Israel-Palestine conflict highlights: Netanyahu 'determined' to continue Gaza operation

Militants in Lebanon fired a barrage of rockets into northern Israel on Wednesday, threatening to open up a new front in fighting, as US President Joe Biden publicly pressed Israel to wind down an offensive in the Gaza Strip.

(PTI)

. (AP)

. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed to press ahead with a fierce military offensive in the Gaza Strip, pushing back Wednesday against calls from the United States to wind down the operation that has left hundreds dead.

(AP)

. Like thousands of others in Gaza, Umm Jihad Ghabayin fled home with her children from Israeli bombardment without taking any essentials -- let alone a facemask against the raging Covid-19 pandemic.

. "Tehran backs the Palestinians' fight against the Zionist regime (Israel)," Hossein Salami said. "The Palestinians have emerged as a missile-equipped nation."

(Reuters)

. (AFP)

. Lebanese security officials say several rockets have been fired from southern Lebanon toward Israel.

Israel's military reported air raid sirens in northern Israel, and Israeli TV stations said two rockets had landed in the area, while two others were intercepted Wednesday.

(AP)

. (AFP)

. Israel said on Wednesday it was not setting a timeframe for an end to hostilities with Gaza as its military pounded the Palestinian enclave with airstrikes and Hamas militants unleashed new cross-border rocket attacks.

Palestinian medical officials said 219 people had now been killed in 10 days of aerial bombardments which have destroyed roads, buildings and other infrastructure, and worsened the already dire humanitarian situation in Gaza.

(Reuters)

. Turkey rejected as "absolutely unacceptable" accusations by the US that President Recep Tayyip Erdogan made "anti-Semitic" remarks in his criticism of Israeli strikes in Gaza, his top press aide said Wednesday.

The latest tensions could further sour the relationship between two NATO allies Turkey and the United States.

(AFP)

. (AFP)

. Inside a Gaza hospital, Mohammad al-Hadidi cradled his baby boy Omar -- his only surviving child after Israeli airstrikes killed his wife and four other sons in the night.

. Turkey on Wednesday rejected accusations by the United States that President Recep Tayyip Erdogan made "anti-Semitic" remarks in his criticism of Israeli strikes in Gaza, his party's spokesman said.

"Accusing our president of anti-Semitism is an illogical and untrue approach. This is a lie said about our president," Omer Celik commented in a series of tweets. - AFP

. Thousands of peoplegather in the Canadian city of Mississauga to denounce the crimes of occupation of children and women in Gaza and displacement in Jerusalem

. Energy Minister Yuval Steinitz, of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud party, says that in his view, there “will be no way to avoid temporarily taking over Gaza” to disarm the Hamas terror group.

“Nobody will disarm Hamas unless we do it by force,” Steinitz tells the Ynet news site, suggesting what would be a significant escalation of the conflict.

Steinitz acknowledges that others in the government don’t share that view.

(Times of Israel)

. Ministry of Health in Gaza reports 219 deaths, including 63 children, 36 women and 16 elderly people, in addition to 1,530 different injuries

. The statement of IDF read:

"Overnight, IDF fighter jets and aircraft struck the 'Metro' tunnel system, located in Khan Yunis and Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip, in a fifth stage of strikes. During the strikes, which lasted 25 minutes, approximately 40 underground military targets belonging to the Hamas terror organization were struck. The strikes were carried out by 52 IDF fighter jets, with the use of approximately 120 guided armaments.

The strikes combined a number of elements: Surface-to-Surface targets, underground targets, command and control centers and Hamas posts. Among the targets struck are: a weapons storage warehouse located in the Hamas internal security headquarters in Khan Yunis, terror infrastructure located in the residences of two commanders, and the Hamas command and control center in Rafah.

Likewise, additional Islamic Jihad terror targets in the Gaza Strip were struck, including: a rocket situation room, facilities of the Islamic Jihads Surface-to-Surface array, located in operational apartments, an Islamic Jihad command room used to fire rockets during Operation "Guardian of the Walls", and rocket launch sites."

IDF fighter jets and aircraft also struck a number of above-ground and underground rocket launch sites, which were aimed to harm Israeli civilians.

. A fireis raging at a residential building in Petah Tikva, with authorities aware of several people trapped in apartments.

Five fire and rescue teams are operating at the scene.

There are no known casualties

(Times of Israel)

. After a series of nighttime strikes in Gaza, the IDF says is conducted another air raid a short while ago that targeted a Palestinian Islamic Jihad weapons manufacturing site.

