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As Israel’s conflict with the Palestinians escalated on several fronts, with the escalation of communal riots in its cities and protests with the occupied West Bank, the Gaza bombing spread to the sixth day.
Despite the deteriorating crisis and diplomatic efforts of U.S. and regional governments, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed on Friday that Israel would attack Hamas, an attack on a Palestinian militant group that controls Gaza, “not yet over.”
As the number of Palestinians killed in Gaza rose to 136, including 55 women and children, the U.S. and regional governments were fighting for a ceasefire. Ten Israelis were killed, including a child and a soldier.
Israel has rejected a second bid for a Hamas truce, a Western diplomat told the FT. Hady Amr, a senior US Secretary of State for Israel and Palestine, was in Tel Aviv overnight, and the UN called for a two-hour break on Sunday to ease the enemy.
For the sixth day, Israeli planes were surrounded by the Gaza Strip, home to 2 million Palestinians, and a woman and her four children were killed overnight when they hit a house in a refugee camp, local health officials said.
Israeli warplanes struck another high-rise building in Gaza City, where Al Jazeera and the Associated Press, among others, have their offices, a local AP reporter said. Israel sent warnings to evacuate the building, Al Jazeera reported.
A Netanyahu Arab spokesman told Israeli Channel 12 news that “Hamas is entirely to blame for the deaths of Gaza civilians.” A spokesman said the militants had stationed military targets in densely populated neighborhoods.
Despite the escalation of artillery and tanker fire despite Israeli bombing, Hamas has fired about 2,500 rockets at Israel.
Hamas launches about 1,800 rockets into Israel © Getty Images
On Friday night, Hamas fired 200 rockets at Ashdod and Beersheva.
In the West Bank, Israeli security forces killed 11 Palestinians during protests in the occupied territory on Friday, local health officials said.
Unrest in the West Bank could be exacerbated significantly, an aide to Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh told the FT after nearly 80 demonstrations on Friday. Some became violent when Palestinians threw stones at Israeli soldiers.
A mass Palestinian demonstration was organized for later Saturday to mark the 73rd anniversary of the founding of Israel, which the Arabs call Nakba, or disaster.
The Israeli-occupied West Bank has been home to about 650,000 Jewish settlers since the 1967 war, at least 200,000 in East Jerusalem. The territory, the headquarters of Fatah, a Palestinian enemy faction of Hamas, remained relatively silent until yesterday.
Along with the campaign against Hamas, Israel has been fighting for the worst domestic violence in recent years, as Jewish groups and Arab-Israeli minorities have attacked each other’s communities and destroyed the assets of Israel’s mixed peoples.
Israeli police have arrested nearly 900 people in an attempt to stop the riots in cities with mixed Jewish and Arab populations, as community clashes have revealed a deep rift within the Jewish state.
About 15,000 police fought to set up a nightclub in cities like Lod, Haifa and Jaffa, where the Arab house was bombed with fire.
The Arab-Israeli conflict has been raging for more than a decade in the occupied territories between Israeli forces and Palestinian factions. But community violence has sparked new tension.
Israeli Arabs make up about one-fifth of the population of the Jewish state, with Israeli passports and voting in the country’s elections. But they say they suffer from institutional and social discrimination, and sympathy for the Palestinian cause has become a target for right-wing Israeli politicians.
This week, Israel relocated several thousand police officers from the West Bank to Israeli cities and towns as it stepped up efforts to stem domestic unrest.
The crisis erupted after tensions in and around Jerusalem escalated last week when police used rubber bullets, tear gas and stun grenades at Palestinian protesters in the Al-Aqsa mosque complex.
More than 600 Palestinians were injured and police images used force against the protest in the third holy zone of Islam – in the long-running Arab-Israeli conflict – to spark Arab anger.
Al-Aqsa is housed in a compound mosque, known to Muslims by its name Haram ash-Sharif, or the Noble Sanctuary, and for the Jews as the Temple Mount – this is sacred to both religions.
As tensions escalated, Hamas went into battle on Monday, firing rockets at Israel and Israeli settlements in East Jerusalem occupied by Israel, asking them to persecute Arab neighbors who were awaiting deportation orders from Israeli courts.
Israel launched its largest military campaign against Hamas since its 2014 war with the Islamist group.
The poor territory is running out of electricity for about five hours a day and is likely to run out of fuel on Sunday, according to an Israeli security official.
In an attempt to stifle Hamas’ access to resources, since 2007 Israel has imposed a blockade on the Gaza Strip.
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