Live: Israel and Hamas claim victory as fragile ceasefire holds
Live Updates
Hello and welcome back to MEE's coverage of events in Israel and the occupied territories as Muslims mark Eid al-Fitr.
Muslim countries must show a united and clear stance over Israel's conflict with Hamas in Gaza, Fuat Oktay, Turkey's vice president, said on Thursday, criticising world powers for condemning violence without acting.
"What we desire is that active measures are taken," Oktay told reporters after morning prayers marking the end of the holy month of Ramadan.
"There are decisions taken repeatedly at the United Nations, there are condemnations. But unfortunately no result has been obtained, because a clear stance is not displayed."
The UN Security Council held another emergency meeting Wednesday on the worsening hostilities, again without agreeing on a joint statement due to opposition from the United States, Israel's key ally, diplomats said.
Oktay said Muslims had a responsibility to act.
"Everyone who does not display a clear stance against this are a party to this torment," Oktay said.
"Unfortunately, when we look at the Muslim countries that do not display this unity and togetherness, everyone there who do not display a clear stance is a party to this."
Watch Middle East Eye's live stream from Al-Aqsa Mosque as worshippers arrive to perform the Eid al-Fitr morning prayers marking the end of the holy month of Ramadan amid ongoing deadly violence against Palestinians in Jerusalem, the Gaza Strip, the West Bank and Palestinian towns inside Israel.
Gaza rescue crews at dawn on Thursday recovered the bodies of a Palestinians couple from under the rubble of a house, which Israeli forces targeted last night in Sheikh Zayed City in the town of Beit Lahia, in the northern Gaza Strip.
The two Palestinians have been identified as: Abd al-Rahim Muhammad al-Madhoun, and his wife Hajar Ali al-Madhoun, according to Wafa news agency.
The two fatalities raise the death toll of the continuous Israeli onslaught on the Gaza Strip for the fourth consecutive day to 69 Palestinians, including 17 children, 7 women, and 388 wounded, some of them in critical condition.
The UN Security Council held another emergency meeting Wednesday on worsening hostilities between Israel and Palestinians, again without agreeing on a joint statement due to opposition from the United States, Israel's key ally, diplomats told AFP.
According to several sources, 14 of the 15 members of the Council were in favor of adopting a joint declaration aimed at reducing tension.
However, the United States saw the Security Council meeting as a sufficient show of concern, diplomats told AFP on condition of anonymity, and did not think a statement would "help de-escalate" the situation.
"The United States has been actively engaged in diplomacy behind the scenes with all parties, and across the region, to seek to de-escalate the situation. At this stage, a Council statement would be counterproductive," said one source familiar with discussions, also speaking anonymously.
In a sign of frustration, four Council members - Norway, Estonia, France and Ireland - issued their own joint statement.
"The large numbers of civilian casualties, including children, from Israeli air strikes in Gaza, and of Israeli fatalities from rockets launched from Gaza, are both worrying and unacceptable," it said.
"We call on Israel to cease settlement activities, demolitions and evictions, including in East Jerusalem," they wrote.
UN Middle East envoy Tor Wennesland had warned the meeting that the "situation has deteriorated since Monday... there is a risk of a spiral of violence," according to a diplomatic source.
Israel's army on Thursday said it had received a rocket warning in the north of the country, the first time the alert has been triggered there since hostilities soared between Israel and Palestinians earlier this week.
The approximately 1,500 rockets fired from Gaza by Hamas's military wing Al-Qassam Brigades since Monday had so far set off warnings in southern and central Israel, but not in the north, the army said.
However in the small hours of Thursday morning, alarms not only sounded in the economic capital Tel Aviv in the middle of the country - where residents rushed to shelters - but also in Jezreel Valley in the north.
Seven people in Israel have been killed by the rockets, including a six-year-old and a soldier, AFP reported.
Meanwhile, the Palestinian health ministry said the death toll from the Israeli attacks on the besieged Gaza Strip since Monday has risen to 67 fatalities, including 17 children and six women.
The Israeli airstrikes have continued until Thursday early morning, according to AFP.
