FROM OUR CORRESPONDENT
JERUSALEM – Now that the confrontation is open, the doors to war wide open, Israeli analysts are practicing wondering what thoughts have gone through the head of Mohammed Deif, the military commander of Hamas, its indecipherable boss. Avi Issacharoff, one of the most attentive scholars of Palestinian dynamics, speculates that the call shouted by the young people on the Temple Mount – Deif, Deif, razed Tel Aviv – forced his hand on the buttons of the rockets. In the hope, as happened in the most recent rounds, that Benjamin Netanyahu will choose a match of short duration. We have won the battle for Jerusalem and established a new balance between forces, rejoices Ismail Haniyeh, one of the leaders of the organization. He deludes himself: the formula that stopped hostilities in the past – calm for calm – does not seem to have room for now.
The Israeli prime minister closed the council meeting security warning that the bombings will intensify: Hamas is about to suffer a blow it did not expect, they will pay dearly, the campaign goes on. Invite the Israelis to prepare for a long period of fighting. just the beginning – continues Benny Gantz, the Minister of Defense -. We still have hundreds of goals to break down. Schools in the country today remain closed, normal life interrupted.
The Al Qassam Brigades, the organization’s armed arm, claim to have found a way to evade the anti-missile defense: they concentrate hundreds of bullets (in one case 137 for 5 minutes) towards Ashkelon or the other cities to the south and try to pierce the Iron Dome system. They have already succeeded, some buildings have been hit, two women have died. Another was killed in Rishon Lezion in the center of the country where the rockets took the buildings and a bus in the street, it was empty. Israeli jets hit the Strip without pause and Aviv Kochavi, the Chief of Staff, immediately made it clear to the leaders of the factions what the strategy will be: no immunity for the leaders, army spokesmen announce that they have killed 15 extremists, also commanders of Islamic Jihad. In total, 30 people were killed in Gaza, including 10 minors, according to the Ministry of Health. The Israelis contest the accounting of the death, saying that a third of the hundreds of rockets fell back into the Strip, causing some of the victims.
The missiles level an entire 13-story skyscraper evacuated before the bombing: a blow also to the economic interests that the movement has built in these 14 years. For Hamas a red line: it responds with 130 rockets towards Tel Aviv, flights over Ben Gurion airport are suspended during the raid. The two million Palestinians locked in the 365 square kilometer corridor were preparing to celebrate the end of Ramadan tonight with the Eid Al Fitr feast. The bombs, the explosions, the fear remain.
Protests from Jerusalem spread to other cities, where the clashes involved Israeli Arabs and Jewish neighbors. In Lod, a man shot at Arab demonstrators and killed a person and some media reported synagogues and shops set on fire. The divisions within Israel also affect politics: centrist Yair Lapid is trying to form a government and needs the external support of the Arab parties. Which for now have stopped the dialogue.
May 12, 2021 (change May 12, 2021 | 07:30)
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