GAZA CITY: Egyptian mediators entered Gaza on Monday seeking to calm tensions after a week of clashes in which Israel has launched military strikes in response to airborne incendiary devices that have ignited wildfires.
Israel has targeted positions of Hamas, which it holds responsible for all cross-border attacks from the coastal enclave.
The delegation from Egypt, which has traditionally played the role of mediator in the restive Palestinian enclave, entered Gaza at around midday local time, according to security sources and eyewitnesses who spoke to AFP.
Israeli tanks pounded Hamas targets earlier Monday in what has become a daily response to Palestinian rockets, firebombs that are carried by bunches of balloons into southern Israel, and more recently to clashes on the border.
Israel has said that since August 6, fire-scene investigators have identified 149 blazes in southern Israel caused by incendiary balloons floating across from Gaza.
The army also reported violent protests on Saturday, as "rioters burned tyres, hurled explosive devices and grenades towards the security fence and attempted to approach it".
There were more frontier riots on Sunday, the army said.
Israel has also closed the Kerem Shalom goods crossing to Gaza and shut the strip's fishing zone.
With fuel imports blocked, Gaza's electricity authority announced that more service cuts would be implemented from Monday, adding to frustrations for Gazans who already endure irregular power supply.
Hamas and Israel have fought three wars since 2008, but an uneasy truce brokered last year by the United Nations and Egypt helped curb the violence.
The informal truce between Israel and Hamas also includes provisions on developing Gaza's economy and curbing rampant unemployment.
A source familiar with Israel-Hamas affairs, who requested anonymity, told AFP that there "seems to be a block" on these other issues and that Hamas wants to see progress.
Palestinian anger has flared further since Israel and the UAE last Thursday agreed to normalize relations, a move many Palestinians saw as a betrayal of their cause by the Gulf country.
Despite anger on the streets of Gaza following the deal's announcement, Saada said Hamas was not looking to make trouble over the pact.
“Hamas knows the agreement could not have happened without the blessing of (UAE allies) Saudi Arabia and Egypt,” the professor said.
“And Hamas is not interested in having a strained relationship with the Egyptian-Saudi camp.”
Hamas is primarily concerned with economic progress in Gaza right now, he added.
The poverty rate in the strip is above 50 percent, according to the World Bank, and is expected to climb higher because of the impact of the novel coronavirus pandemic.
Hamas “will continue to flirt with anyone” who can help Gaza financially and push Israel to ease the blockade, Saada said.
Egyptian mediators enter Gaza after week of clashes with Israel
https://arab.news/43att
Egyptian mediators enter Gaza after week of clashes with Israel
- Israeli tanks pounded Hamas targets early Monday
- The latest incidents follow a week of heightened tensions, including border clashes
Israel says carrying out ‘large-scale strikes’ on Tehran
JERUSALEM: The Israeli military said it launched “large-scale strikes” on Tehran on Monday, two days since the start of a US-Israeli campaign against Iran.
“The Israeli Air Force... has begun an additional wave of strikes against the Iranian terror regime at the heart of Tehran,” the military said in a statement.
Israel announced the new “large-scale” strikes, while President Donald Trump vowed to avenge the deaths of US service members and said the war could last for weeks.
In other developments:
• The European Union has warned of the cost to the Middle East of a long war, and said it was reinforcing its naval mission in the Red Sea with additional vessels as Iran’s retaliation to US-Israeli strikes threatens maritime traffic, a European diplomat said.
Two new French ships will join the EU’s Aspides mission, bringing to five the number of warships taking part, the diplomat told AFP.
• Gulf states vowed to defend themselves against Iranian attacks, including by “responding to the aggression” if need be, after the Gulf Cooperation Council convened via video-link to formulate a unified response.
• Top US officials including Secretary of State Marco Rubio will make the case Tuesday to Congress for the attack on Iran. Rubio, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, CIA Director John Ratcliffe and military chief General Dan Caine “will brief the full membership of both chambers of Congress,” White House spokesman Dylan Johnson said.
• Container shipping company Maersk said it was halting passage through the Suez Canal and the Strait of Hormuz for “safety” reasons.
The Danish group was the latest of several shipping groups to make similar announcements after Iran’s Revolutionary Guards declared the strait closed on Saturday.
• Seven people were injured in the Jerusalem area following the latest salvo of missiles fired from Iran, Israeli firefighters said.
• British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said he had agreed to let the United States use UK bases to fire “defensive” strikes aimed at destroying Iranian missiles and their launchers. But in a video address posted to social media, he added: “We were not involved in the initial strikes on Iran and we will not join offensive action now.
• Iranian media reported that a police station in a city on the outskirts of Tehran had been hit, killing an unspecified number of people, with others reportedly trapped under debris. “According to initial reports, a number of citizens were martyred and some were trapped under the rubble,” the Tasnim news agency reported.
• Iranian news agency ISNA reported that Gandhi hospital in northern Tehran had been targeted by strikes. The Fars and Mizan agencies published a video, presented as being from inside the facility, showing debris on the floor among wheelchairs.