The army said in a Tweet that it has targeted "strategically significant buildings belonging to Hamas & a Hamas naval force squad."
The targets of the air strikes included Hamas's main bank and counterintelligence infrastructure, the army added.
Israel diverted an incoming flight from Ben Gurion Airport on Thursday to a southern airport designed to serve as a wartime alternative to its main international gateway outside Tel Aviv, aviation tracker Avi Scharf said on Twitter.
Was just about to land TLV when rockets started flying toward airport. Was holding and now diverted Ramon airport near Eilat pic.twitter.com/tJ9cAHEcao
— avi scharf (@avischarf) May 12, 2021
The El Al Israel Airlines flight 332 was en route Ramon Airport near Eilat, Scharf, an editor with Israel's Haaretz newspaper said. Online data suggested the flight had come from Brussels.
President Joe Biden's National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan discussed "efforts to achieve calm" in Israel and the Palestinian territories during a phone call with Qatari Foreign Minister Mohamed bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani, the US National Security Council said.
"They discussed their shared concerns about the current situation in Gaza and Jerusalem," spokesperson Emily Horne said in a statement on Wednesday.
"Mr. Sullivan made clear that the ongoing rocket attacks by Hamas into Israel are unacceptable and must end. They discussed their ongoing outreach to relevant parties in support of efforts to achieve calm, and agreed to remain in close touch in the period ahead."
Earlier in the day, White House press secretary Jen Psaki stressed that the administration is intensifying efforts - in private - to de-escalate the conflict, saying that US officials had conducted more than 25 high level calls with regional states.
She claimed that Qatar and Egypt have sway over Hamas.
"We're in regular dialogue multiple times per day... with Egyptian and Qatari officials, who have significant influence over Hamas. Our objective here is de-escalation as we look to protecting the people in the region."
Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, one of the most prominent progressive lawmakers in the United States, has criticised President Joe Biden for his support for what he calls "Israel's right to defend itself".
"Blanket statements like these w/ little context or acknowledgement of what precipitated this cycle of violence - namely, the expulsions of Palestinians and attacks on Al Aqsa - dehumanize Palestinians & imply the US will look the other way at human rights violations. It’s wrong," Ocasio-Cortez said in a series of tweets.
"By only stepping in to name Hamas’ actions - which are condemnable - & refusing to acknowledge the rights of Palestinians, Biden reinforces the false idea that Palestinians instigated this cycle of violence. This is not neutral language. It takes a side - the side of occupation."
Earlier in the day, Ocasio-Cortez signed a letter calling on the US administration to "apply pressure" on Israel to halt the campaign of displacement and home demolitions against Palestinians in Jerusalem. Read more about the letter here.
Muna El-Kurd, a resident of Sheikh Jarrah and a journalist who has been raising awareness about forced evictions in the occupied East Jerusalem neighbourhood, described an increasingly critical and tense atmosphere on Wednesday evening, with Israeli police forces continuing to patrol the area.
“Police forces harassed us and beat my brother Mohammed as they tried to push us out of the neighbourhood,“ she told Middle East Eye correspondent Latifeh Abdellatif. “People were filming but I didn’t manage to capture everything,” she added.
“They tore Mohammed’s shirt and kept pushing us back. They pushed me into the wall, I injured my hand, I don’t know what happened to it.”
In videos shared online by El-Kurd, her brother Mohammed, who has been vocal about the forced evictions on social media, was shown being dragged away by Israeli forces.
He was later released.
Many other locals continue to document the Israeli forces’ tactics of harassing and forcing residents to leave the area.
Sheikhb Jarrah resident @m7mdkurd was just attacked and kicked out of his entire neighbourhood by Israeli forces! pic.twitter.com/8IY0KblCh8
— Jalal (@JalalAK_jojo) May 12, 2021
In videos shared online on Wednesday, residents of the neighbourhood prayed in congregation for those who lost their lives in Gaza as a result of Israeli air strikes.
In the same area, Israeli youths played songs on loudspeakers, provoking Palestinian locals.
