Israeli air strikes have hit targets across Gaza, killing a senior commander of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad movement and prompting the militant group to fire 100 rockets into Israel.
“The IDF [Israel Defence Forces] is currently striking in the Gaza Strip. A special situation has been declared on the Israeli home front,” the military said in a statement.
Read MoreGaza: Palestinian militants in Gaza fired dozens of rockets into Israel on Friday in response to Israeli airstrikes which killed at least 10 people, including a senior commander of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad movement.
As darkness fell, Israeli authorities said sirens had been sounded in southern and central areas, while images broadcast by Israeli television stations appeared to show a number of missiles being shot down by air defence systems. In Tel Aviv, Israel’s economic centre, witnesses said they could hear booms but there were no reports of sirens.
Read MoreIsrael pounded Gaza with air strikes on Friday, killing more than 15 people, including a top militant, and triggering a barrage of retaliatory rocket fire from the territory.
Israel said it launched a pre-emptive strike against Islamic Jihad, killing a top commander of the Palestinian militant group it blames for a series of recent attacks inside Israel.
Read MoreUntil recently, Israeli politics did not matter to Palestinians. Though the Palestinian people maintained their political agency under the most demoralizing conditions, their collective action rarely influenced outcomes in Israel, partly due to the massive discrepancy in power between the two sides.
Now that Israelis are embarking on their fifth election in less than four years, it is important to ask the question: How do Palestine and the Palestinians factor in Israeli politics?
Read MoreWhen Joel Carmel went for his military service in the Israel Defence Forces (IDF), he didn’t expect it to mean sitting at a computer processing permits, typing in Palestinian ID numbers all day.
“Before I went to the army I considered myself a centrist, politically speaking. I knew broadly about the occupation and the combat side of things. But it was so boring, so bureaucratic … It wears you down,” the 29-year-old said.
“You don’t have time or energy to think of Palestinians as people. They are just numbers on a computer, and you click ‘yes’ or ‘no’ on their travel permit applications.”
Read MoreNewly declassified transcripts of the trial that followed the murder of 53 people in Kafr Qasem reveal an inconvenient truth on the marginal role war crimes have played in the formation of Israel’s core values.
The minutes of the Kafr Qasem trial are so shocking and upsetting not because they reveal information that is unfamiliar to history, but precisely because Israeli war crimes play such a marginal role in the formation of the state’s seminal principles.
Read MoreNorway says it will restore its funding to the Palestinian groups after deeming Israel’s evidence for the controversial designation as ‘not sufficient’
Norway will continue to support the Palestinian organizations blacklisted by Israel over alleged terror ties, following on the heels of nine other European countries that rejected the controversial designation, Oslo’s embassy in Israel said.
Read MoreJERUSALEM, July 20 (Reuters) – Israel’s military censors have lifted a ban on reporting the country’s use of armed drones, an official said on Wednesday, ending an open secret by admitting that the armed forces have unmanned attack aircraft and have used them.
Read MoreDuring a press conference in Ramallah on July 16, U.S. President Joe Biden reiterated that “as president of the United States, my commitment to [the] goal of a two-state solution has not changed in all these years.”
He then added that “even if the ground is not ripe at this moment to restart negotiations, the United States and my administration will not give up on trying to bring the Palestinians and Israelis and both sides closer together.”
Read MoreThe crossing is open 24 hours on the Jordanian side, but Israel’s limited access times have seen Palestinians stuck at the bridge for up to three days in scorching heat.
Hundreds of Palestinians from the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem have been stuck for days at a crossing with Jordan due to Israeli limited opening hours.
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