Thousands injured while countless number of people has been killed due to possible war that has erupted in mixed Jewish-Arab towns.
A new round of Israeli-Palestinian fighting, set off by tensions over the holy city of Jerusalem, escalated on Wednesday, with Israel launching dozens of airstrikes on the Gaza Strip and militants in the territory barraging Israel with rockets.
The latest hostilities have united Palestinians in anger across disparate parts of the occupied territories and within Israel. They are venting frustration in part over the displacement of Palestinians from land in East Jerusalem and over longstanding discrimination.
Defense Minister Benny Gantz visited the southern city of Ashkelon near Gaza on Wednesday and suggested that the Israel Defense Forces’ campaign against Gaza militants was not about to end.
The military “will continue to strike and will bring complete quiet for the long term,” he said. “There is currently no end date.”
The wave of unrest and riots has spread across Arab-populated towns in Israel and parts of the occupied West Bank.
Two days of Israeli strikes on Gaza, which is controlled by the militant group Hamas, have killed at least 48 Palestinians and wounded more than 300 in Gaza by Wednesday afternoon, according to Palestinian health officials.
Rockets fired by militants from Hamas and the Islamic Jihad, a smaller Palestinian group, targeted the Israeli cities of Ashkelon, Tel Aviv and Lod, among others.
At least six people were killed and at least 100 were injured, according to Israeli health officials. One Israeli was killed was on Wednesday morning by an anti-tank missile near the Gaza perimeter.
The violence was fueled by a police raid on an Islamic religious site in Jerusalem on Monday. By Tuesday, the conflict had broadened, with civilians on both sides paying a price. The speed of the escalation appeared to take Israelis by surprise.
“Hamas and Islamic Jihad have paid, and will pay, a very heavy price for their aggression,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in an address to Israelis late Tuesday. “This campaign will take time,” he said.
The Israeli military, prepared for the latest eruption of the cross border fighting with militant groups in Gaza, designated a code name for its operation just hours after the deadly violence began: Guardians of the Walls, a reference to the ancient ramparts of the Old City of Jerusalem.
The Palestinian militant groups had their own code name for their campaign: Sword of Jerusalem.
By Tuesday morning, barely 12 hours after Hamas launched a surprise volley of rockets toward Jerusalem, Israel had carried out at least 130 retaliatory airstrikes in the Palestinian territory, according to an Israeli military spokesman, Lt. Col. Jonathan Conricus.
Militant groups had fired nearly 500 rockets into Israel by Tuesday afternoon, according to military officials.
Compounding the sense of crisis inside Israel, protests and riots resumed on Tuesday night in mixed Jewish-Arab towns and Arab population centers across the country as Palestinian citizens of Israel expressed solidarity with Gaza and frustration over discrimination against Arabs within Israel.
Palestinian citizens of Israel rioted in the mixed city of Lod, setting fire to a synagogue and dozens of cars. A popular Jewish-owned fish restaurant went up in flames in the city of Acre, and television images showed a Jewish mob stoning Arab vehicles in the city of Ramla.
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