Police remained stationed in the neighbourhood - many heavily armed and on horseback.
The Palestinian health ministry announced on Wednesday evening that the death toll from Israeli air strikes on Gaza has increased to 67, including 17 children and six women.
At least 388 civilians have been wounded, the ministry added.
A Palestinian was shot dead by Israeli forces in Nablus after he opened fire at two Israeli soldiers on Wednesday, as tensions boiled over in many parts of the occupied territories.
Israeli forces confirmed the incident but did not clarify the identity of the Israelis who were wounded.
The Israeli Channel Seven website stated that a Palestinian at the Sela junction near the village of Madama, south of Nablus, shot at a group of soldiers, wounding two of them, before being shot and killed on the spot.
Translation: Pictures from the scene. Two Israeli occupation soldiers have been shot in an operation in south Nablus.
Meanwhile, the Palestinian movement Hamas issued a statement welcoming the shooting, which it said targeted two Israeli soldiers south of Nablus.
Reiterating the US line since the start of the crisis, US President Joe Biden has once again defended Israel’s behaviour over the past few days.
In talks with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the Democrat leader said: “Israel has the right to defend itself.”
At least 65 Palestinians, including 15 children have been killed in Israel’s bombardment of the Gaza Strip since Sunday.
Biden talks with Netanyahu following escalation:
— Ragıp Soylu (@ragipsoylu) May 12, 2021
"Israel has the right to defend itself", Biden says
In addition to the bombardment of Gaza, Palestinian citizens and residents of Israel have faced mobs of far-right Israelis, who have attacked businesses and people.
In scenes repeated across several cities, gangs of youths threw stones and stormed stores belonging to Palestinians.
The epicentre of the violence was the Tel Aviv area, with ultra-nationalists targeting Palestinian interests in the nearby cities of Lod (known to Palestinians as Lydd) and Bat-Yam.
#BREAKING Israeli mobs attack Arab owned businesses in Bet Yam and Tiberias pic.twitter.com/hvkyLUoCl1
— Middle East Eye (@MiddleEastEye) May 12, 2021
Middle East Eye spoke to an Israeli ultra-nationalist, one of many on the streets of Lod (known to Palestinians as Lydd), where the city’s Palestinian population has been subject to attacks.
“When they get crazy and act like animals, you shoot one in the chest and another in the head,” the man told our correspondent.
The 21-year-old, named Noam, said that he had arrived in Lod with a group of friends to protect houses purportedly left by Israelis who had fled the city.
“Death is what deters,” the man adds.
"If they act like animals, shoot one in the head"
— Middle East Eye (@MiddleEastEye) May 12, 2021
A young Israeli settler says death is the only thing that will deter Palestinians from protesting, after he and his friends drove to #Lod to protect Jewish houses following heated protests#Israel #Palestine pic.twitter.com/UJEcd66BBw
With Israeli ultra-nationalists marching through it, the city of Lod, known as Lydd to Palestinians, has reached boiling point.
Israeli mobs attacked the Great Omari Mosque of Lod, while appeals broadcast on the mosque’s loudspeaker called on locals to protect it.
Earlier today, Israel announced a curfew between 8pm and 4am local time (5pm-1am GMT) as tensions continued to spiral. A state of emergency was also announced in the area, with a police spokesperson announcing that people would be forbidden from gathering in public spaces or leaving their homes.
Videos from the city showed confrontations near the mosque, as inside people shouted and ran frantically.
#عاجل مستوطنون يطلقون النار على المسجد الكبير بمدينة اللد المحتلة. pic.twitter.com/t2mzGzXBEG
— وكالة شهاب للأنباء (@ShehabAgency) May 12, 2021
MEE’s correspondent on the ground described an atmosphere of rising anxiety and tension.
On Monday evening, a Palestinian man was killed by police in the city. The man, identified as Moussa Hassona, was seen lying on the ground with people crowded around him and calling for medical attention.
Protests have gripped the city in recent days, as Palestinians express their anger at attacks on al-Aqsa and airstrikes on Gaza.
