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<font size="1"><a href="https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/maureen-clare-murphy/more-100-killed-israel-intensifies-gaza-onslaught">https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/maureen-clare-murphy/more-100-killed-israel-intensifies-gaza-onslaught</a></font>
<h1 class="gmail-reader-title">More than 100 killed as Israel intensifies Gaza onslaught</h1>
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<p class="gmail-node__submitted">
<span class="gmail-field gmail-field-author"><a href="https://electronicintifada.net/people/maureen-clare-murphy">Maureen Clare Murphy</a></span> <span class="gmail-field gmail-field-blog">-</span>
<span class="gmail-field gmail-field-publication-date"><span class="gmail-date-display-single">14 May 2021</span></span> </p>
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<span><img src="https://electronicintifada.net/sites/default/files/styles/original_800w/public/2021-05/130521_ad_1_00_15.jpeg?itok=3CuRzZaf×tamp=1620954148" alt="" title="" style="margin-right: 25px;" width="433" height="288"></span><p>Palestinians
recover the body of a Palestinian buried in the rubble of a home
destroyed in an Israeli strike in Beit Lahiya, northern Gaza Strip, on
13 May.</p><small>
<span>APA images</span></small><p>Israel pounded the Gaza Strip for the fourth consecutive day on Thursday, with the health ministry in the territory reporting <a href="https://twitter.com/press221/status/1392953387046539273">more than 100 killed</a> in the most severe military offensive there since 2014.</p>
<p>Palestinian armed groups in Gaza continued to retaliate by firing
projectiles towards Israel. Seven people, including a soldier and two
children, have been killed in rocket strikes in Israel since Monday.</p>
<p>Palestinians in the territory reported unprecedented Israeli fire at
the close of Thursday – which marked the Eid al-Fitr holiday at the end
of Ramadan – particularly in the northern Beit Hanoun area and eastern
Gaza. Families displaced from their homes <a href="https://twitter.com/alqudsnewspaper/status/1392961566153351168">sought shelter</a> at United Nations schools.
</p>
Gaza, which has been under a comprehensive land, air and sea blockade
imposed by Israel since 2007, has no bomb shelters and civilians are
unable to freely leave the territory for safety.
<p>The Israeli military <a href="https://twitter.com/IDF/status/1392953390443991040">said</a>
it was attacking Gaza with both ground forces and airstrikes after it
had amassed tanks along the perimeter of the besieged territory and <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/5/13/israel-bombs-high-rise-buildings-as-gaza-marks-deadly-eid-live">called up</a> thousands of army reservists, setting the stage for a potential ground invasion.</p>
<p>The spokesperson for the Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of Hamas, <a href="https://twitter.com/SafaPs/status/1392957103908720642">said</a>
late Thursday that Israel was “launching raids for show” and that “they
will not affect the capabilities of the resistance one iota, God
willing.”</p>
<p>Palestinian rocket fire caused international airlines to <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2021/05/13/business/airlines-canceled-flights-israel/index.html">cancel flights</a> to Israel just as the country was celebrating its reopening after its COVID-19 vaccine rollout.</p>
<p>Israel’s military reportedly <a href="https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/gaza-israel-diverts-flights-rocket-barrage-palestinians-death-67-1.9796891">admitted</a> in closed-door meetings that it had underestimated the rate with which Hamas was able to fire rockets and their range capacity.</p>
<h2>Netanyahu threatens military against Palestinians in Israel</h2>
<p>Meanwhile, mobs of ultranationalist Israelis backed by police
attacked Palestinians in Jerusalem and in cities in Israel where
Palestinian citizens of the state live in close proximity to Jews.</p>
<p>A state of emergency had been declared in Lydd, a Palestinian city in
Israel that has been engulfed in violence since Monday when a
Palestinian man was shot and killed by a Jewish vigilante during riots.</p>
<p>Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel’s prime minister, was <a href="https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/.premium-gantz-orders-massive-police-reinforcement-to-quell-unrest-amid-jewish-arab-clashes-1.9804113">reportedly considering</a> deployment of the military and permitting the use of <a href="https://electronicintifada.net/tags/administrative-detention">administrative detention</a> without charge or trial in cities where a state of emergency has been declared.</p>
<p>Such a directive would with all certainty be applied with
disproportionate force and in a highly discriminatory manner by the
state, which has “Jewish supremacy” as its “single organizing
principle,” <a href="https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/maureen-clare-murphy/top-israeli-rights-group-breaks-apartheid-taboo">in the words</a> of the Israeli human rights group B’Tselem.</p>
<p>Netanyahu told forces deployed into Palestinian communities in Israel
to use as much force as possible and to not worry about being held
accountable for their actions:
</p>
Israel’s defense minister Benny Gantz ordered a <a href="https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/.premium-gantz-orders-massive-police-reinforcement-to-quell-unrest-amid-jewish-arab-clashes-1.9804113">massive deployment</a> of paramilitary <a href="https://electronicintifada.net/tags/israeli-border-police">Border Police</a>
forces, who typically operate in the occupied West Bank and, like army
soldiers, use disproportionate and frequently lethal force against
Palestinians.
