Israel’s Operation Guardian of the Walls entered its ninth day on Tuesday, as hostilities continued between Hamas and Israel, including mass rocket launches by the Gaza-based terror group and widespread aerial strikes by the Israeli Air Force.
At noon on Tuesday, after a relatively quiet Monday night in Israel, a barrage of rockets again disturbed the peace. Two foreign workers living in Israel were killed and eight other civilians wounded, some critically, as a rocket scored a direct hit on a packaging facility in one of the country’s southern towns.
Most of the missiles were either intercepted by the Iron Dome missile defense system or exploded in open territory. Over 3,500 rockets have been launched at Israel since the latest round of violence erupted early last week.
“It’s been hell,” Arie Peretz, 59, a resident of Beersheba, told The Media Line. “No sleep, no work, no school for the kids. It’s not a sustainable situation. But hopefully it will end soon.”
Overnight, the Israel Defense Forces again carried out extensive aerial raids against targets reportedly belonging to the Hamas organization in control of the Gaza coastal enclave.
Dozens of underground tunnels, rocket launchpads and buildings said to be housing Hamas commanders were leveled in the attacks, the military said.
It’s been hell. No sleep, no work, no school for the kids. It’s not a sustainable situation
According to updated figures released by the IDF spokesperson’s unit, 130 Hamas operatives were killed so far in the weeklong operation in Gaza, and 30 troops from Islamic Jihad.
“The Hamas terror group proved once again tonight that it intentionally stations its military assets in the heart of [Gaza’s] civilian population,” the unit said in a statement sent to The Media Line Tuesday. “The IDF is taking all the necessary measures it can in order to minimize the possible injury of civilians in its operations.”
Gaza’s Health Ministry reported Tuesday that at least 212 Palestinians, including nearly 100 women and children, have been killed by Israeli strikes so far. Jerusalem maintains that the vast majority of those killed, some 180, were terror operatives and Hamas military personnel directly involved in the fighting.
In Israel, 11 civilians including two children and one soldier have been killed by direct rocket hits, stretching from the country’s southern border with Gaza all the way to Tel Aviv in the center of the country.
Amid the ongoing attacks, international pressure has increased on Israel to bring the fighting to a close. United States President Joe Biden expressed “his support for a cease-fire” during a Monday night phone conversation with Israel’s Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu.
Biden also encouraged Netanyahu to make every effort to ensure the protection of innocent civilians, the White House said.
While the president again reiterated his “firm support for Israel’s right to defend itself,” the call to reach a truce signaled for the first time Washington’s intention to see an end to the weeklong battle.
The latest call between Biden and Netanyahu came one day after the US again vetoed the release of a United Nations Security Council statement calling for an immediate cease-fire and condemning Israel for its military response.
“The pressure from within [Biden’s] own party, from the more progressive elements that have condemned Israel from the start, is beginning to take its toll,” Eitan Gilboa, an expert on American-Israeli relations and US policy in the Middle East at the Begin-Sadat Center for Strategic Studies at Bar-Ilan University, told The Media Line.
“The White House’s impressive support so far, compared with the low expectations by some in Jerusalem because of the current administration not being the previous one, will soon erode, at least behind the scenes. The demands for a cease-fire will likely grow,” he said.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Tuesday commented on last week’s bombing by Israel of a Gaza high-rise building housing the offices of some international press outfits.
“We did seek further information from Israel on this question,” Blinken said during a visit to Reykjavik. “It’s my understanding that we’ve received some further information through intelligence channels.”
The building’s destruction drew global criticism, with Washington demanding Israel provide proof of its claims that the building was occupied by crucial Hamas targets.
The White House’s impressive support so far, compared with the low expectations by some in Jerusalem because of the current administration not being the previous one, will soon erode, at least behind the scenes. The demands for a cease-fire will likely grow
On Monday, the Biden administration officially approved the sale of $735 million worth of precision-guided weapons to Israel, despite calls by some members of Congress to condition the deal on a cessation of the latest fighting.
While dealing with hundreds of daily rocket launches on its southern territory, Israel in the last 24 hours was forced to deal with attempted penetrations of its northern and eastern borders as well.
Early Tuesday morning, the IDF shot down a drone approaching the northern town of Beit Shean. The military said it was investigating whether the unmanned aerial vehicle was launched from Jordan or Syria and by whom.
Several hours earlier, on Monday night, six rockets were fired from southern Lebanon toward Israel. According to Jerusalem, five of the projectiles, which are thought to have been launched by Palestinian factions, failed to reach Israel and landed in Lebanese territory.
The IDF responded with limited artillery fire, and bomb shelters were opened in the country’s northern border towns overnight. On Friday, several Lebanese citizens broke through the border fence and entered Israel, only to be pushed back by Israeli tank fire. One Hizbullah operative reportedly was killed in the incident.
Also on Tuesday, Arab protests continued in Jerusalem, with dozens of demonstrators clashing with police near the Damascus Gate complex of Jerusalem’s Old City in support of Palestinians in Gaza.
While fighting between Jewish and Arab Israelis has largely abated in recent days, last week saw dozens of violent clashes in cities and towns throughout the country, with Arab citizens attacking Jewish citizens, shops and houses, and Jewish mobs soon retaliating in kind.
The violence included arson, looting, beatings and attempted lynches.
The recent round of fighting, both within Israel and from outside its borders, was ignited nearly two weeks ago after long-simmering tensions in Jerusalem, where a legal dispute threatened to evict Palestinian residents from their homes in the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood of east Jerusalem and violent protests at the Al-Aqsa Mosque which caused police to storm the holy site.