Live: Israel and Hamas claim victory as fragile ceasefire holds

The Qassam Brigades, the Hamas movement’s military wing, said on Thursday that it had introduced new unmanned drones into service, adding that they had been used to target a gas platform off the northern coast of Gaza the previous day. 

In a statement, the group said that the locally manufactured drones, named "Shehab", had also targeted Israeli forces gathering on the outskirts of the besieged Gaza Strip on Thursday.

On Thursday, the Israeli army said that it had downed a drone launched from Gaza into Israeli territory, according to the Times of Israel. 

Israel's relentless bombing campaign on Gaza has killed at least 83 people, including 17 children, as of Thursday morning, and has levelled high-rise buildings, public markets and businesses.

The Israeli military is setting up checkpoints at roads leading into the city of Acre on Israel's northern coast, according to Middle East Eye's correspondent at the scene.

Our reporter said that those coming into the city, north of Haifa, were having their IDs checked by police officers before being allowed into the area.

French Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin has asked police officials in Paris to ban protests over the ongoing conflict in Israel and Palestine.

The Israeli military has been bombing the Gaza Strip since Sunday and Palestinian armed groups in the besieged territory have launched rockets into Israeli territory. At least 83 Palestinians, including 17 children and seven women, have been killed in the Israeli attacks, and seven Israelis have been killed in attacks launched by Palestinian groups.

In 2014, during the Gaza War, protests against Israeli attacks turned violent when young men from the Jewish Defence League and pro-Palestinian youths clashed.

A Paris, j’ai demandé au Préfet de police d’interdire les manifestations de samedi en lien avec les récentes tensions au Proche-Orient. De graves troubles à l’ordre public furent constatés en 2014. Consigne a été donnée aux Préfets d’être particulièrement vigilants et fermes.

— Gérald DARMANIN (@GDarmanin) May 13, 2021

Translation: In Paris, I asked the prefect of police to ban demonstrations on Saturday related to the recent tensions in the Middle East. Serious disturbances to public order were noted in 2014. Orders were given to the prefects to be particularly vigilant and firm.

The Palestinian National Authority’s Ministry of Health has published the names and ages of Palestinian minors killed in Israeli attacks over the past few days. 

All of those listed are under the age of 18, with the youngest killed being just two. 

1. Bashar Ahmed Ibrahim Samoor, 17, Khan Younis 

2. Yazn Sultan Mohammed el-Masry, 2, Beit Hanoun 

3. Ibrahim Yunis Atallah al-Masry, 11, Beit Hanoun

4. Yehya Mazan Shahada Khalifa, 14, Gaza

5. Lina Eyad Fathi Shreer, 16, Gaza

6. Mustafa Mohammed Mahmoud Abeed, 17, Jabalia

7. Ibrahim Abdallah Mohammed Hassnain, 16, Beit Hanoun 

8. Mohammed Saber Ibrahim Sulaiman,16, Jabalia 

9. Hussein Munir Hussein Hamd, 11, Beit Hanoun

10. Baraa Wassam Ahmed al-Gharabli, 6, Gaza

11. Rahf Mohammed Atallah al-Masri, 10, Beit Hanoun 

12. Marwaan Yusef Atallah al-Masry, 7, Beit Hanoun 

13. Hamza Mahmoud Yaseen Ali, 12, Gaza

14. Hala Hussein Raafat al-Reifi, 14, Gaza

15. Zeid Mohammed Awda al-Talabani, 5, Gaza

16. Ammar Teiseer Mohammed Al-Amoor, 11, Khan Yunis

17. Hamada Atiya Abed al-Amoor, 13, Khan Yunis

Israeli authorities on Thursday ordered a night curfew in Lod for the second day in a row, after the city became a flashpoint of violence, with Israeli ultra-nationalists attacking Palestinian citizens of Israel and the latter setting fire to Jewish-Israeli owned businesses.

Israeli police are preventing non-residents from entering the city from 5pm, with a curfew enforced from 8pm until 3am, a police spokesperson said, adding that police units have been deployed in the area.

Confrontations in Lod, known as Lydd to Palestinians, erupted on Wednesday between Palestinian residents of Israel and Jewish-Israelis, with cars and buildings burned and at least one synagogue torched. A state of emergency has been declared in the city. 

“Alertness is high this evening. Police forces are spread out through the city, and there are expectations that the night will be as tense as it has been for the past couple of days,” one Palestinian told MEE correspondent Fadi Abu Kishk.

Abu Kishk said that on Wednesday night, settlers attacked Palestinian homes and cars in Lod and in a remote area outside the city, where they also beat up an elderly Palestinian man.

Three Israeli men suspected of the fatal shooting of a Palestinian in the city of Lod on Monday are to be released on bail, after a ruling from the Rishon Lezion Magistrate’s Court.

According to the Times of Israel, the three men will be released under "relatively lenient restrictive conditions", while a gagging order has been imposed to protect their identities. They will also have a restraining order banning them from Lod, known as Lydd to Palestinians, for several days.

The men argued they killed the Palestinian man in self-defence after violence broke out in the city in the wake of Israeli air strikes on Gaza.

The Palestinian news website Arab48 cited local sources as saying the man, named as protester Moussa Hassona, was shot by an Israeli ultra-nationalist, while the Israeli newspaper Haaretz blamed it on "armed Jewish residents defending against rioters".

Israeli police confirmed the fatality without further explanation.

Israel's public security minister, Amir Ohana, wrote on Twitter that whoever shot Hassona should not have been arrested and called for their release.

