GAZA CITY: At least 21 people, including nine children were killed and 67 others injured in Israeli air strikes on the Gaza Strip after Palestinian militants fired rockets towards Israel, Hamas said.
Israel has said it was striking Hamas targets in retaliation for the dozens of rockets fired Monday from the enclave towards Israel, but has not confirmed its strikes had caused fatalities.
Since 6PM, terrorist groups in Gaza have been firing rockets at Israeli civilians.
Non-stop.
The time is now 4AM.
That's 10 hours of rocket attacks.
— Israel Defense Forces (@IDF) May 11, 2021
The health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza said the updated death toll included a 10-year-old girl, while Hamas has confirmed that one of its commanders was killed in a strike.
Adding to the sense of chaos, a huge fire engulfed trees in the compound that houses the mosque, Islam’s third holiest site, and the Temple Mount sacred to Jews.
At least nine people were killed in Gaza — among them a senior Hamas commander — local authorities said. But it was not immediately clear whether they all died in Israeli strikes or from a misfired Hamas rocket.
The Gaza health ministry said nine Palestinians, including three children, were killed “in a series of strikes in northern Gaza”.
“We have started, and I repeat started, to attack military targets in Gaza,” Israeli army spokesman Jonathan Conricus told reporters.
He said Israeli forces had targeted a Hamas military operative, while Hamas sources in Gaza confirmed to AFP that one of their commanders, Mohammed Fayyad, had been killed.
Conricus said he could “neither confirm nor deny” that its strikes caused all the nine fatalities, adding it may have been an “internal matter”.
UNICEF Palestine said, “An additional 14 Palestinian children injured in Jerusalem’s Old City today, bringing total to 43 children in past 3 days. UNICEF urges Israeli authorities to refrain from using violence against children. All must act to stop further violence.”
UPDATE: An additional 14 Palestinian children injured in Jerusalem's Old City today, bringing total to 43 children in past 3 days. UNICEF urges Israeli authorities to refrain from using violence against children. All must act to stop further violence: https://t.co/AsHUhqSHuI
— UNICEF Palestine (@UNICEFpalestine) May 10, 2021
Hamas, which controls the Gaza Strip, on Monday warned Israel to withdraw all its forces from the mosque compound and the east Jerusalem district of Sheikh Jarrah, where looming evictions of Palestinian families have fuelled angry protests.
Sirens wailed across Jerusalem just after the 1500 GMT deadline set by Hamas as people in Jerusalem, including lawmakers in the Knesset legislature, evacuated into bunkers, amid warnings over loudspeaker in Hebrew and English.
The Israeli army said seven rockets were fired from the coastal strip into Israel, two of which were intercepted by Israel’s Iron Dome anti-missile defence system and three of which fell onto vacant lands.
INTERCEPTED:
Terrorists recently fired another barrage of rockets from Gaza toward the Israeli city of Ashkelon.We intercepted the rockets with the Iron Dome Aerial Defense System, and are now striking Hamas terror targets. pic.twitter.com/5i87BRAgDn
— Israel Defense Forces (@IDF) May 10, 2021
A spokesman for Hamas armed wing the Qassam Brigades said that “a volley of rockets was fired towards the enemy in occupied Jerusalem in response to its crimes and aggression on the holy city and repression of its residents in Sheikh Jarrah and the Al-Aqsa mosque”.
Protests have erupted in the city of al-Lydd near Tel Aviv in solidarity with Palestinian worshippers at Al Aqsa who were injured following attacks by Israeli police.
This video in al-Lydd shows protesters taking down the Israeli flag and replacing it with the Palestinian flag early on Tuesday.
مراسلتنا: اندلاع مواجهات في بلدات الداخل الفلسطيني المحتل بعد مسيرات نصرة للقدس وتضامنا مع #غزة pic.twitter.com/orKbYIdwo4
— إذاعة الأقصى – عاجل (@Alaqsavoice_Brk) May 10, 2021
The Israeli army said on Twitter that, separate to the rockets, “as a result of an anti-tank missile fired from Gaza, an Israeli civilian in a nearby vehicle was lightly injured” in the Gaza border area. Fears of further chaos in the Old City had temporarily eased when Israeli organisers of a march to celebrate the Jewish state’s 1967 capture of east Jerusalem cancelled the event.
In response to the continuous rocket fire from the Gaza into Israel, we have now struck numerous Hamas terror targets in Gaza, including:
2 rocket launchers
2 military posts
8 Hamas terror operativesTerror targets civilians. We target terror.
— Israel Defense Forces (@IDF) May 10, 2021
Meanwhile, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned that Hamas had crossed a “red line” by directing missiles towards Jerusalem on Monday and that the Jewish state would “respond with force”.
“We are engaged in a fight on many fronts. Jerusalem, Gaza and other places in Israel. The terrorist organisations in Gaza crossed a red line on the night of Jerusalem Day, by firing rockets towards Jerusalem,” Netanyahu said.
“We will respond with force. We will not tolerate attacks on our territory, our capital, our citizens and our soldiers. Those who attack us will pay a heavy price,” he added.
Israel will respond with great force. We will not tolerate attacks on our territory, on our capital, on our citizens and on our soldiers. Whoever attacks us will pay a heavy price.
— Prime Minister of Israel (@IsraeliPM) May 10, 2021
Meanwhile, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken urged both Israel and the Palestinians to lower tensions and urged an immediate end to rocket fire by Hamas.
“All sides need to de-escalate, reduce tensions, take practical steps to calm things down,” Blinken said as he met his Jordanian counterpart in Washington.
Tensions in Jerusalem have flared since Israeli riot police clashed with Palestinian worshippers on the last Friday of Ramazan in the city’s worst disturbances since 2017.
Nightly unrest since then at the Al-Aqsa compound has left hundreds of Palestinians wounded, drawn calls for de-escalation from the international community and sharp rebukes from across the Muslim world.
