Palestinian rockets fired towards Jerusalem, Israel keeps up strikes on
Gaza
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[May 12, 2023]
By Nidal al-Mughrabi and Ari Rabinovitch
GAZA/JERUSALEM (Reuters) -Palestinian militants on Friday fired rockets
towards Jerusalem for the first time since fighting across the
Israel-Gaza border intensified this week while Israel kept up air
strikes on Gaza amid Egyptian efforts to forge a ceasefire.
Rocket sirens sounded in the town of Beit Shemesh and elsewhere in the
hills outside Jerusalem, ending a 12-hour lull in fighting. Brief
explosions could be heard in Jerusalem, possibly from Israeli missile
defences intercepting the rockets.
The Israeli military did not immediately confirm any interceptions near
Jerusalem. Local media reported Israeli air defences shot down two
longer-range rockets.
Israeli towns near the Gaza border also came under renewed rocket fire.
Shortly afterwards, Israel renewed air strikes against the Islamic Jihad
militant group in the Gaza Strip.
No injuries were reported in Friday's violence, the latest setback in
Egyptian attempts at engineering a truce.
Israeli forces launched an air strike campaign against the Islamic Jihad
leadership in the early hours on Tuesday, accusing them of planning
attacks on Israel. Islamic Jihad, the second largest armed group in Gaza
after the ruling Islamist Hamas, has since fired almost 1,000 rockets,
some deep into Israel.\
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At least 31 Palestinians in densely populated Gaza, including women and
children, have been killed in the past three days, while one person in
Israel was killed when an apartment was struck by a rocket in a Tel Aviv
suburb.
In Gaza, a small impoverished coastal territory blockaded by Israel and
Egypt since 2007, people woke up to empty streets, and many were keen
for a respite after days of explosions.
'OUR LIFE HAS STOPPED'
Amin Abuelkheir hoped to reopen his fish restaurant after closing it
four days ago. "Our life has stopped, the sea is closed to us, and we
have stock that we are unable to sell. We hope there will be a truce,"
Abuelkheir said.
Israelis, still on alert, ventured away from shelters at the start of
the weekend to make Sabbath preparations after hours of quiet. But they
again ran for cover when sirens pierced the late-morning calm.
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A view of the aftermath of deadly
Israeli strikes, in the northern Gaza Strip May 12, 2023.
REUTERS/Mohammed Salem
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The latest flare-up caps more than a year of resurgent
Israeli-Palestinian violence that has killed more than 140
Palestinians and at least 19 Israelis and foreigners since January
in a seemingly never-ending cycle.
Islamic Jihad spurns co-existence with Israel and preaches its
destruction. Top ministers of Israel's current religious nationalist
government rule out any state sought by Palestinians in territories
captured by Israel in the 1967 Middle East war.
As Egypt pressed on with mediation efforts, two Palestinian
officials familiar with the talks said the sides were debating a
draft proposed by Cairo.
Among truce terms, Islamic Jihad wants Israel to commit to ending
strikes against its leaders. Israel has rejected that. Israel
appeared to be hoping that Islamic Jihad, if depleted of rockets and
commanders, would halt hostilities unilaterally.
At least 80 people have been injured in the Israeli air strikes that
destroyed five buildings and damaged more than 300 apartments Gaza,
where residents have been experiencing decades of a worsening
humanitarian crisis.
Israel's military said that almost 200 Palestinian rockets had
misfired, and that such failed launches had killed four people
inside Gaza, including a 10-year-old girl. Islamic Jihad denied that
its rockets had misfired or caused deaths in Gaza.
Israel occupied the Gaza Strip and the West Bank in the 1967 war, as
well as East Jerusalem which Palestinians want for their capital.
Israeli forces and settlers withdrew from Gaza in 2005. Statehood
talks between Israel and the mainstream Palestinian Authority, based
in the West Bank, have been frozen since 2014.
(Reporting by Nidal al-Mughrabi, James Mackenzie and Ari Rabinovitch,
editing by Mark Heinrich)
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