It is the first major flare-up since 11 days of fighting between the two sides ended in a ceasefire on 21 May….reports Asian Lite News
Israel has launched air strikes against Hamas targets in the Gaza Strip, after incendiary balloons were launched from the territory.
Explosions were heard in Gaza City in the early hours of Wednesday.
Several balloons were sent from Gaza into Israel earlier on Tuesday, which caused multiple fires, according to the Israeli fire service, the BBC reported.
It is the first major flare-up since 11 days of fighting between the two sides ended in a ceasefire on 21 May.
It followed a march by Jewish nationalists in occupied East Jerusalem on Tuesday, which had drawn threats from Hamas, the militant group that runs Gaza.
In a statement, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said its fighter jets had hit military compounds operated by Hamas in Khan Yunis and Gaza City.
Rockets fired by the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas from Gaza City towards Israel. (Photo Mohammed Talatene_dpa_IANS)
It said “terrorist activity” took place in the compound, and that the IDF was “prepared for all scenarios, including the resumption of hostilities, in the face of continued terror acts from the Gaza Strip”.
It is not immediately clear if the air strikes have caused any injuries.
A Hamas spokesperson said in a statement on Twitter that Palestinians would continue their “valiant resistance” and defend their rights “until the occupier is expelled from our entire land”.
Israel’s fire service said the incendiary balloons launched earlier from Gaza had caused at least 20 fires in fields by communities in southern Israel.
This is the first violent exchange since Israeli’s new coalition government came to power last weekend, headed by Naftali Bennett and drawing an end to Benjamin Netanyahu’s 12-year run as prime minister.
A low-intensity bomb blast had occurred on January 29 near the Israel Embassy on Dr APJ Abdul Kalam Road, less than 2 km from the Vijay Chowk, where the Beating Retreat ceremony was on, sending the security establishments into a tizzy
The National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Tuesday announced a reward of Rs 10 lakh each for any information on the two suspects involved in the bomb blast outside the Embassy of Israel in the national capital on January 29.
The agency has also issued the email IDs and phone numbers of the two suspects for the general public to share any information on them, along with the photographs and videos of the duo captured from outside the Embassy.
A low-intensity bomb blast had occurred on January 29 near the Israel Embassy on Dr APJ Abdul Kalam Road, less than 2 km from the Vijay Chowk, where the Beating Retreat ceremony was on, sending the security establishments into a tizzy.
The Beating Retreat ceremony was attended by President Ram Nath Kovind, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and other dignitaries.
The anti-terror probe agency had taken over the case on February 2 this year.
The blast had shattered the windscreens of three parked cars, and had coincided with the 29th anniversary of diplomatic relations between India and Israel.
The Israeli-Palestinian conflict in East Jerusalem has been mounting since April, which led to more tension between the two sides in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip….reports Asian Lite News
Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammed Ishtaye has called on the new Israeli government to end the occupation and recognise the Palestinian people’s legitimate rights.
“What is needed from the new Israeli government is to start acting on ending the occupation and settlement in Palestine,” Ishtaye said at a meeting of the Palestinian cabinet held in the West Bank city of Ramallah on Monday.
He added that the new Israeli government headed by Prime Minister Naftali Bennett “will have no future if it doesn’t recognise the Palestinians’ future”.
Meanwhile, Ishtaye warned the “serious consequences that would be resulted from the Israeli occupation’s authorities to allow the right-wing extremists to participate in the flag march in Jerusalem on Tuesday”.
Thick smoke rises above buildings in Gaza City, following several Israeli airstrikes. (Photo Mohammed Talatene_dpa_IANS)
“Organising the flag march in East Jerusalem is a provocation to the Palestinian people and aggression on the city and our holy places,” he said, adding that “the international community has to intervene to stop it”.
The Israeli-Palestinian conflict in East Jerusalem has been mounting since April, which led to more tension between the two sides in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.
On May 10, tit-for-tat violent fighting broke out in the besieged coastal enclave between the two sides.
It ended on May 21 after Egypt brokered a ceasefire.
Official figures said that during the 11 days of fighting, more than 250 Palestinians and 13 Israelis were killed, and hundreds were injured.
Netanyahu vows to topple govt
Former Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed to topple the new eight-party diverse coalition government which brought an end to his stint as the longest-serving premier of the country.
