Rockets hit Israel after airstrikes kill top commanders


FE Team | Published: May 13, 2021 17:48:09 | Updated: May 13, 2021 23:11:23


Rockets hit Israel after airstrikes kill top commanders

Palestinian militants in Gaza have fired dozens of rockets at Israel after its air strikes killed top commanders and felled another tower block there.

The escalation, which began on Monday, has triggered street violence in Israel between Jews and Israeli Arabs.

In two incidents, a Jewish man in Acre was attacked by Arab men, and a Jewish mob pulled a Palestinian out of his car and beat him up in Bat Yam.

At least 67 people in Gaza and seven people in Israel have been killed, says a BBC report.

The fighting erupted on Monday after weeks of rising Israeli-Palestinian tension in East Jerusalem which culminated in clashes at a holy site revered by Muslims and Jews.

More than 374 people were arrested and 36 officers were injured after clashes in Israeli cities, Israeli police said.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, speaking late on Wednesday night, said he planned to send in military forces to help police maintain order in cities ruptured by violence.

Mr Netanyahu said the attacks in recent days amounted to "anarchy".

"Nothing can justify an Arab mob assaulting Jews, and nothing can justify a Jewish mob assaulting Arabs," he said in a video statement, as reported by the Times of Israel.

Militant groups in Gaza, run by the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas, have been firing rockets into Israel since Monday night, and Israel has responded by hitting targets in the territory.

On Thursday morning, the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) said about 1,500 rockets had been fired from Gaza into Israeli cities since hostilities escalated at the start of this week.

The health ministry in Gaza says that more than 400 people have been injured there since the conflict began, in addition to the 67 who have died.

Mr Netanyahu said the government would use all its strength to protect Israel from enemies on the outside and rioters on the inside.

But the Palestinian Authority, which governs in parts of the West Bank, condemned Israel's "military aggression" in a tweet, saying it was "traumatising an already beleaguered population of two million people".

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