The Latest:
- Gaza death toll reaches 43, including 12 children; three Israeli casualties
- Tensions rise after Palestinian man shot dead by Israeli in the city of al-Lidd (Lod); Netanyahu government declares state of emergency in the city after day of protests
- Protests continue across East Jerusalem, West Bank over Israeli aggression at Al-Aqsa compound
– updated at 10:09 am GMT, May 13, 2021
Live Updates:
Israeli airstrikes pound Gaza, death toll continues to rise
Israel conducted heavy airstrikes on the Gaza Strip early Wednesday morning, bringing the death toll in the besieged coastal enclave to 43, including 13 children, according to the Ministry of Health in Gaza.
The ministry added that 296 Palestinians have been wounded as a result of Israeli airstrikes on the territory over the past 48 hours.
MOH spokesman Ashraf al-Qidra condemned Israel for what he said was the “deliberate targeting of citizens’ secure homes and crowded residential neighborhoods.”
Conducting airstrikes in these areas, al-Qidra said, is putting the population “in a state of panic and dangerous psychological repercussions due to the frightening and successive sounds of explosions, in addition to the scenes of destruction and victims of the ongoing Israeli aggression.
Palestinians in Gaza posted videos on social media of the onslaught of airstrikes on Wednesday morning, with clouds of smoke rising in rapid succession.
One Twitter user from Gaza wrote “We have lives through three wars! But this is an hour that is more difficult than all [that]. This is pure madness and terror.”
Israel destroys largest high-rise in Gaza
The Al-Jawhara Tower in Gaza City was home to a reported 160 Palestinian families and also contained the offices to over a dozen news agencies. Hamas retaliated by firing missiles toward Tel Aviv.
–updated 12:30 am GMT May 12, 2021
The State Department has released a readout form Sec. Blinken’s call with Israeli Foreign Minister Gabi Ashkenazi:
Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken spoke today with Israel’s Foreign Minister Gabi Ashkenazi. The Secretary expressed his concerns regarding rocket attacks on Israel and his condolences for the lives lost as a result. The Secretary and the Foreign Minister also discussed the violence in Jerusalem, in particular on the Haram al-Sharif/Temple Mount and in Sheikh Jarrah. The Secretary reiterated his call on all parties to deescalate tensions and bring a halt to the violence, which has claimed the lives of Israeli and Palestinian civilians, including children. The Secretary emphasized the need for Israelis and Palestinians to be able to live in safety and security, as well as enjoy equal measures of freedom, security, prosperity, and democracy. Foreign Minister Ashkenazi and Secretary Blinken acknowledged the steadfast partnership between the United States and Israel, and committed to working together on challenges ahead.
State Dept. Spokesperson Ned Price
– updated at 11:50 pm GMT
“We have completely lost control of the city, and the streets are witnessing a civil war between Arabs and Jews.”
Mayor of Lod
– updated at 9:37 pm GMT
Gaza rockets hit Tel Aviv, Israeli officials hint at lengthy military campaign
Hundreds of rockets were fired from Gaza towards the Israeli city of Tel Aviv on Tuesday evening, killing at least one person and grounding flights from Israel’s Ben Gurion International Airport.
The Hamas movement had vowed to launch rockets at Tel Aviv if Israel were to target residential buildings in the Gaza Strip.
Following an Israeli airstrike that leveled a 12-story apartment building in Gaza, Hamas said it fired 130 rockets at the Israeli city.
While Israel’s Iron Dome defense system has intercepted a majority of the rockets launched from Gaza, Israeli media reported that a 50-year-old woman was killed, bringing the Israeli death toll to three.
Israeli air strikes in Gaza have killed 30 Palestinians, 10 of them children, since Monday.
Israeli officials hinted at a lengthy military campaign on the Gaza Strip, with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu saying that Hamas and Islamic Jihad will “pay a heavy price,” and that “it will take time.”
– updated 8:50 pm GMT
Solidarity protests with Palestine planned worldwide
Emergency protests are being planned worldwide in solidarity with Palestine. See this list compiled by Samidoun: Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network and get involved. Find an event near you!
Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network urges all Palestinian, Arab and international supporters of Palestine to escalate their organizing and struggle to confront massacres and ethnic cleansing and support Palestinian resistance!
