Israel began to mobilize troops Thursday to the area around the Gaza Strip and pounded the territory with airstrikes in response to increased rocket fire, as tensions between Israelis and Palestinians flared to their worst level in years following the suspected revenge killing of an Arab teenager in East Jerusalem.
The deployments came after Israel estimated that about 30 rockets were fired into its territory from Gaza, which is controlled by the Palestinian militant group Hamas, said Lt. Col. Peter Lerner, an Israeli army spokesman. Another pic after cut...
“Our activities on the ground are a direct response to Hamas activities of the last 24 hours,” said Lerner. He said there was evidence that some of the rockets were fired by Hamas, which signed a cease-fire agreement with Israel after an eight-day war in November 2012.
Lerner said that Israel, which pounded at least 15 targets in Gaza overnight after renewed rocket fire from the strip, hoped to see a de-escalation in violence.
However, “we need to be prepared” for an escalation, he said. “We are taking up defense positions in communities surrounding Gaza.”
Lerner would not give details on the number or types of forces that have been deployed to the southern border with the seaside enclave. He said a limited number of reserve soldiers have been called up to deal with a crisis that many fear could expand.
In addition, Lerner said, the military is bracing for a possible flare-up in violence in the West Bank and in Jerusalem on Friday, the first Muslim prayer day in the holy month of Ramadan. Israeli and Palestinian Authority security forces are coordinating to “limit points of friction,” he said.
Earlier, the Israeli military reported that warplanes struck a series of targets in Gaza, including concealed rocket launchers and weapons storage facilities. Several people were reported injured in the airstrikes on the crowded territory.
An Israeli residential building was damaged Wednesday evening in the barrage of increased rocket fire from Gaza, officials said.
The violence flared after a Palestinian teenager was kidnapped and killed Wednesday. Israeli police said they have not officially determined whether the murder was an act of revenge by extremist Israelis or a criminal act, but residents of the teen’s Shuafat neighborhood in East Jerusalem, where he was abducted, insisted that Israeli settlers were behind the grisly killing. Police found the teenager’s charred body Wednesday in a forested park on the outskirts of the city.
The death of 16-year-old Mohammad Abu Khieder sparked the worst clashes in years between Palestinians and Israeli security forces in East Jerusalem, the tense Arab part of the city where Palestinians hope to establish the capital of a future Palestinian state. Young Palestinians mostly hurled stones and set fire to structures there. Israeli forces responded with tear gas and rubber bullets throughout the day Wednesday.
Abu Khieder’s body was due to be buried Thursday.
He was killed two days after the discovery of the bodies of three Israeli teenagers who were abducted June 12 near a settlement on the West Bank. The bodies were found in a shallow grave covered by rocks near the tense West Bank city of Hebron.
Israel’s security cabinet met for the third time in as many days Wednesday to discuss Israel’s response to the murders. No details from the meeting were published. The response is expected to go beyond the airstrikes on Gaza, raids that Israeli officials have linked to the rocket fire.
The killing of the three Israeli teenagers — Naftali Fraenkel, 16, Gilad Shaar, 16, and Eyal Yifrach, 19 — sparked national outrage and collective mourning in Israel. They disappeared while hitchhiking home from their religious schools in the West Bank.
Israel blames Hamas for the killings, and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed that “Hamas will pay.” The Sunni Islamist group, which Israel, the United States and the European Union have labeled a terrorist organization, has denied involvement in the deaths of the Israeli teens. Palestinian leaders on the West Bank have accused Israel of making all Palestinians pay for the killings.
The abduction of the teenagers sparked an Israeli security sweep across the West Bank of a scope not seen in years. Israeli troops carried out numerous raids and arrested more than 400 people. Seven Palestinians were killed and almost 200 wounded between June 13 and July 1 on the West Bank, according to the United Nations’ aid agency in East Jerusalem.
With tempers running at fever pitch, incitement and racism have been rampant on Israeli social media. In response, the Israeli police said they were launching an investigation into Israeli calls for revenge against Arabs, Israel Radio reported.
On Tuesday evening and throughout the day Wednesday, right-wing Israelis held impromptu demonstrations in Jerusalem, chanting slogans such as “Death to Arabs” and demanding that the government exact collective punishment on Palestinians for the murders of the three Israeli teens.
Hundreds of Jerusalem residents — both Arabs and Israelis — held counterdemonstrations Wednesday, rallying against racism and calls for revenge. High-level officials spoke at the rally, including Israel’s chief rabbi, David Lau. He said revenge was morally wrong and warned that such acts could endanger the entire region.
The murders of the four teenagers drew widespread condemnation Wednesday.
“Killing children and deliberate violence against them are unpardonable crimes for which perpetrators must be held accountable,” the United Nations’ children’s agency, UNICEF, said in a statement. It referred to the killings of the Arab teenager and the three Israelis.
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