Middle East Experience

Israel’s Electric Company says that high voltage lines supplying the Gaza Strip with electricity were damaged by rocket fire by Palestinian militants.The company released a statement on Saturday saying five of the 10 lines have been damaged, in the latest escalation of fighting and that the company cannot fix them because there is no access to the area.For the latest headlines, follow our Google News channel online or via the app.Damage to the power lines came amid days of intense fighting between Palestinian militants and Israel in the Gaza Strip.Gaza’s only other source of electricity — besides the power provided by Israel — is its single power plant, which has been working only partially due to fuel shortages. However, both sources are insufficient to cover Gazans’ needs.Outages of at least eight hours have long been a daily occurrence in the strip and with the power plant not working at regular capacity, rolling blackouts have increased to 12-15 hours per day recently.With the latest hits on the power line, more outages are expected.Read more:US President Biden urges Gaza-Israel calm in first call with President AbbasAssociated Press CEO ‘shocked and horrified’ by Israeli airstrike on Gaza buildingAl Jazeera says will not be silenced after Israeli airstrike destroyed Gaza office
Source: Al Arabiya
Full Article: Israel says high voltage power lines supplying Gaza Strip with electricity damaged

Israel pounded Gaza on Saturday, destroying a tower block that housed news media organizations, while Palestinian rocket salvoes hit Tel Aviv.It came on a sixth day of hostilities in which Palestinians say at least 145 people, including 41 children, have been killed in Gaza since the conflict began. Israel has reported 10 dead, including two children.For the latest headlines, follow our Google News channel online or via the app.The 12-storey block in Gaza City brought down by Israeli air strikes housed the US Associated Press and Qatar-based Al Jazeera media operations.However, the Israel military said it was a legitimate military target, containing Hamas military offices, and that it had given warnings to civilians to get out of the building before the attack.The strike was condemned by the AP and Al Jazeera, and the US told Israel “that ensuring the safety and security of journalists and independent media is a paramount responsibility,” White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said.Israel bombed the home of Khalil al-Hayeh, a senior figure in Hamas’ political branch, saying the building served as part of the group’s “terrorist infrastructure.” There was no immediate report on al-Hayeh’s fate or on any casualties.The bombing of al-Hayeh's home showed Israel was expanding its campaign beyond just the group’s military commanders. Israel says it has killed dozens in Hamas’ military branch, though Hamas and the smaller group Islamic Jihad have only acknowledged 20 dead members.US President Joe Biden later spoke to both Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in an effort to restore calm.But both Israel and Hamas insisted they would pursue their campaigns, leaving no end to the hostilities in sight despite a UN Security Council meeting scheduled for Sunday to discuss the worse outbreak of Israel-Palestinian violence in years.“The party that bears the guilt for this confrontation is not us, it’s those attacking us,” Netanyahu said in a televised speech.“We are still in the midst of this operation, it is still not over and this operation will continue as long as necessary.”Netanyahu said Israel’s air and artillery barrage had eliminated dozens of Hamas militants and taken out “hundreds” of the Islamist militant group’s sites including missile launchers and a vast tunnel network.Hamas began its rocket assault on Monday after weeks of tensions over a court case to evict several Palestinian families in East Jerusalem, and in retaliation for Israeli police clashes with Palestinians near the city’s Al-Aqsa Mosque, Islam’s third holiest site, during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.Speaking to crowds of protesters in the Qatari capital of Doha, Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh said on Saturday the fighting was primarily about Jerusalem.“The Zionists thought ... they could demolish Al-Aqsa mosque. They thought they could displace our people in Sheikh Jarrah,” said Haniyeh.“I say to Netanyahu: do not play with fire,” he continued, amid cheers from the crowd. “The title of this battle today, the title of the war, and the title of the intifada, is Jerusalem, Jerusalem, Jerusalem,” using the Arabic word for ‘uprising’.Air warOn Saturday, the Israeli military said around 2,300 rockets had been fired from Gaza since Monday, with about 1,000 intercepted by missile defenses and 380 falling into the Gaza Strip.Israel has launched more than 1,000 air and artillery strikes into the densely populated coastal strip, saying they were aimed at Hamas and other militant targets.The bombardments have sent columns of smoke above Gaza City and lit up the enclave’s night sky.Earlier this week the International Criminal Court’s chief prosecutor, Fatou Bensouda, told Reuters the court was “monitoring very closely” the latest escalation of hostilities, amid an investigation now under way into alleged war crimes in earlier bouts of the conflict.Netanyahu accused Hamas of “committing a double war crime” by targeting civilians, and using Palestinian civilians as “human shields.”The New York-based rights group Human Rights Watch said on Saturday it had “serious concerns that the attacks caused disproportionate destruction of civilian property” in Gaza.Failed diplomacyBiden’s envoy, Hady Amr, arrived in Israel on Friday, before a meeting on Sunday of the UN Security Council.But diplomacy has so far failed to quell the worst escalation in fighting between Israel and Palestinians since 2014.The White House said Biden updated Netanyahu on “high-level” contacts with regional partners to restore calm, and raised concerns about the safety of journalists.Biden also spoke with Abbas, for the first time since the US leader took office in January.Both sides said Biden reaffirmed his support for a two-state solution to the conflict, and the White House said Biden was committed to “strengthening the US-Palestinian partnership”, which reached a nadir under the Trump administration.But diplomatic efforts are complicated by the fact theUS and most western powers do not talk to Hamas, which they regard as a terrorist organization. And Abbas, whose power base is in the occupied West Bank, exerts little influence over Hamas in Gaza.In Israel, the conflict has been accompanied by violence among the country’s mixed communities of Jews and Arabs. Synagogues have been attacked, Arab-owned shops vandalized and street fights have broken out. Israel’s president has warned of civil war.Hamas said the latest strikes on Tel Aviv were in response to Israel’s overnight strikes on Gaza’s Beach refugee camp, where a woman and four of her children were killed in their house.Five others died, medics said. Israel said it targeted an apartment used by Hamas.Read more:Israel says high voltage power lines supplying Gaza Strip with electricity damagedUS President Biden urges Gaza-Israel calm in first call with President AbbasWatch: Israeli airstrike flattens building housing AP, other media offices in Gaza
Source: Al Arabiya
Full Article: Israel launches new attack on Gaza as PM Netanyahu says airstrikes will continue

