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by IMEMC News
May 12, 2021

After Israeli forces pounded the Gaza Strip with missiles for two straight days, killing at least 35 Palestinians including 12 children, and refusing to respond to Palestinian demands for a withdrawal and a ceasefire, Palestinian resistance fighters in the Gaza Strip launched a barrage of rockets across the border into Israel, killing five Israelis, including a teenage girl and her father.

One of those killed has been identified as Soumya Santosh, from Kerala, India, who worked as a housemaid for an Israeli household in Ashkelon for the past seven years.

In addition, a 50-year old Israeli woman was killed in Rishon Lezion, just south of Tel Aviv.

Rocket sirens sounded throughout the night in Israel’s southern towns and cities, and the Ben Gurion Airport in Tel Aviv was briefly shut down. 26 Israelis were reportedly injured – most with minor injuries.

The rockets were fired in the early morning hours on Wednesday, as Gaza’s hospitals were besieged with hundreds of wounded Palestinians, many of them children, who suffered traumatic and severe injuries from the numerous Israeli missile strikes into crowded Palestinian neighborhoods throughout Gaza on Monday and Tuesday.

In addition to bombing Palestinian neighborhoods for two straight days, the Israeli military called up 5,000 reservists and had them stationed at the border with Gaza to threaten the Gaza Strip with a possible ground invasion.

The Palestinian resistance responded to this violent aggression with rocket fire directed toward Tel Aviv. This marks the longest-range rockets that have been fired by the Palestinian resistance to date. Other rockets fired in the past have reached as far as the coastal Israeli city of Ashkelon (formerly the Palestinian town of Azkalan), but had not had the range or capacity to reach the Israeli capital Tel Aviv (built on the former Palestinian town of Yaffa) before.

Israelis in the cities of Sderot, Holon and Ashkelon rushed to shelters and many stayed there overnight to try to avoid the impact of Palestinian resistance rocket fire.

Israeli media reported that at 8:45 A.M. on Wednesday, Israeli forces intercepted a drone crossing from Gaza into Israel.

The teen girl and her father who were killed by a Palestinian resistance rocket, Nadine and Khalil Awaad, were themselves Palestinian – with Israeli citizenship. But their town, Dhamas near Lod, being a mainly Palestinian village, was never provided bomb shelters like the Jewish Israeli towns were provided by the government. In fact, their village, Dhamas, was not recognized by Israeli authorities, and so lacks basic services and is under threat of demolition by the Israeli government. One of their relatives, Ismail Arafat, lives there as well and has been part of leading the struggle for recognition of the village.

The Israeli news agency Ha’aretz quoted Ismail Arafat as saying, “We have nowhere to go. We don’t have a bomb shelter here for everyone. For the Thai [migrant] workers they built shelters, but we were not allowed because we are not humans. Nadine and Khalil were in the middle of breakfast before fasting [for the Muslim holy month of Ramadan]. It seems that he opened the door and that’s how he was hit.”
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Six Killed in Israel, Including Soldier, Father and Daughter, as Gaza Rocket Barrages Persist
Two women were killed in Ashkelon, one in Rishon Letzion and a father and daughter in an unrecognized village near Lod

by staff of Haaretz
May. 12, 2021 10:43 AM
Updated: May. 12, 2021 5:06 PM

Six Israelis were killed and dozens injured as cross-border fire between Israel and militant groups in the Gaza Strip spiked on Tuesday, including a barrage of rockets on the Tel Aviv area. This followed an Israeli strike that brought down a high-rise in Gaza City used by Hamas’ political leadership.

The Israeli army struck hundreds of targets in the coastal enclave, after Hamas openly joined the hostilities Monday following a weekend of clashes in Jerusalem. At least 48 Palestinians were killed in the Strip and 304 were wounded as of Wednesday.

The six Israelis include one soldier, 21-year-old Staff. Sgt. Omer Tabib of Elyakim, who succumbed to his wounds after his vehicle was hit by an anti-tank missile fired from the northern Gaza Strip. Two others were injured in the assault, one critically.

A 16-year-old girl and her father, 52, were killed in a rocket attack in the city of Lod in central Israel Tuesday overnight.

Nadine and Khalil Awaad, killed during rocket attacks on their unrecognized village of Dhamas near Lod, had no way of defending themselves from the rocket fire. Like the other homes in their village, they had no bomb shelter. Their relative, Ismail Arafat, lives there as well and has been part of leading the struggle for recognition of the village.

“We have nowhere to go. We don’t have a bomb shelter here for everyone. For the Thai [migrant] workers they built shelters, but we were not allowed because we are not humans. Nadine and Khalil were in the middle of breakfast before fasting. It seems that he opened the door and that’s how he was hit.”

An Israeli woman was killed in the Tel Aviv suburb of Rishon Letzion following a direct rocket hit to a residential building. Eight Israelis were reported injured after the heavy barrage to central Israel – four in the central city of Holon and four in the Tel Aviv suburb of Givatayim.

*Israel believed Hamas didn’t want escalation. And then it happened
*Gaza flare-up: Thirty-five killed in Gaza, five in Israel as violence escalates
*Netanyahu visits Jewish-Arab town in central *Israel after declaring state of emergency over riots

Two more women were killed in Ashkelon earlier in the day. A caregiver was killed and an elderly woman was seriously wounded after a rocket fired from Gaza directly hit a residential area in Ashkelon. Another woman was killed by a separate direct hit to a house in Ashkelon.

One of the rockets directly hit an empty school in Ashkelon. The building was empty after Israel cancelled classes in the area due to the rocket fire.

The Israeli military boosted its presence along the border. Authorities called on local residents to remain at home and near bomb shelters until further notice. Violent clashes between police and protesters spread through Arab cities inside Israel, with one man shot dead.

Ben Gurion International Airport halted all take-offs.

As of Tuesday night, Palestinian media have reported at least 30 deaths in Israeli strikes, while Gaza’s Hamas and Islamic Jihad continued to rain rockets on Israeli communities along the border.

After ongoing rocket fire since Monday evening, a 13-story residential tower in the Gaza Strip was hit by an Israeli air strike on Tuesday night and soon after collapsed to the ground, witnesses said, amid a surge of fighting between Israel and Gaza militants. The building had been used by Hamas’ political leadership, the IDF said.

Residents of the tower and people living nearby had been warned to evacuate the area around an hour before the air strike, witnesses said.

In response, Hamas fired more than 130 rockets towards Tel Aviv on Tuesday night.

At Tuesday’s situation assessment, Chief of Staff Aviv Kochavi said all IDF units must prepare for a wider campaign of indefinite duration. He ordered that attacks continue on Hamas and Islamic Jihad facilities for weapons manufacturing and storage – and for the onslaught to be expanded to additional targets.

Kochavi said attacks must also continue on “every Hamas or Islamic Jihad terrorist” wherever they are. He ordered the Gaza Division to be reinforced, including infantry and armored brigades, alongside higher preparedness for air defense, intelligence and air force units.

The effort would continue so that residents of the south can live in safety, Kochavi said, adding that after the one-day Shavuot holiday that ends Monday evening, the IDF will consider whether to resume the Chariots of Fire training exercise that was suspended.

Hamas said Tuesday that “resistance to the occupation will continue regardless of the extent of the sacrifice, and until Israel changes its policies.”

Hamas said it would respond with force to every attack. “Israel planned to attack the homes of innocent civilians, and the number of casualties attests to the scope of their crimes,” it said.

The White House on Tuesday condemned ongoing rocket attacks by Hamas and other groups against targets in Israel and said Israel has a legitimate right to defend itself.

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