saw an outbreak of violence, with groups of Jewish and Palestinian citizens fighting in the streets and torching vehicles and buildings. In both Israel and the West Bank, Palestinian protesters clashed with Israeli security forces.

On Tuesday, the Israeli military said it fired at 65 militant targets, including rocket launching sites, a group of fighters and the homes of Hamas commanders that the army said were being used for military purposes. It said more than 60 fighter jets took part in the operation. The Palestinian militants fired 90 rockets, 20 of which fell short into Gaza.

Israel said its missile defences intercepted about 90% of the Palestinian rockets because of its ‘iron dome’ and neutralized them before they could strike their targets.

The fresh Israeli strikes toppled several buildings and caused widespread damage in the narrow coastal territory of Gaza, which is home to more than 2 million Palestinians and has been under an Israeli-Egyptian blockade since Hamas seized power from rival Palestinian forces in 2007.

The attacks damaged at least 18 hospitals and clinics and entirely destroyed one health facility, the World Health Organization said. Nearly half of all essential drugs in the territory have run out.

“We will continue to operate as long as necessary in order to return calm and security to all Israeli citizens,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said after meeting with top security officials on Monday.

The Biden administration has declined so far to publicly criticize Israel’s part in the fighting or send a top-level envoy to the region. On Monday, the United States again blocked a proposed UN Security Council statement calling for an end to the “crisis related to Gaza” and the protection of civilians, especially children.

Retaliating against the Hamas missiles, the Israeli military launched hundreds of airstrikes targeting the militant group’s ‘infrastructure’ in Gaza from where they fired more than 3,400 rockets into Israel.

Hamas and Islamic Jihad say at least 20 of their fighters were killed, while Israel says the number is at least 160 and has released the names of and photos of more than two dozen militant commanders it says were “eliminated”.