Hamas rocket firings into Israel has escalated….
Israeli response attacks have escalated…
The issues involved have never been seriously addressed and will continue it seems unresolved cause violence and causalities on both sides…
A new round of Israeli-Palestinian fighting, set off by tensions over the holy city of Jerusalem, escalated on Wednesday as Israel assassinated several Hamas commanders and the militants responded with a new barrage of rockets aimed at cities across southern Israel.
The exchange followed dozens of Israeli airstrikes on the Gaza Strip overnight and several nighttime waves of rockets at Tel Aviv, Ashkelon and Israel’s main international airport. Gaza is controlled by Hamas, the Islamist militant group.
The hostilities have united Palestinians in anger across disparate parts of the occupied territories and within Israel, where there has been major street unrest in Arab communities. They are venting frustration in part over the displacement of Palestinians from land in East Jerusalem and over longstanding discrimination.
Palestinian discontent has festered for years in the absence of peace talks between the two sides, and with little international pressure on Israel to compromise or grant any concessions to Arabs under occupation.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that Israel was fighting on several fronts — one of them its own cities — and was responding with increasing force.
“We will continue the effort to stop the anarchy,” he said, and restore order to Israel’s cities “with an iron fist if necessary, with all necessary force and with all necessary authority.”
Defense Minister Benny Gantz, visiting the southern city of Ashkelon near Gaza on Wednesday, suggested that the Israel Defense Forces’ campaign against Gaza militants was not about to end.
The military “will continue to strike and will bring complete quiet for the long term,” he said. “There is currently no end date.”….
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The violence was fueled by a police raid on an Islamic religious site in Jerusalem on Monday. By Tuesday, the conflict had broadened, with civilians on both sides paying a price. The speed of the escalation appeared to take Israelis by surprise.
Note…
The situation also involves internal Palestinian power politics…
Israel/Hamas Update…
Violence between Israelis and Palestinians raged into a fourth day Thursday as rocket attacks on Israeli cities and airstrikes in the Gaza Strip pushed casualties higher on both sides.
Diplomats from the region, Europe and the United States scrambled to broker a cease-fire even as Israel said it had three brigades of ground troops on standby near Gaza, raising the potential for a devastating escalation of the conflict.
Violence also continued to spread beyond the aerial assaults. In street riots that erupted for a third night, bands of Arab and right-wing Jewish Israelis fought each other, police and bystanders in towns across Israel.
Politicians from across the ideological spectrum condemned multiple attacks on individuals by “vigilantes” from both sides. Commentators warned that the communal upheaval may be harder to stop than the military action.
“We are seeing dissolution,” Nadav Eyal wrote on the front page of the Yediot Ahronoth newspaper Thursday. “We are seeing the fracturing of our social compact.”….
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