Netanyahu made the remark during a meeting on Monday, which he convened for the first time as the new leader of the opposition following his ouster a day earlier.
Yair Lapid, leader of Israeli centrist party of Yesh Atid, speaks during a press conference in Tel Aviv, Israel, on May 6, 2021. (Xinhua/Gil Cohen Mage/IANS)
The “deceit government will soon be toppled”, Netanyahu said, referring to a government by his opponents, nationalist Naftali Bennett and centrist Yair Lapid, which was sworn in on Sunday.
He urged lawmakers with his allied parties to show cohesion and “iron discipline” to paralyse the coalition in the parliament, saying ending the rule of the new government will “bring redemption to the people and the State of Israel”.
Lawmakers with the Likud, Netanyahu’s right-wing party, heckled Bennett when he addressed Parliament on Sunday to present his new government.
They shouted insults and interrupted almost every sentence he said.
Naftali Bennett, the head of a small ultranationalist party, was sworn in as prime minister after a narrow 60-59 vote in parliament, reports Asian Lite News
The UAE on Monday congratulated Israel’s new prime minister Naftali Bennett. In the official tweet, the UAE also congratulated the alternate prime minister and foreign minister Yair Lapid on the formation of a new Israeli government.
“We look forward to working together to advance regional peace, strengthen tolerance and coexistence and embark upon a new era of cooperation in technology, trade, and investment,” a tweet from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation read.
Israel’s parliament on Sunday approved a new coalition government that sent Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu into the opposition after a record 12 years in office and a political crisis that sparked four elections in two years.
Naftali Bennett, the head of a small ultranationalist party, was sworn in as prime minister after a narrow 60-59 vote in parliament. But if he wants to keep the job, he will have to maintain an unwieldy coalition of parties from the political right, left and center.
The eight parties, including a small Arab faction that is making history by sitting in the ruling coalition, are united in their opposition to Netanyahu and new elections but agree on little else. They are likely to pursue a modest agenda that seeks to reduce tensions with the Palestinians and maintain good relations with the US without launching any major initiatives.
LEAD – Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (R) and former Defence Minister Naftali Bennett. (Xinhua_JINI_IANS)
Netanyahu sat silently during the vote. After it was approved, he stood up to leave the chamber, before turning around and shaking Bennett’s hand. A dejected Netanyahu, wearing a black medical mask, briefly sat in the opposition leader’s chair before walking out.
Netanyahu, who is on trial for corruption, remains the head of the largest party in parliament and is expected to vigorously oppose the new government. If just one faction bolts, it could lose its majority and would be at risk of collapse, giving him an opening to return to power.
The country’s deep divisions were on vivid display as Bennett addressed parliament ahead of the vote. He was repeatedly interrupted and loudly heckled by supporters of Netanyahu, several of whom were escorted out of the chamber.
Bennett’s speech mostly dwelled on domestic issues, but he expressed opposition to US efforts to revive Iran’s nuclear deal with world powers.
Yair Lapid, leader of Israeli centrist party of Yesh Atid, speaks during a press conference in Tel Aviv, Israel, on May 6, 2021. (Xinhua/Gil Cohen Mage/IANS)
“Israel will not allow Iran to arm itself with nuclear weapons,” Bennett said, vowing to maintain Netanyahu’s confrontational policy. “Israel will not be a party to the agreement and will continue to preserve full freedom of action.”
Bennett nevertheless thanked President Joe Biden and the US for its decades of support for Israel.
Netanyahu, speaking after him, vowed to return to power. He predicted the incoming government would be weak on Iran and give in to US demands to make concessions to the Palestinians.
“If it is destined for us to be in the opposition, we will do it with our backs straight until we topple this dangerous government and return to lead the country in our way,” he said.
Yohanan Plesner, president of the Israel Democracy Institute, a nonpartisan think tank, said the new government will likely be more stable than it appears.
Israel’s Arab party leader vows to bridge gaps
Mansour Abbas, leader of the Ra’am party in Israel, has vowed on to advance the interests of the country’s Arab citizens from within the new coalition government.
Addressing the Knesset ahead of the swearing-in of the new government on Sunday, Abbas, leader of the Ra’am party, said his faction will work to achieve civil rights and “unprecedented achievements” for Israel’s Palestinian citizens.
