Israeli airstrikes continued to pound Gaza overnight after Hamas fired 70 rockets at cities in southern Israel
IDF said 54 fighter jets hit the homes of nine Hamas commanders and bombed tunnel network under Gaza
Meanwhile a synagogue was destroyed by a rocket that landed in Ashkelon shortly before Shavuot services
Death toll now stands at 207 - 197 of whom are Palestinian, and at least 59 of whom are children
War in Gaza benefits PM Netanyahu, claims Israeli lawmaker
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Israeli lawmaker says Palestinians have a right to a separate homeland.
Says Benjamin Netanyahu is benefitting from war in Gaza.
Nearly 200 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli attacks.
KARACHI: An Israeli lawmaker says the war in Gaza is giving a lifeline to embattled Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
In an exclusive interview with
Geo News, Mossi Raz, a member of the Israeli Parliament, said that the ongoing Palestine crisis has benefitted PM Netanyahu and supported Palesntinans right for a separate homeland.
Raz is a member of Meretz, a left-wing, social-democratic and green political party in Israel.
Israeli air strikes hammered the Gaza Strip Monday after a week of violence that has killed more than 200 people, the large majority Palestinian, despite international calls for de-escalation.
Before dawn, in the space of just a few minutes, dozens of Israeli strikes bombarded the crowded coastal Palestinian enclave controlled by Islamist group Hamas, according to AFP journalists and the army.
Flames lit up the sky as intense explosions shook Gaza city, sparking widespread power cuts and damaging hundreds of buildings, local authorities said. No casualties were immediately reported.
Some 3,100 rockets have also been fired by Palestinian militants toward Israel since conflict escalated on May 10 in the heaviest exchange of fire between the rivals in years, sparked by unrest in Jerusalem.
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A group of men who shouted anti-Semitic abuse while driving through a Jewish community in North London were part of a convoy that travelled 200 miles from Bradford, it was reported today, as police stepped up patrols at synagogues and Sadiq Khan said there was no excuse for racism.
Onlookers were left horrified after the passengers yelled: F the Jews. F all of them. F their mothers, f their daughters and show your support for Palestine. Rape their daughters and we have to send a message like that. Please do it for the poor children in Gaza.
Mr Khan, who was recently re-elected as Mayor of London, told BBC Radio 4 s Today programme this morning: Many of us feel quite strongly about what s happened in Israel and Gaza, what we can t do is use that as an excuse for any kind of anti-Semitism or hate crime.
That s 9.3 miles that can no longer be used for terror.
AP reports Gaza’s mayor, Yahya Sarraj, told Al-Jazeera TV the strikes had caused extensive damage to roads and other infrastructure. “If the aggression continues we expect conditions to become worse,” he said.
“Senior Palestinian Islamic Jihad commander Hassam Abu-Arbid was killed in an Israeli airstrike in the northern Gaza Strip Monday afternoon as rockets fired from the blockaded enclave continued to be fired towards southern Israel communities,” the
Jerusalem Post reported.
“The IDF said that Abu-Arbid, was killed in a joint operation with the Shin Bet intelligence services, commanded over the northern Gaza Strip brigade of the terror organization and was behind the launching of rockets and anti-tank guided missiles towards Israel.”