<p>In a pre-recorded video address on Tuesday, Gantz <a href="https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/tamara-nassar/israel-vows-gaza-will-burn">promised</a> even worse violence than that endured in Gaza in 2014, when he was chief of the Israeli military.</p>
<p>“If citizens of Israel have to sleep in shelters, then Gaza will burn,” he said.</p>
<p>Fatou Bensouda, the chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/icc-prosecutor-warns-against-crimes-escalating-israel-palestinian-violence-2021-05-13/">confirmed</a>
this week that the justice tribunal was moving forward with its
Palestine investigation despite the lack of participation by Israel.</p>
<p>Israel’s assault on Gaza in summer 2014, including the conduct of armed Palestinian groups, is a <a href="https://electronicintifada.net/content/will-icc-pierce-israels-bubble-impunity/29206">primary focus</a> of the ICC’s investigation.</p>
<p>Bensouda said that individuals involved in the current escalation may be investigated.</p>
<h2>“Green light to commit crimes”</h2>
<p>Al Mezan, a Palestinian human rights group in Gaza, <a href="http://mezan.org/post/31664">decried</a>
the silence of the “international community” which Israel interprets
“as a green light to commit crimes against civilians and their
property.”</p>
<p>Al Mezan said that 14 resistance fighters targeted by Israeli
warplanes on Wednesday morning died as a result of suffocation, with
apparent symptoms indicating the possible use of toxic gasses.</p>
<p>Twenty-eight children and 15 women were amongst the dead in Gaza, the
health ministry said late Thursday. More than 600 have been injured.</p>
<span><img src="https://electronicintifada.net/sites/default/files/styles/original_800w/public/2021-05/130521_ash_4_84.jpeg?itok=bau2j0i7×tamp=1620954148" alt="" title="" style="margin-right: 25px;" width="433" height="288"></span><p>Palestinians mourn 13 Hamas fighters killed in Israeli airstrikes during their funeral in Gaza City’s al-Omari mosque on 13 May.</p><small>
<span>Ashraf Amra</span>
<span>APA images</span></small><p>Like in 2014, Israel’s military has targeted several multi-story residential and office buildings, <a href="https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/nora-barrows-friedman/israel-destroys-gaza-media-offices">wiping out a tower</a> that housed multiple local and international media outlets.</p>
<p>Israeli bombing has destroyed or severely damaged more than 18
buildings and 350 housing units in Gaza since Monday, displacing some
500 families.</p>
<p>“Seven factories, eight schools and a health center have also been
damaged by Israeli airstrikes and shortfalls of Hamas-launched rockets,”
the United Nations monitoring group OCHA <a href="https://www.ochaopt.org/content/escalation-west-bank-gaza-strip-and-israel-flash-update-3-1200-13-may-2021">reported</a> on Thursday.</p>
<p>“In addition, scores of military sites, police and security
facilities, as well as open areas, have been hit, with the police
headquarters in Gaza City destroyed,” OCHA added.</p>
<p>UNRWA, the UN agency for Palestine refugees, said at least four of its buildings in Gaza had been hit.</p>
<p>“It is unclear whether the UNRWA buildings were hit directly or
whether the strikes were so close that the buildings were impacted. All
staff are reported to be safe and well,” the agency <a href="https://www.unrwa.org/newsroom/official-statements/unrwa-installations-gaza-hit-during-hostilities">stated</a>.</p>
<p>The already dire humanitarian situation in Gaza has been exacerbated
as Israel has prevented the entry of fuel, food and supplies of
medicine. Gaza’s sole power plant will stop operating at the end of the
week when fuel supplies are exhausted.</p>
<p>“The North Gaza Seawater Desalination Plant has stopped operating due
to the risk to workers and a damaged electrical supply line, affecting
the access of about 250,000 people to drinking water,” according to
OCHA. Meanwhile, some 160,000 people in Gaza City have limited access to
running water due to power cuts.</p>
<p>“The current insecurity significantly restricts the delivery of
essential services, including the ongoing COVID-19 response, with the
number of tests conducted drastically reduced and people unable to
access treatment and vaccination facilities safely,” OCHA added.</p>
<p>The full-scale military escalation came after Israeli police <a href="https://electronicintifada.net/content/israel-attacks-gaza-after-jerusalem-defeat/32936">stormed Jerusalem’s al-Aqsa mosque</a>
while it was filled with Ramadan worshippers on Monday, injuring
hundreds. This followed weeks of tension in the city and protests over
the imminent forced evictions of Palestinian families in the <a href="https://electronicintifada.net/tags/sheikh-jarrah">Sheikh Jarrah</a> neighborhood to make way for Jewish settlers.</p>
<p>A Gaza ceasefire did not appear on the immediate horizon early Friday.</p>
<p>US President Joe Biden gave his implicit blessing of Israel’s
targeting of residential towers and other civilian infrastructure, <a href="https://www.haaretz.com/us-news/.premium-biden-i-don-t-believe-israel-has-significantly-overreacted-to-gaza-rocket-fire-1.9807210">telling reporters</a> that he had not seen a “significant overreaction” from Israel.</p>
<p>The Biden administration has stated that it supports Israel’s “right
to self-defense” but it does not consider rockets fired from Gaza to
constitute self-defense.</p>
<p>The UN Security Council is due to hold a virtual public meeting over the deteriorating situation <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/us-objects-un-meeting-israel-gaza-friday-diplomats-2021-05-13/">on Sunday</a>.</p>
<p>The US, which provides $3.8 billion in military aid to Israel each
year, has prevented the Security Council from issuing a statement on the
worsening violence.</p> <h3>
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