He said the party will struggle to return lands that have been confiscated by Israel to their original owners, residents of Bedouin villages in the Negev Desert.
Unrecognised by the state of Israel, these villages do not appear on any official map and Israel does not provide them any services such as electricity or water.
“I hope that the civil partnership will bridge gaps in the national and religious levels so that we could benefit and not stand as enemies,” Abbas said.
Ra’am, which won four seats in the 120-seat Knesset, is the first Arab party to sit in a governing coalition in Israel.
Israeli Arabs comprise about 20 per cent of the population in Israel.
This came after the new coalition government, headed by Bennett and Yair Lapid, leader of the centrist Yesh Atid (Future) party, was approved by the parliament, or Knesset…reports Asian Lite News
Naftali Bennett, leader of the right-wing Yamina (United Right) party, was sworn in as new Israeli prime minister on Sunday night, sending Benjamin Netanyahu to the opposition after a record 12-year rule.
This came after the new coalition government, headed by Bennett and Yair Lapid, leader of the centrist Yesh Atid (Future) party, was approved by the parliament, or Knesset, in a vote of confidence, Xinhua news agency reported.
In the vote of confidence held in the parliament earlier, 60 lawmakers of the 120-member chamber voted in favour of the new government while 59 voted against it.
TV footages of the parliament session showed Bennett and Lapid taking their new seats at the coalition seats in the parliament, while Netanyahu, Israel’s longest-serving leader, moved to the back seats of the opposition.
At the same time, the 27 new ministers of the new governing coalition were also sworn in.
— Naftali Bennett בנט (@naftalibennett) June 13, 2021
Bennett and Lapid will rotate as the prime minister on a two-year base, with Bennett going first. Lapid will serve as Israel’s alternate prime minister and foreign minister.
Israel’s parliament on Sunday night also elected Mickey Levy, a lawmaker with Yesh Atid, as its new speaker.
The new coalition includes eight parties, including the Islamist Ra’am party, the first Arab faction to be included in a governing coalition in Israel.
Thousands of Israelis gathered on Rabin Square in central Tel Aviv on Sunday night to celebrate the end of Netanyahu’s rule.
The forming of the new coalition government has ended a political crisis in Israeli, that has seen four elections in two years.
An Israeli soldier aims his weapon at Palestinian protesters during clashes following a protest against the expansion of Jewish settlements in the West Bank village of Beit Dajan, east of Nablus, May 28, 2021. (Photo by Nidal Eshtayeh/Xinhua/IANS)
A civilian guard fired several bullets at the woman after she kept getting closer without heeding the guard’s warning calls on her to stop….reports Asian Lite News
A 28-year-old Palestinian woman was shot dead by an Israeli security guard at the Qalandiya checkpoint in the West Bank, the Israeli police said.
On Saturday, the woman, a resident of the Palestinian refugee camp Aqabat Jaber near the city of Jericho, approached the cars crossing at the checkpoint manned by Israeli border police and civilian security guards, and ran toward them holding a knife in her hand, Xinhua news agency quote the police as saying.
A civilian guard fired several bullets at the woman after she kept getting closer without heeding the guard’s warning calls on her to stop.
Medical staff who arrived later pronounced the woman’s death.
The Palestinian woman was reportedly associated with the Islamic Hamas movement and had been jailed in 2016-2018 for a stabbing attempt.
According to the prosecutor Yehudit Tirosh as cited by the media, the documents could not be passed to the defence due to third party privacy concerns….reports Asian Lite News
The prosecution counsel in the corruption trial against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has been criticised by the Jerusalem District Court for not passing case files to the defence counsel, the Jerusalem Post reported on Tuesday.
According to the prosecutor Yehudit Tirosh as cited by the media, the documents could not be passed to the defence due to third party privacy concerns. However, Judge Rivkah Friedman-Feldman found the justification insufficient and said the prosecution had lost the defence’s confidence in its vetting process.
Meanwhile, the defence counsel needs the requested documents to prove that Walla communications CEO Ilan Yeshua intervened with news coverage to support other politicians and power-brokers, and not just to clear Netanyahu of corruption allegations.
Netanyahu has been under investigation on suspicion of using government powers to manipulate media coverage and taking expensive gifts from billionaire friends.
