Israeli warplanes resume strikes on Gaza Strip

GAZA CITY/JERUSALEM

The Israeli army launched dozens of fresh airstrikes on security sites and residential areas in the Gaza Strip on May 12.

The air raids, the most violent since the start of violence, targeted several areas in the northern Gaza Strip and the southern cities of Rafah and Khan Younis.

According to an Anadolu Agency reporter, the attacks also targeted Burj Al-Sousi, a tower opposite the headquarters of the U.N. refugee agency UNRWA in the central Gaza Strip.

“Israeli occupation planes launched successive raids that resulted in the destruction of all police headquarters buildings in Gaza City,” a spokesman for the Hamas-led Interior Ministry said in a brief statement.

He said two sites belonging to resistance factions west of Gaza City were also attacked. No information is yet available about casualties.

Health Ministry spokesman Ashraf al-Qudra, for his part, warned that the deliberate targeting of residential neighborhoods puts more than half of Gaza's population, including children and women, in a state of panic.

Meanwhile, the Israeli army said on Twitter that over 1,050 rockets were fired from Gaza into Israel in the last 38 hours, adding that most of them were intercepted by Israel's air defense system.

Earlier on May 12, dozens of bombs were dropped within a few minutes in the south, north, and central parts of the Gaza Strip, Turkey's state-run Anadolu Agency reported.

The most severe attack occurred this morning but it is still too early to ascertain casualties.

The death toll of Palestinians killed by Israeli forces since the start of their offensive on the Gaza Strip has risen to 56, including 14 children and 5 women, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry. At least 335 others have been injured.

Medical sources said that the children killed in the attacks were aged between 7 and 16 years old.

Five Israelis have also been killed and 45 others injured in Palestinian rocket attacks.

Tensions have been running high since last week after an Israeli court ordered the evictions of Palestinian families in the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood of East Jerusalem.

Israeli forces on May 12 also resumed their attacks against Palestinians at the Al-Aqsa Mosque in occupied East Jerusalem's Old City.

After performing the dawn prayer, Palestinians gathered at Haram al-Sharif, the compound which houses the mosque and the Dome of the Rock.

Israeli forces fired rubber bullets to disperse them, Anadolu Agency quoted an anonymous official from the Jerusalem Islamic Waqf (religious endowments) told Anadolu Agency as saying.

Palestinians pelted stones at the Israeli forces in retaliation.

Israeli police also targeted Palestinian youths at the Bab al-Maghrib, one of the gates to the mosque, causing multiple injuries to protesters.

Meanwhile, a Palestinian was killed by the Israeli army early on May 12 in the occupied West Bank.

In a statement, the Palestinian Health Ministry said the Palestinian was killed in Al-Fawar refugee camp in Hebron province.

No information was shared regarding the deceased's identity.

However, eyewitnesses told Anadolu Agency that Huseyn el-Tayti was shot in the chest with a live bullet during a raid by Israeli soldiers in the refugee camp and was taken to the hospital, where he later succumbed to his wound.

The latest casualty brings the number of Palestinians who have been killed in the West Bank since May 11 morning to two.

Hamas chief discusses developments with Lebanon, Iran

Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh spoke by phone on May 11 with Lebanese President Michel Aoun and the head of the Iranian Shura Council, Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, on developments in the occupied Palestinian territories.

Haniyeh and Aoun discussed the latest developments across Palestine, including “plans of the occupation to displace citizens in the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood, attacks on Islamic and Christian holy sites, and the crimes committed against our people in the Gaza Strip, including the killing of children," said a statement by Hamas.

Haniyeh hailed "the Lebanese stance towards Palestine, Jerusalem and Al-Aqsa [Mosque]," the statement added.

Hamas also said that Haniyeh updated Ghalibaf during a phone conversation on "political and on-field developments" that began with the Israeli court decision to displace Palestinians from Sheikh Jarrah followed by the Israeli storming of Al-Aqsa Mosque.

It stated that the leader of Hamas also briefed Ghalibaf on his movement’s attempts to defend Al-Aqsa Mosque as well as the recent Zionist attacks against Palestinians in the besieged Gaza Strip and “the heinous crimes" committed by Israel against the people of Gaza, the statement said.

According to the statement, Haniyeh also stressed the need for "the complete annulment” of the decision to evict Palestinians in Sheikh Jarrah from their homes and “to stop the policy of Judaization, [illegal] settlements, demolishing homes and the storming of Al-Aqsa."

Ghalibaf expressed "his full solidarity with the Palestinian people,” the statement noted, adding he condemned the Israeli attacks on Al-Aqsa Mosque and Palestinians.

He also promised to “send messages to all parliaments about what is happening in Jerusalem now, and the dangerous field developments against the Palestinian people."

Arab League condemns Israeli attacks

The Arab League on May 11 condemned deadly Israeli air strikes on the Gaza Strip and called on the international community to move urgently to stop escalating violence. 

In a statement before the Arab League's meeting, its chairman Ahmed Aboul Gheit said: "Israeli violations in Jerusalem, and the government's tolerance of Jewish extremists hostile to Palestinians and Arabs, is what led to the ignition of the situation in this dangerous way."

In a statement concluding their meeting, Arab League foreign ministers said they held Israel "fully responsible for whatever follows due to its crimes, which constitute glaring violations of U.N. decrees, international law and human rights law."

It called on international organizations including the U.N. Security Council to "immediately stop the Israeli aggression and provide the necessary protection for the Palestinian people and uphold their right to worship freely and safely".

The United Nations is working urgently to defuse tensions between Israel and the Palestinians, a U.N. spokesman said. U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, he said, was saddened by the increasing numbers of casualties on both sides.

Israel, Palestine escalating towards full-scale war: UN

Israel and Palestine are heading towards a full-scale war, the U.N. Special Envoy to the Middle East Peace Process warned on May 11. 

"Stop the fire immediately. We’re escalating towards a full-scale war. Leaders on all sides have to take the responsibility of de-escalation," Tor Wennesland wrote on Twitter.

"The cost of war in Gaza is devastating & is being paid by ordinary people. U.N. is working w/ all sides to restore calm. Stop the violence now," he said.

Thousands march in Washington

Thousands of people in the U.S. capital of Washington, DC marched in solidarity with occupied Palestine on May 11 amid Israeli violence in a protest against Israel and the Biden administration.

Hundreds of protestors first gathered in front of the State Department building, joined by Palestinian, Turkish and U.S. groups and Orthodox Jews as well as Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib.

In her address, Tlaib said Israel's "racist" approach against Palestinian civilians in recent days was unacceptable and the Biden administration's support for Israel had turned into an oppression of Palestine.

"Enough," she told the crowd, which later reached thousands.

They marched towards the White House carrying Palestinian flags and chanting pro-Palestine slogans. The protestors also urged the Biden administration to condemn and oppose Israeli airstrikes in Gaza.