"The arrest of the shooter and his friends in Lod, who apparently acted in self-defence, is a terrible thing. Even if there are details the public isn't aware of yet, law-abiding citizens bearing arms increases the authorities' ability to prevent any threat or danger.

"Arrests and releases aren't for the minister to decide. If it were, they'd be released. The law enforcement system would do well to do that."

A new volley of rockets has been launched from Gaza towards the Israeli cities of Ashdod, Ashkelon and Tel Aviv.

Israeli media said more than 100 rockets had been launched in the attack.

Hamas's armed wing, Al-Qassam Brigades, took responsibility for the latest barrage claiming to have used a new rocket type called the "Ayyash 250."

Brigades spokesperson Abu Ubaida said that the rockets had a reach of more than 200km and had been aimed at Ramon airport, based near the city of Eilat.

"We enter the Ayyash 250 into service and tell the enemy, here are your airports, and every point from north of Palestine to its south is within range of our missiles, and here is the next deterrent weapon flying in the sky of Palestine towards every target that we define and decide with the help of God," he said in a statement, according to Palestinian media.

He also called on "international airlines to immediately halt their flights to any airport" in Israel.

On Thursday, British Airways said it was cancelling flights to Tel Aviv, the latest international carrier to avoid flying to Israel amid the escalating violence there.

United Airlines, Delta Air Lines and American Airlines on Wednesday also all cancelled flights between the United States and Tel Aviv.

Video footage shared widely on social media appears to show a group of Israelis attempting to break into a Palestinian home in Haifa.

While the family manages to repel the initial attack, police then burst into the home and arrest and beat a number of the residents.

While MEE cannot independently verify the footage, there have been numerous reports of violence between Palestinians and Israeli Jews in Haifa over the last few days:

A leading organisation representing Israel's minorities has condemned the country's Shin Bet intelligence agency for allegedly sending SMS messages to Palestinians that said it would "punish" them for involvement in protests around al-Aqsa Mosque.

Adalah – The Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights in Israel said on Thursday that it had sent an urgent letter to Israeli Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit and Nadav Argaman, director of Israel’s Shin Bet internal security agency demanding a halt to the practice.

One example of the SMS messages sent and circulated on social media showed Arabic text reading: "Hello. You have been identified as someone who participated in acts of violence at Al-Aqsa Mosque. We will punish you."

Adalah said Shin Bet had not denied involvement in sending the texts, but had said the intelligence service did not "comment on operational activities.”

"Adalah emphasized in its letter that, in addition to the nature of the threatening text messages that violate the privacy of their recipients, the sending of such messages by the Shin Bet is illegal and extends beyond the scope of its authority," said Adalah in a statement.

The organisation said it also "stressed that this reported activity violates the Israeli Supreme Court ruling regarding the Shin Bet’s use of location surveillance of Israeli citizens in the context of the Covid-19 pandemic."

Palestinians in Jerusalem who received the messages told MEE that they were undaunted by them:

Palestinians in Jerusalem 'not afraid' of threatening texts from 'Israeli intelligence'

Israel's defence minister has ordered a "massive reinforcement" of security forces to help contain violence spreading across towns and cities in Israel between Palestinians and Israelis.

He specified the forces would be reservists from the border police, an organisation that largely operates in the occupied West Bank. 

"We are in an emergency situation due to the national violence and it is now necessary to have a massive reinforcement of forces on the ground, and they are to be sent immediately to enforce law and order," he said. 

The death toll from Israeli air strikes on the Gaza Strip has risen to 83, including 17 children and seven women, according to the health ministry.

487 people have also been wounded in over three days of strikes on the besieged enclave.

On Wednesday, Hamas said its military chief Bassem Issa had been killed in Gaza City.

The Israeli military said it had killed three other senior figures as well, while air strikes also destroyed a tower block housing the Al-Aqsa TV channel

Israel said Palestinian armed groups had launched around 1,600 rockets into its territory since Monday evening.

British Airways cancelled its flight to and from Tel Aviv on Thursday, the latest international carrier to avoid flying to Israel amid the escalating violence there.

"The safety and security of our colleagues and customers is always our top priority, and we continue to monitor the situation closely," British Airways said.

United Airlines, Delta Air Lines and American Airlines on Wednesday all cancelled flights between the United States and Tel Aviv.

British airline EasyJet said that it was not yet cancelling its flights to Tel Aviv.

Its next flight there is from Berlin and not scheduled until 16 May, with a service from London Luton to Tel Aviv scheduled for 18 May.

"We will of course continue to monitor the situation," an EasyJet spokeswoman told Reuters.

Earlier, Israel diverted an incoming flight from Ben Gurion Airport to a southern airport designed to serve as a wartime alternative to its main international gateway outside Tel Aviv.

Israel was preparing ground troops alongside the fence separating Gaza from Israel on Thursday as it continued to bomb the besieged enclave.

Israel has prepared combat troops along the Gaza border and was in "various stages of preparing ground operations," a military spokesman said, a move that would recall similar operations during Israel-Gaza hostilities in 2014 and 2008-2009.

"The Chief of Staff is inspecting those preparations and providing guidance... we have a division headquarters and three maneuver brigades down in Gaza preparing themselves for that situation and for various contingencies," Lieutenant Colonel Jonathan Conricus said.

Dozens of Palestinians suffered gunshot and sponge-tipped bullet wounds from Israeli forces overnight Wednesday in the occupied West Bank, the Palestinian health ministry said.

In Jerusalem, 51 people were hospitalised, 20 in Hebron, seven in Nablus, and five in Tul Karm.

A Palestinian man was killed during a confrontation with Israeli soldiers near Nablus.