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres was “dismayed” by civilian casualties in Gaza and “deeply disturbed” by Israel’s strike on a building containing international media outlets, a spokesman said in a statement released Saturday.Guterres spoke as Israel pummeled the Gaza Strip with air strikes, killing 10 members of an extended family and demolishing the 13-floor Gaza building housing Qatar-based Al Jazeera and the Associated Press news agency, with Palestinian militants firing back barrages of rockets.For the latest headlines, follow our Google News channel online or via the app.“The Secretary-General is dismayed by the increasing number of civilian casualties, including the death of ten members of the same family, including children, as a result of an Israeli airstrike last night in the al-Shati camp in Gaza, purportedly aimed at a Hamas leader,” his spokesman, Stephane Dujarric, said in the statement.Guterres was “also deeply disturbed by the destruction by an Israeli airstrike today of a high-rise building in Gaza City that housed the offices of several international media organizations as well as residential apartments,” Dujarric continued.“The Secretary-General reminds all sides that any indiscriminate targeting of civilian and media structures violates international law and must be avoided at all costs,” he said.Israeli air and artillery strikes on Gaza since Monday have killed 145 people including 41 children, and wounded another 1,100, health officials say, the worst violence in the region since 2014.Palestinian armed groups have fired at least 2,300 rockets at Israel, killing 10 people, including a child and a soldier, and wounding over 560 Israelis. Israeli air defenses have intercepted many rockets.US Secretary for Israel-Palestinian Affairs Hady Amr was to hold talks Sunday with Israeli leaders before meeting Palestinian officials to seek a “sustainable calm,” the State Department said.The UN Security Council was to meet Sunday to discuss the violence.Read more:Israeli-Palestinian conflict rages as PM Netanyahu says air strikes will continueIsrael says high voltage power lines supplying Gaza Strip with electricity damagedExplainer: Why is Gaza almost always mired in deadly conflict?
Source: Al Arabiya
Full Article: UN Secretary-General 'deeply disturbed' by Israeli strike on Gaza media building

Israeli warplanes have struck several buildings and roads in a vital part of Gaza City early Sunday, destroying the main roads leading to Shifa hospital, the largest hospital in the strip, according to residents and journalists.At least seven people were killed by the Israeli raids in Gaza and 25 others were wounded, including women and children, an Al Arabiya correspondent cited the health ministry as saying. For the latest headlines, follow our Google News channel online or via the app.The ministry earlier said rescuers were still digging through the rubble and had so far pulled up five more wounded.Israeli airstrikes have killed a total of 144 people so far and wounded more than 1,100 others since the escalation in Gaza began, according to the Al Arabiya correspondent. The Israeli military has yet to release a statement on the latest raids as the UN Security Council is set to discuss the ongoing situation on Sunday.An Israeli air strike on Saturday afternoon targeted and destroyed a 12-story building housing the Gaza offices of The Associated Press and other news outlets.The bombing disrupted international coverage of the ongoing conflict, an outcome that some media organizations say was a deliberate attempt to silence them. (With The Associated Press)Read more:UN Secretary-General 'deeply disturbed' by Israeli strike on Gaza media buildingPro-Palestinian demonstrators rally in US cities as conflict ragesIsrael launches new attack on Gaza as PM Netanyahu says airstrikes will continue
Source: Al Arabiya
Full Article: New Israeli airstrikes on Gaza destroy roads leading to key hospital treating injured

In light of the recent Israeli Police and settlers’ attacks on Al-Aqsa Mosque compound and the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood, Jerusalemite women have been remarkably present, taking part in the demonstrations and using social media to share the suffering of Jerusalemites.
Source: Al Monitor
Full Article: Palestinian women in Jerusalem in crossfire of Israeli Police, settlers

About 62 countries are taking part in the biggest tourism event of its kind since the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic..
Source: Albawaba
Full Article: ATM 2021: Sheikh Mohammed welcomes everyone to Dubai

Hundreds of people brandishing Palestinian flags and the yellow colours of Hezbollah gathered in south Lebanon on Saturday for the funeral of a Lebanese protester killed by Israeli fire a day earlier..
Source: Albawaba
Full Article: Lebanese protester killed by Israeli fire mourned

Pope Francis has warned of a ‘spiral of death and destruction’ as Israel continued its assault on the Gaza Strip, calling the death toll ‘terrible and unacceptable’..
Source: Albawaba
Full Article: Pope warns of 'spiral of death' following Gaza attacks

“We showed them the smoking gun proving Hamas worked out of that building,” a source close to Foreign Minister Gabi Ashkenazi said. “I understand they found the explanation satisfactory.”
Source: Jerusalem Post
Full Article: Israel showed US ‘smoking gun’ on Hamas in AP office tower, officials say

Some 191 Israelis have also been injured in riots and clashes between Jews and Arabs in the country.
Source: Jerusalem Post
Full Article: Over 2,900 rockets fired, 10 Israelis killed since onset of hostilities