Israel Continues Gaza Airstrikes Amid Rising Mob Violence
- Senior Israeli military figures, politicians considering plans for possible ground invasion of Gaza
- Hamas fires rockets at Israelis’ targets

Israel is pressing ahead with a fierce military offensive on Gaza that has so far flattened high-rise buildings just as Hamas fired volleys of rockets deep into the country late on Wednesday night.
Hamas is the acronym for Islamic Resistance Movement, a Palestinian Sunni-Islamic fundamentalist, but pragmatic, militant, and nationalist organization. It has a social service wing, Dawah, and a military wing, the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades.
In the worst Arab-Jewish chaos for years, racist mob attacks is also spreading throughout Israel as the country’s Military intensified their most ferocious bombardment of Gaza since the 2014 war.
Amid the heavy bombardments and rising violence, an Army spokesperson said plans for a possible ground invasion of Gaza were being prepared for senior Israeli military figures and politicians to consider later today, Thursday, May 13, 2021.
The spokesperson however said no decision had been made, even as thousands of Israelis went into shelters early on Thursday after warning sirens sounded in the economic capital Tel Aviv in the middle of the country, but also in Jezreel Valley in the north, the first time it has happened since the unrest escalated this week.
The army statement however had no immediate accounts on any casualties from the pre-dawn salvo, but later reports suggested the sirens in the north were false alarms.
Since on Monday, the Israeli military have carried out hundreds of airstrikes in Gaza, killing four senior Hamas commanders and a dozen more Hamas operatives. Two high-rise buildings containing flats and offices in Gaza City were targeted.
According to the enclave’s health ministry, at least 67 people have now been killed in Gaza, including 16 children, since the violence escalated on Monday.
Also, medical officials said seven people have been killed in Israel, including a 5-year-old boy killed by shrapnel on Wednesday in the frontier town of Sderot.
While the conflict raged, Israel appeared on the brink of losing control of its mixed cities. Overnight on Wednesday, far-right Jewish mobs took to the streets across the country searching for Arabs, while Palestinian citizens of Israel clashed with police, including reports of attempted shootings.
Prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, has called on both Jews and Arabs to cease attacks on each other: “It doesn’t matter to me that your blood is boiling. You can’t take the law in your hands,” he said.
However, Netanyahu had also pledged to restore order “with an iron fist if needed, and his Public Security Minister, Amir Ohana, appeared to encourage mob violence.
On Wednesday, Ohana called for the release of a Jewish man arrested in connection with a fatal shooting of an Arab man in the city of Lod, after a synagogue and other Jewish property was torched.
Ohana alleged, without providing evidence that the shooter “acted in self-defence”, adding that “law-abiding citizens carrying weapons” were an aid to authorities. Later on Wednesday a mob of far-right Israelis dragged a man they thought was an Arab from his car and beat him until he lay on the ground motionless and bloodied.
Footage of the attack in Bat Yam, a Tel Aviv suburb, was broadcast live on television but police and emergency services did not arrive on the scene until 15 minutes later, while the victim lay motionless on his back in the middle of the street.
Videos were posted on social media of what appeared to be other attempted lynchings overnight. Violent incidents, including the burning of shops and restaurants, were reported in multiple towns across Israel, including Acre, Haifa and Tiberias with Police saying that more than 400 people were arrested.
The latest unrest took place after US President, Joe Biden, spoke to Israel’s Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu. Biden expressed hope the recent upsurge in violence on Gaza would soon end, saying; “My expectation and hope is this will be closing down sooner than later, but Israel has a right to defend itself.”
Biden did not explain the reasons behind his optimism but Netanyahu’s office said the US President was told that Israel would “continue acting to strike at the military capabilities of Hamas and the other terrorist groups active in the Gaza Strip”.
“We eliminated senior Hamas commanders and this is just the beginning,” Netanyahu said. “We will inflict blows on them that they couldn’t even dream of.” The Israeli military would use “increasing force”, he added.
Meanwhile, as the crisis continues to spiral, US Energy Corporation, Chevron said it had shut down the Tamar natural gas platform off the Israeli coast as a precaution, but Israeli authorities said their energy needs would continue to be met.
For now, at least two US airlines cancelled flights to Tel Aviv on Wednesday and Thursday while Israel, which briefly suspended operations at Ben Gurion airport on Monday after a rocket barrage on Tel Aviv, said its national airline, El Al is ready on standby to provide supplemental flights.
Thursday’s barrage on Tel Aviv prompted Israel to reroute an El Al flight from Brussels away from Ben Gurion, its intended destination, to Ramon airport in the south.
It appeared to be the first time Israel had used Ramon as an alternative to Ben Gurion due to conflict. A flight was previously diverted there due to bad weather, according to aviation tracker, Avi Scharf. – The Guardian with Reuters and Agence France-Presse