In this moment, it is particularly important to highlight our unconditional support for the Palestinian people and their right to resist. It is now and has always been the resistance of the Palestinian people, through all forms of struggle, that defends Palestine from colonization. Our solidarity must affirm Palestinian resistance, Palestinian return, and Palestinian liberation, throughout the entire land of occupied Palestine.
– updated at 6:27 pm GMT
Israeli forces flatten residential tower in Gaza City
Israeli forces destroyed the Hanadi Tower, an 11-story residential building in the center of Gaza City, where reportedly around 80 families lived. The families had been evacuated following a warning from Israel.
– updated 5:50 pm GMT
“Palestinians are departing from long illusion of Oslo” — Barghouti
Palestinian legislator Mustafa Barghouti on Al Jazeera English speaks of a new era of Palestinian resistance:
“We have found our way, the way of resistance and the way of struggle. I think we are departing now from a long, long illusion called [the] Oslo Process… I think what we have found in the people of Jerusalem is something that reminds us of the struggle of Martin Luther King in the United States for justice and freedom.”
From Phil Weiss:
At a time when Israeli violence is shattering Palestinian lives and dreams once again, an important political development is taking place in the United States. Some American leaders are not taking Israel’s side to the hilt for the simple reason that the Democratic Party base is aroused and angry over the persecution of Palestinians, and the mainstream media are reflecting that view.
The progressive base is at last making itself heard in Congress, and the White House hears the echoes. While no one should be celebrating this moment, we need to acknowledge a grassroots victory that appears to be reshaping American politics and, ultimately, policy. The era of Israeli impunity in U.S. politics appears to be coming to an end with Israel’s violent response to Palestinian protests.
– Updated 5:06 pm GMT
Thousands march in funeral for slain Palestinian in al-Lidd (Lod)
Thousands of Palestinians in the central Israeli city of al-Lidda (Lod) marched in the funeral procession of 33-year-old Musa Hassouna, who was shot and killed by an Israeli resident of the city on Monday.
Palestinians in al-Lidda had gathered on Monday to protest in solidarity with Sheikh Jarrah, and against Israeli aggressions in Jerusalem and the Al-Aqsa mosque compound, joining thousands of other Palestinian citizens of Israel who conducted similar protests across the country.
Videos went viral of protesters climbing up light poles in the center of the city square, taking down Israeli flags and replacing them with Palestinian ones.
The killing of Hassouna sparked clashes in the city, with Palestinians setting fire to an Israeli police vehicle after the funeral procession.
– Updated 4:45 pm GMT
Two more Palestinians killed in Israeli airstrikes in Gaza
Two more Palestinians were killed in an airstrike on Tuesday evening in Gaza, the Ministry of Health in Gaza reported at 5:30pm, bringing the death toll in the besieged enclave to 28, including 10 children.
Middle East Eye reported that the victims were a husband and wife, Iyad Shayer and Layali Shayer, and that three of their children were hospitalized. The report added that the Shayer’s 4-year-old daughter was left “clinically dead” after being transferred to al-Shifa hospital after the strike.
The ministry condemned the “brutal Israeli attacks” against civilians in Gaza, adding that the airstrike targeted the area where Gaza’s COVID-19 quarantine center is located.
“This attack overwhelmed the ministry’s health system which is already exhausted by COVID-19,” the ministry said.
– Updated 4:30 pm GMT
Gaza death toll climbs as Israel steps up airstrikes; two Israelis killed by rocket fire
The death toll in the Gaza Strip reached 26, of them nine children and one woman, the Gaza Ministry of Health reported on Tuesday, following a night of Israeli airstrikes on the besieged territory.
According to the MOH, 122 Palestinians in Gaza were also injured as a result of Israel airstrikes, 41 of them children. The ministry reported that over 12 percent of all injuries were “serious.”
In one report, a Palestinian father said his two children were playing outside when Israeli forces conducted an airstrike right in front of them, killing both his children.
Meanwhile Israeli media reported that two Israelis had been killed in the southern Israeli city of Ashkelon as the result of rocket fire from Gaza.
The military wing of the Hamas and Islamic Jihad movements have fired hundreds of rockets into Israeli territory in recent days in response to Israeli violations at the Al-Aqsa compound, which injured hundreds of Palestinian worshipers over the weekend.
Israeli forces began conducting airstrikes on Gaza on Monday, with the Israeli army claiming that it was conducting “targeted strikes” against “Hamas operatives” in the territory.
Palestinian media have reported that several Israeli airstrikes have been targeting Palestinian residential buildings.
