All breaking loose in Israel as IDF obliterates apartment buildings in Gaza, Hamas fires 130 rockets on Tel Aviv, Jews and Arabs attack each other

Tyler Durden
ZeroHedge
Tue, 11 May 2021 16:51 UTC

© AFP 2021 / Anas Baba

Rockets are launched from Gaza city, controlled by the Palestinian Hamas movement, in response to an Israeli air strike on a 12-storey building in the city, towards the coastal city of Tel Aviv, on May 11, 2021

Update(3:03pm): In the last hours there's been massive escalation as Hamas and Islamic Jihad has unleashed wave and wave of rockets on central Israel, and targeting Tel Aviv.

Hamas has announced that it launched 130 rockets on Tel Aviv and central Israel through its TV channels moments ago. While it's unclear if this is exaggerated, rockets appear to be landing across Israel, many slipping through the Iron Dome anti-air defenses.

This after Israeli airstrikes took out an entire 13-story residential building, which collapsed in on itself after multiple explosions and direct hits.

Israeli media is reporting the following..

According to Channel 12 and an UNRWA official, prior to the strike people in the building received several warnings, including phone calls and messages, telling them to leave and a preliminary "roof-knocking" strike — using a small missile to strike the roof with minimal damage in order to cause all inside to leave before a major strike.

Hamas earlier threatened to launch long-range rockets at Tel Aviv should Israel continue airstrikes in residential areas. Channel 12 says the group was apparently referring to the high-rise in question.

Sirens are blaring all across Israel, with people fleeing into bomb shelters. Israel is now acknowledging that some of the rockets launched from Gaza have scored direct hits on Israeli urban areas...

Israeli PM Netanyahu earlier vowed to "step up" attacks on Hamas, while United Nations is urging "restraint" in a Tuesday statement.

There are emerging reports that Israel's main international airport has suspended all inbound and outbound air traffic.

"Ben Gurion Airport has temporarily stopped air traffic due to the ongoing rocket barrages on central Israel. Air traffic is being rerouted to Cyprus, Channel 12 says," writes The Times of Israel.

Meanwhile in US politics...

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During overnight Israeli airstrikes on Gaza, at least 24 Palestinians including nine children have been killed, Gaza health officials say, while Israel's military says 15 among the dead are militants. Israel's air force unleashed strikes on some 130 sites throughout Gaza Strip in an operation that hasn't let up into Tuesday.

And the Jerusalem Post records that over 300 rockets were fired from Gaza toward Israel since sundown on Monday, injuring at least 31 Israeli civilians, and including some direct hits on residential areas which included an apartment building. Israel has opened up bomb shelters across the south and major cities. Later into the day Tuesday (local time), AFP is reporting that Gaza rocket fire has killed two women in south Israel.

© Getty Images

New round of Israeli air strikes on Gaza, May 11, 2021

The rocket fire out of the Gaza Strip began after Hamas leaders issued a demand for Israeli police to vacate the Al-Aqsa Mosque complex, and after a night of rioting and fierce clashes at security checkpoints, which included thousands of far-right Israel settler youth swarming the walled old city in a controversial Jerusalem Day parade. Monday's events in Jerusalem left some 300 Palestinians wounded, and many arrested.

The Israeli airstrikes have now entered their second day, and look to continue.

© Times of Israel/Flash90

Israeli apartment building hit by a rocket fired from the Gaza Strip in Ashkelon on May 11, 2021.

"On Tuesday, at about noon, Palestinians said that IDF struck an apartment in an 8-story building in the Rimal neighborhood in Gaza, killing two senior Palestinian Islamic Jihad commanders and fatally wounding the brother of Baha abu Al-Ata who was killed in a targeted IDF operation 2019," The Jerusalem Post notes.

Things only look to escalate from here, given Tel Aviv has announced the widening of the military campaign.

