- Fighters In Gaza Fire More Than 200
Rockets Into Israel, As Israeli Air Raids Continue To Hit Besieged Enclave.
PALESTINE, 4 May 2019 - A pregnant
Palestinian woman and her one-year-old niece have been killed in a wave of
Israeli air raids on the Gaza Strip, shattering a month-long lull in violence
in the besiegedenclave.
The bombardment on Saturday came as Hamas,
which rules Gaza, and the Islamic Jihad Movement in Palestine fired more than
200 rockets towards cities and villages in southern Israel.
At least three Palestinians, including the
woman, an infant and a 22-year-old man were killed in the air raids, the health
ministry in Gaza said, while 13 others were wounded.
Shrapnel from the Gaza rockets meanwhile
wounded two Israelis; one of them was an 80-year-old woman.
The escalation began on Friday when a
sniper from Islamic Jihad fired at Israeli troops across the border wounding
two of them, according to the Israeli military. An Israeli air raid then killed
two fighters from Hamas.
Two other Palestinians protesting near the
frontier were also killed by Israeli forces. Hamas and Islamic Jihad responded
with rocket fire on Saturday.
In a statement, the two groups promised a
"broader and more painful" response if Israel "pursues its
aggression". Israeli forces responded with air raids and tank fire against
more than 30 targets belonging to both groups.
[ DANGEROUS SITUATION ]
Explosions in Gaza City, where busy streets
were packed with shoppers making preparations for the holy Muslim month of
Ramadan, shook buildings and sent people fleeing for cover.
Ibtessam Abu Arar, aunt of Siba, the
14-month old infant who died in the Israeli raid, said: "The Israeli plane
fired a missile near the house and the shrapnel entered the house and hit the
poor baby."
Siba was being held in the lap of her
pregnant aunt Falestine Abu Arar, 37, who was also struck. She died from her
wounds hours later, the health ministry said in a statement.
Earlier, it was mistakenly reported that
Falestine was Siba's mother. An Israeli military spokeswoman made no immediate
comment. Across the border, sirens sent Israelis running to shelters as the
blasts of rocket interceptions sounded overhead, and Jonathan Conricus,
spokesman for Israeli military, said Israel was prepared to intensify its
attacks.
The European Union called for an immediate
de-escalation late on Saturday, and threw its backing behind efforts by Egypt
and the United Nations to calm the situation.
"The rocket fire from Gaza towards
Israel must stop immediately. A de-escalation of this dangerous situation is
urgently needed to ensure that civilians' lives are protected," said Maja
Kocijancic, spokeswoman for the EU.
"Israelis and Palestinians both have
the right to live in peace, security and dignity," she added in her
statement.
[ EGYPTIAN MEDIATION ]
The outbreak of fighting, which prompted
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to convene security chiefs, comes
days before Muslims begin Ramadan and Israelis celebrate Independence Day.
Israel is also due to host the 2019
Eurovision song contest finals in less than two weeks in Tel Aviv.
Al Jazeera's Harry Fawcett, reporting from
Jerusalem, said the latest bout of conflict had erupted at a "politically
sensitive time for the Israelis".
"Perhaps the calculation is that
Israel won't ramp up this military escalation to the extent of a full conflict
because of the concerns about those events and this might be a time to try to
get it to follow through on what it reportedly promised at the end of the last
military escalation at the beginning of April," Fawcett said.
Israel and Egypt have maintained a
crippling blockade on Gaza since Hamas seized control of the territory in 2007.
Following heavy fighting in late March,
Israel agreed to ease the blockade in exchange for a halt to rocket fire. This
included expanding a fishing zone off Gaza's coast, increasing imports into
Gaza and allowing the Gulf state of Qatar to deliver aid to the cash-strapped
territory.
But Israel scaled back the fishing zone
this week in response to rocket fire and shut the border crossings entirely on
Saturday after barrages from the enclave.
Al Jazeera's Fawcett said Israel had also
so far failed to facilitate "the promised extra funding from Qatar"
and that "other easings of the Israeli siege have not borne fruit
either".
Some two million Palestinians live in Gaza,
whose economy has suffered years of blockades as well as recent foreign aid
cuts. Unemployment stands at 52 percent, according to the World Bank, and
poverty is rampant.
Israel says its blockade is necessary to
stop weapons reaching Hamas, with which it has fought three wars since the
group seized control of Gaza in 2007. Hamas said on Thursday that its Gaza
chief, Yeyha Sinwar, had travelled to Cairo for talks on efforts to maintain
calm along the border and alleviate hardship in the enclave.
Mukhaimer Abu Sadda, a professor of
political science at Al Azhar University in the Gaza Strip, said the onus was
on Israel to implement the agreements brokered following the March fighting.
"It's the Israeli government who has
not implemented the latest understandings," Sadda told Al Jazeera.
SOURCE: AL JAZEERA AND NEWS AGENCIES – 4
MAY 2019
https://bit.ly/2PORTWC
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