Airstrikes continued through the night and into Tuesday morning, resulting in the assassination of at least one senior Islamic Jihad movement. Israeli forces have continued to boost their presence along the border with Gaza.
Israeli leaders vowed to amp up airstrikes following the death of the two Israeli women in Ashkelon, with Israeli Defense Minister Benny Gantz saying “For every day that they shoot at Israeli citizens, we will send them back years.”
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said: “At the conclusion of a situational assessment, it was decided that both the might of the attacks and the frequency of the attacks will be increased.”
– Updated 3:00 pm GMT
I’ll defend this as on-topic – Peter Beinart just posted a piece in Jewish Currents titled “Teshuvah: A Jewish Case for Palestinian Refugee Return”, because that’s one of the roots of the whole issue:
https://jewishcurrents.org/teshuvah-a-jewish-case-for-palestinian-refugee-return/
Eviction [of Palestinians] was generally followed by theft. In June 1948, Ben-Gurion himself lamented the “mass plunder to which all sectors of the country’s Jewish community were party.” In Tiberias, according to an official from the Jewish National Fund (JNF), Haganah troops “came in cars and boats and loaded all sorts of goods [such as] refrigerators [and] beds” while groups of Jewish civilians “walked about pillaging from the Arab houses and shops.” In Deir Yassin, an officer from the elite Haganah unit, the Palmach, observed that fighters from the right-wing Zionist militia Lechi were “going about the village robbing and stealing everything: Chickens, radio sets, sugar, money, gold and more.” When the Haganah cleared the village of Sheikh Badr in West Jerusalem, according to Morris, Jews from the nearby neighborhood of Nachlaot “descended on Sheikh Badr and pillaged it.”
Looks like another Gaza massacre is on the way!! How do you plan to ignore this one, Joe?
Israelis doing what they do best. Lie. Cheat. Steal. And murder children.
An excellent and informative read!!
https://www.aljazeera.com/opinions/2021/5/11/break-the-fear-barrier-and-speak-up-for-palestine
“Break the fear barrier and speak up for Palestine”
“Saying the Palestinian issue is ‘complex’ is no excuse for not speaking up against Israeli crimes.” Al Jazeera, May 11/21, by Mark Muhannad Ayyash, Associate Professor of Sociology at Mount Royal University in Calgary, Canada.
SHORT EXCERPT:
“Scholars of social movements, civil disobedience, liberation struggles, and revolutions have long known that fear is one of the greatest barriers to overcome. For the oppressed to move from inaction to action, they must break this fear barrier.
“In extreme cases, such as Palestinians living under Israeli settler colonialism, the fear is based on lived experiences of torture, imprisonment, maiming and killing, daily humiliations and dehumanization, loss of income, livelihoods, homes, dignity, freedom, and rights.
“These last few days, the Palestinian people across colonized Palestine have shown the world, not for the first time and not for the last, their deep and awe-inspiring courage in the face of this fear.
“For decades, the Israeli garrison state, as Hamid Dabashi accurately describes it, with its massive apparatus of settler-colonial violence as well as its armed civilians have been creating and building this state of fear in the everyday lives of Palestinians.
“I had a relatively privileged childhood in Palestine, but still, I am acquainted with this fear, which you learn, not just by witnessing or experiencing violence, but in the course of seemingly non-eventful and ordinary days.
“As a child in the early 1990s, I attended the Freres School within the old city of al-Quds (Jerusalem). During recess, we would see armed soldiers patrol the top of the city walls, looking down on us the way that self-perceived superior beings look down upon a caged animal. And when we would leave school and walk down the roads of el-Balad el-Qadeemeh (the old city), we would regularly be confronted with armed Israeli civilians walking around with their guns out in the open, asserting their supremacy, reminding us that we ought not to look at them the wrong way or else.”
Such predictable behavior by the Zionists… I told someone this Ramadan and its’ observers in prayer would be the target. Same thing happened in 2014. Eradicate the joy, the observance, the lives of Palestinians with Zionist shite under cover of the US, the EU, some new Arab ‘allies’. Kaboom. So, what if even one Israeli Jewish person was killed while praying~ what would happen? What if one Jewish Israeli family was removed from their home? Headlines all over the world! Now the world is calling for “de- escalation on both sides”. Are you serious??? Oh, and then there is the Baruch Goldstein massacre of Palestinians @- prayer… many Israelis still revere him!