Defense Minister Benny Gantz has approved the mobilization of 5,000 reserve soldiers to reinforce the Gaza border - and in the past such a deployment has come prior to a ground campaign - however which Israeli leaders often try to avoid given the extreme risk their troops and high death toll.

Additional IDF battalions have also been sent to the West Bank on fears of a wider Palestinian uprising akin to the prior historic intifadas.

Meanwhile, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu - who happens to be battling for his political future after last month he failed to cobble together a governing coalition - stated that fighting will "continue for some time".

Local media videos are showing that many rockets from Gaza are making it past Israel's Iron Dome anti-air defenses...

And an Israeli spokesman also affirmed that Israeli strikes are merely "in the early stages".

Meanwhile in US politics...

Comment: Sputnik reports on the latest escalations:

Israel's 'Iron Dome' seems to be mostly, but not completely, effective:

Multiple videos shared on social media appear to depict the Israeli air defence system in action. The Iron Dome system can ostensibly be seen intercepting multiple rockets over the city, as air raid sirens sound off in the background.

So far, hundreds of explosions have been recorded across southern and central Israel, per media reports. Sirens could be heard in settlements near Gaza, Beersheba and Tel Aviv and its environs.

There have been Israeli casualties, though as usual, nowhere near the rate of Palestinians:

A woman has been killed in the city of Holon, south of Tel Aviv, as a volley of rockets was fired towards the city, the Israeli police said on Tuesday. A local ambulance service previously told Sputnik that three people, including a child, had been injured near Tel Aviv.

Meanwhile, Channel 20 reported that one person in Rishon LeZion died as a result of the rocket attacks.

Hamas declares a victory as it claims to have 'changed the balance of power' between Israel and Palestine:

© AFP 2021 / Ahmad Gharabli

Israeli firefighters check out a burnt bus in the Israeli town of Holon near Tel Aviv, on May 11, 2021, after rockets are launched towards Israel from the Gaza Strip controlled by the Palestinian Hamas movement

Ismail Haniyeh, chief of the Islamiс group Hamas, has claimed the Palestinians have managed to accomplish a "new" balance of power in their fight against Israel after the militant group intensified its rocket attacks on central areas of the Jewish state on Tuesday evening.

"We have achieved victory in the battle for Jerusalem, the defence of Jerusalem", Haniyeh said, referring to the city as "the axis of conflict".

"What is taking place right now is an honour for our people, our nation. There is a new balance of power right now", the Hamas leader argued as he pledged that his group "would not abandon Jerusalem" and would not give up "resistance".

Palestinians across the Occupied Territories have taken to the streets, encouraged by Hamas' retaliatory strikes. Netanyahu is struggling to control the situation.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has declared a state of emergency in Lod, a mixed Arab-Jewish city that has recently seen widespread and violent rioting.

The prime minister's office announced the decision after a special meeting of the nation's top security and legal officials. Amir Ohana, the police minister, has confirmed that he will use his authority to carry out the orders.

According to the statement, Netanyahu called on law enforcement officials to ensure the restoration of public order and strengthen ground forces as soon as possible.

Alongside Netanyahu at the meeting were Ohana, Israeli Defence Minister Benny Gantz, Police Commissioner Kobi Shabtai, National Security Adviser Meir Ben-Shabbat, and Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit.

Earlier, Netanyahu and Gantz ordered Border Police battalions from the Judea and Samaria region to be "immediately" transferred to the area.

Local media and eyewitnesses reported that the country's police conducted an emergency evacuation of the city's Jewish residents amid violent unrest and clashes between Arabs and Israelis. According to videos shared on social media, shootings have since erupted in the city.

Hamas reports the death of one of its senior officers says The Times of Israel:

Hamas's armed wing confirmed the death of a senior commander and a number of fighters in an Israeli targeted strike.

"With pride, fortitude and defiance, the Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades take pride in... the martyrdom of the commander Bassem Issa," the armed Hamas branch says in a statement.

According to the terror group, Issa was Hamas's Gaza City commander in the al-Qassam Brigades.