The Israeli military has continued its bombardment of the besieged Gaza Strip on Tuesday, targeting several areas after rockets were fired from the enclave.
Health authorities in Gaza said at least 30 Palestinians – including 10 children – were killed in Israeli air strikes on the strip since late on Monday, after Hamas launched rockets from the coastal territory towards Israel.The rocket fire came after Hamas, which rules Gaza, issued an ultimatum demanding Israel stand down its security forces from the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound in occupied East Jerusalem after days of violence against Palestinians.
Israeli police stormed the compound on Monday for a third consecutive day, firing rubber-coated steel rounds, stun grenades and tear gas at Palestinian worshippers inside the mosque in the final days of the holy month of Ramadan.
More than 700 Palestinians were hurt in Jerusalem and across the occupied West Bank in recent days.
Hamas said they launched 130 rockets towards the Israeli city of Tel Aviv in retaliation for an air strike that levelled a 12-storey building in Gaza.Hamas’ armed wing, the Qassem Brigades, had warned it would retaliate over the strike on the tower near Gaza’s coast, before confirming it had launched an attack on “Tel Aviv and its suburbs with 130 missiles”.
Rocket-warning sirens sounded in Tel Aviv and explosions were heard, said the Israeli military.
The Al-Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of the Palestinian resistance group Hamas, said it launched dozens of strikes on Tel Aviv.
The group had threatened to strike Tel Aviv if Israel continues to target residential buildings in Gaza.
Jordanians continued carrying out protests near the Israeli embassy in the capital Amman, denouncing what they call ongoing violations of the rights of Jerusalemites in Jerusalem, including at the Al-Aqsa Mosque and the Sheikh Jarrah neighbourhoodMore than one thousand protesters chanted anti-Israel slogans and called for the Jordanian government to end all diplomatic ties with Israel, including expelling the Israeli Ambassador, closing the embassy and annulling the country’s peace treaty with them.
Demonstrators also denounced the government’s performance toward what is happening in Jerusalem and demanded real action against Israel, saying that condemnation statements will not help the Palestinians.
Instagram and Twitter have blamed technical errors for deleting posts mentioning the possible eviction of Palestinians from East Jerusalem, but data rights groups fear “discriminatory” algorithms are at work and want greater transparency.
Palestinians living in the occupied East Jerusalem neighbourhood of Sheikh Jarrah – an area claimed illegally by Jewish settlers – have taken to social media to protest as they face eviction, but some found their posts, photos or videos removed or their accounts blocked starting last week.
The head of the Arab League has condemned deadly Israeli air strikes on the Gaza Strip as “indiscriminate and irresponsible” and said Israel had provoked an earlier increase in violence by its actions in Jerusalem.
“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,” Arab League chief Ahmed Aboul Gheit said in a statement.A 13-storey residential tower in western Gaza City collapsed after Israeli airstrikes targeted the building.
There were no reports of casualties among the residents, who reportedly vacated the Hanadi tower before it was hit.Video footage showed three plumes of thick smoke rising from the tower, its upper storeys still intact until it collapsed to the ground. The tower houses an office that is used by the political leadership of Gaza’s Islamist rulers Hamas.
Electricity in the area around the building went out after the collapse. Residents were using flashlights to search for personal belongings nearby.
The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) called on all sides in the conflict between Israel and Hamas-run Gaza to de-escalate the violence that has killed at least 30 people and reminded them of the rules of war.
The ICRC regional director for the Middle East, Fabrizio Carboni, said in a statement sent to Reuters that international humanitarian law prohibits indiscriminate attacks against civilians, any attack must be proportionate, and all necessary precautions must be taken to avoid civilian casualties.
He called for “rapid, safe and unimpeded movement for ambulances” and for staff and volunteers of both the Palestine Red Crescent Society and the Magen David Adom Society in Israel.
Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei called on Palestinians to build up their fighting power to stop Israel’s “brutality”, saying Israelis “only understand the language of force”, Iran’s state TV reported.
“Zionists understand nothing but the language of force, so the Palestinians must increase their power and resistance to force the criminals to surrender and stop their brutal acts,” Ayatollah Khamenei said.
The Al-Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of the Palestinian resistance group, Hamas, threatened to strike Tel Aviv if Israel continued to target residential buildings in Gaza.
“If the enemy persists in bombing civilian towers, then Tel Aviv will be on time with a more severe missile strike than what happened in Ashkelon,” said group spokesman Abu Ubaida in a tweet.
Footballers around the world expressed support for Palestinians in recent days, including on social media.
“The world needs peace and love. It will soon be Eid, let us all love one another #PrayForPalestine,” Manchester United’s Paul Pogba wrote on a photo on Instagram, referring to the Eid al-Fitr holiday this week marking the end of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.Algerian striker Riyad Mahrez, who plays for Manchester City, tweeted a picture of the Palestinian flag with the hashtag #SaveSheikhJarrah. The post has been retweeted more than 50,000 times.
Former Mali and Tottenham forward Frederic Kanoute wrote on Twitter, “apartheid continues and Palestinians are being expelled from their homes while most ‘leaders’ are complicit with their silence at best and their direct support at worst”.
The United Nations is urgently working to de-escalate tensions between Israel and the Palestinians,” said UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric.
Dujarric added that UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres was saddened by “the increasingly large numbers of casualties, including children, from Israeli airstrikes in Gaza, and of Israeli fatalities from rockets launched from Gaza.”
“Israeli security forces must exercise maximum restraint and calibrate their use of force. The indiscriminate launching rockets and mortars towards Israeli population centers is unacceptable,” Dujarric told reporters.