In the court proceedings, several disputes have ensued between the prosecution and defence counsel over the transfer of necessary documents. Last year, the state prosecution turned over six new documents to Netanyahu’s defence team, claiming that it previously didn’t know the documents existed. (ANI/Sputnik)
The monitoring group said that an ammunition depot thought to belong to the Lebanese Shiite movement Hezbollah was also hit in the same area….reports Asian Lite News
At least eight members of the Syrian government forces and their allied militiamen are dead after Israeli airstrikes on central and southern Syria, a monitoring group said on Wednesday.
The Britain-Based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the killed included members of the “National Defence” forces, DPA reported.
It added that the Israeli strikes, which took place shortly before midnight (2100 GMT), hit posts east of the village of Khirbet al-Tin in the countryside of Homs.
The monitoring group said that an ammunition depot thought to belong to the Lebanese Shiite movement Hezbollah was also hit in the same area.
It further said that explosions occurred near the Dabaa Military Airport.
The official Syrian news agency Sana had first reported that Israeli fighter jets hit targets in Syria late on Tuesday night.
The agency cited military sources as saying that the rocket attacks hit central and southern areas of the country, without providing specifics.
Israeli soldiers operate an artillery battery
According to a Lebanese security source, the Israeli planes used Lebanese airspace to also hit targets south of Damascus.
The Observatory confirmed that loud explosions were heard on the outskirts of Damascus International airport as well as as near the air force battalion in the Dmeir region.
It added that explosions were heard in the provinces of Hama and Latakia.
So far, there has been no official comment from Israel.
Israeli strikes in Syria have been seen as an attempt to prevent Iran, one of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s main allies, from building up its military influence in the region.
Arab League Secretary General Ahmed Aboul-Aboul-Gheit.
Conflict over the possible evictions of Palestinian families in the Arab neighbourhood of Sheikh Jarrah in East Jerusalem have exacerbated tensions recently….reports Asian Lite News
Ahmed Aboul-Gheit, Secretary-General of the Cairo-based Arab League (AL), has warned against any Israeli attempt that seeks to inflame the situation in Jerusalem for domestic and political reasons.
In a statement on Monday, Aboul-Gheit also warned against “the ongoing mobilisation in lines of the extreme right-wing and the settlers that clearly attempt to provoke confrontations with the Palestinians via organising protests that will inevitably lead to growing tensions”, reports Xinhua news agency.
“The current situation requires showing responsibility and practicing self-control for fixing the truce instead of provoking acts of violence and oppressive measures,” he added.
Conflict over the possible evictions of Palestinian families in the Arab neighbourhood of Sheikh Jarrah in East Jerusalem have exacerbated tensions recently.
It has been the focus of attention for decades because of property disputes.
Both Israeli settlers and Palestinians claim ownership.
Protests continue in Sheikh Jarrah even after a May 21 ceasefire was reached between Israel and the Hamas movement in the Gaza Strip.
A court decision on the forced evictions had been postponed.
Knesset Speaker Yariv Levin announced the date for the ceremony on Tuesday….reports Asian Lite News
The new Israeli government is set to be sworn in on Sunday after days of negotiations on how to move ahead on forming an eight-way coalition that would unseat Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for the first time in more than a decade.
Knesset Speaker Yariv Levin announced the date for the ceremony on Tuesday.
Members of the new coalition, which will initially be headed by far-right politician Naftali Bennett, had agreed on their partnership last week and had, at one point, been expected to be sworn in this week already.
Members of the coalition had reportedly been pushing for a Wednesday ceremony.
The Sunday session will also see the Knesset vote for a new speaker.
The eight members of the new coalition only have the barest of a majority: 61 of 120 Knesset seats.
Additionally, the members come from a variety of political walks that would not normally align with one another.
However, the parties are united in their dislike of Netanyahu.
Should the formation of the new government go ahead, it would be the first Israeli government without Netanyahu in 12 years.
However, Netanyahu is still doing his utmost to hold onto power and is trying to see if he can shake loose any coalition member, which would end the political experiment before it can start.
Netanyahu has called the new coalition the “fraud of the century”.
Demonstrators supporting the long-time premier have lashed out at Bennett, who has served in past Netanyahu cabinets.
There have been warnings that the protests could turn violent in the coming days. (dpa/IANS)