The military says the bombed site is in Deir el-Balah in the central Strip.

(The Times of Israel)

. The French mission to the United Nations circulated a draft resolution to members of the Security Council on Tuesday that calls for a ceasefire between Israel and Gaza terror groups, as countries on the top UN body continued their efforts to weigh in on the ongoing violence despite US objections.

French President Emmanuel Macron’s office publicly announced the matter following a trilateral meeting with Egyptian counterpart Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi, who is currently visiting Paris, and Jordan’s King Abdullah II, who joined via video conference.

“The three countries agreed on three simple elements: The shooting must stop, the time has come for a ceasefire and the UN Security Council must take up the issue,” the Elysee Palace said in a statement.

(Times of Israel)

. The IDF officially confirms that ithas tried to kill Hamas military chief Muhammad Deiftwice since the current fighting erupted last week, and that he escaped unscathed both times.

The military adds that it has targeted at least seven other top Hamas members, some of whom were injured but all of whom survived.

(Times of Israel)

. With his muted response to the Gaza conflict, President Joe Biden is largely sticking to a time-worn US playbook despite pressure from progressive Democrats for a tougher line toward Israel and from America’s allies for a more active role to end the violence.

. Hundreds of thousands of Palestinian citizens of Israel stopped work for the day Tuesday, as did other Palestinians across the occupied West Bank and in Gaza, protesting violence against Arab Israelis, the unfolding Israeli military campaign targeting Hamas militants in Gaza and the looming eviction of several families from their homes in East Jerusalem.

. Israel's deadly Gaza offensive has many eyes trained on the Lebanese border for a Hezbollah reaction, but observers argue the Iran-backed movement is unlikely to risk an all-out conflict.

Incidents at the border in recent days have raised the temperature but, with Lebanon already on its knees amid a deep political and economic crisis, the Shiite group seems intent on refraining from an escalation.

(AFP)

. The Palestinian ambassador to the United Nations is challenging the Biden administration to show results from its diplomatic efforts to achieve a ceasefire between Israel and Gaza’s militant Hamas rulers, pointing to the US repeatedly blocking UN Security Council action on grounds it would interfere with its diplomatic efforts.

Riyad Mansour says “if the Biden administration can exert all of their pressure to bring an end to the aggression against our people, nobody is going to stand in their way.”

(Times of Israel)

. A strike Monday knocked out Gaza's only Covid-19 testing laboratory, the health ministry said, and the Qatari Red Crescent said a strike damaged one of its offices.

Hospitals in the territory, which has been under Israeli blockade for almost 15 years, have been overwhelmed by patients and there are frequent blackouts.

. Paul Pogba and Manchester United team-mate Amad Diallo held up a Palestine flag on the Old Trafford pitch after Tuesday's 1-1 draw against Fulham.

United midfielder Pogba appeared to be given the flag by a fan as the players made their way around the pitch during the traditional lap of honour after their last home game of the Premier League season.

. As of 19:00, since the beginning of operation "Guardian of the Walls", approximately 3,700 rockets have been fired from the Gaza Strip at Israeli territory, of which approximately 540 failed launches fell in the Gaza Strip.

. The Palestinian envoy to the United Nations, Riyad Mansour, on Tuesday pleaded with the world body to gather more humanitarian aid for Gaza amid intense Israeli bombing, as the Security Council held its fourth meeting on the conflict without issuing a statement.

. Israel bombarded Gaza with airstrikes and Palestinian militants kept up cross-border rocket fire, with no firm sign on Wednesday of any imminent ceasefire despite international calls to end more than a week of fighting.

. Turkey's Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Monday said US President Joe Biden had "bloody hands" because of his support for Israel in the raging conflict in the Gaza Strip.

. France has proposed a resolution with the UN Security Council, in coordination with Egypt and Jordan, calling for a ceasefire in the Israel-Gaza conflict, the president's office said late Tuesday.

French President Emmanuel Macron and his Egyptian counterpart Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, who is in Paris for summits on Africa, agreed on the resolution in a video conference with Jordan's King Abdullah II, the statement said.

Israel-Palestine conflict highlights: Netanyahu 'determined' to continue Gaza operation

Militants in Lebanon fire on Israel as calls for truce grow

An Egyptian diplomat says some of the country's top officials are waiting for Israel's response to a cease-fire offer, and that they expect amendments to their proposal.

Israel's Netanyahu 'determined' to continue Gaza operation

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Iran supports Palestinians' fight against Israel, says Guards chief

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