Israel continued on Friday to bombard Gaza Strip with airstrikes and artillery shells, ignoring international calls for calm, as it stepped up the deployment of troops and tanks near the besieged Palestinian enclave.
Al Jazeera’s Safwat Al Kahlout, reporting from Gaza, said that as of 00:10 GMT on Friday, Israeli troops are massing at the border, but contrary to several news reports, there is no ground offensive taking place.
“A ground operation needs a lot of preparation, needs a lot of troops,” he said, noting that it is likely that there is not yet enough number of tanks, artillery, and troops to enter Gaza.
In a separate statement, the Israeli army also denied that the ground offensive has started.
Kahlout also reported that the bodies of a woman and her three sons, who were killed in an Israeli airstrike, have been retrieved in the northern part of Gaza.
As for Friday morning, the latest death toll has risen to 113, including at least 31 children. At least 600 people have been wounded.
Al-Aqsa mosque: Dozens hurt in Jerusalem clashes
At least 163 Palestinians and six Israeli police officers have been hurt in clashes in Jerusalem, Palestinian medics and Israeli police say.
Most were injured at the Al-Aqsa mosque, where Israeli police fired rubber bullets and stun grenades as Palestinians threw stones and bottles.
Tensions have been rising over the potential eviction of Palestinians from land claimed by Jewish settlers.
The Red Crescent has opened a field hospital to treat the wounded.
The Al-Aqsa mosque complex in Jerusalem's Old City is one of Islam's most revered locations, but its location is also the holiest site in Judaism, known as the Temple Mount.
The site is a frequent flashpoint for violence, which unfolded again on Friday night after thousands had gathered there to observe the last Friday of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.
Explained: How Israel’s Iron Dome intercepts rockets
On Tuesday evening, videos on social media showed rockets fired from Gaza being intercepted by the Israeli Iron Dome air defense system. It appeared that the rockets were hitting an invisible shield.
On Tuesday evening, videos on social media showed rockets fired from Gaza being intercepted by the Israeli Iron Dome air defense system. It appeared that the rockets were hitting an invisible shield.
The genesis of the Iron Dome goes back to the 2006 Israeli-Lebanon war when Hezbollah fired thousands of rockets into Israel. The following year, Israel announced that its state-run Rafael Advanced Systems would come up with a new air defense system to protect its cities and people. It was developed with Israel Aerospace Industries.
The Iron Dome was deployed in 2011. While Rafael claims a success rate of over 90%, with more than 2,000 interceptions, experts agree the success rate is over 80%. Rafael says on its website that it can “protect deployed and maneuvering forces, as well as the Forward Operating Base (FOB) and urban areas, against a wide range of indirect and aerial threats”.
Israel-Gaza violence: The conflict explained
In August and September 2020, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and then Bahrain agreed to normalize relations with Israel, making them only the third and fourth countries in the region—following Egypt in 1979 and Jordan in 1994—to do so. The agreements, named the Abraham Accords, came more than eighteen months after the United States hosted Israel and several Arab states for ministerial talks in Warsaw, Poland, about the future of peace in the Middle East. Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas has rejected the recent accords and recalled his ambassador from Abu Dhabi; Hamas also rejected the agreements.
The peace announcements follow a tumultuous 2019–20 election season in Israel. After three elections since December 2018, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of the Likud party and Defense Minister and “Alternate Prime Minister” Benny Gantz of the Blue and White party signed an agreement creating a unity government on April 20, 2020. The new government said it would maintain Netanyahu’s campaign promise to extend Israel’s sovereignty over the West Bank, a promise that has been condemned by Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh. Furthermore, despite the formation of a unity government and promises from Netanyahu that he would step down after eighteen months, anti-government demonstrations swept across Israel throughout the summer of 2020 with protestors demanding Netanyahu’s immediate resignation.
Tensions also remain high between the Israeli military and Hamas. In August 2020, Hamas launched helium balloons that carried incendiary material towards Israel’s southern border. In response, Israel conducted airstrikes against Hamas facilities in the Gaza strip. Mediators have struggled to ease tensions and prevent further escalation