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Gazans took stock on Saturday of the scale of devastation from the blistering war with Israel, while diplomatic efforts stepped up to make a ceasefire stick despite ongoing violence in Jerusalem.
The 11-day conflict forced more than 100,000 people from their homes, according to the latest United Nations figures, and hit essential infrastructure including hospitals, electricity and water supplies.
As the physical damage becomes visible, we must not lose sight of damage inflicted on people Matthias Schmale, UN
While most of those sheltering in schools and with families returned home after a pre-dawn truce on Friday held, Gaza’s recovery could take years.
Also on Saturday police and the Shin Bet security service arrested another suspect in the firebombing of a home in Jaffa in which a 12-year-old boy was seriously hurt.
The suspect is the brother of a Jaffa resident in his 20s who was arrested earlier this week over the attack, according to a police statement.
Amid Arab-Jewish rioting, attackers firebombed an Arab home in the Ajami neighborhood of the coastal city on Friday night, injuring two children. A 10-year-old girl was lightly wounded and her 12-year-old brother Muhammad was left with serious injuries.
Police believe the attackers were Arabs who mistakenly believed the home’s residents to be Jewish.
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A truck loaded with humanitarian aid, passes into Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip, through the Kerem Shalom crossing, the main passage point for goods entering Gaza from Israel, on May 21, 2021, after a ceasefire brokered by Egypt between Israel and the Palestinian Hamas terror group (SAID KHATIB / AFP)
The ceasefire between Israel and Palestinian terrorists in Gaza was holding Saturday, as humanitarian aid began to enter the enclave after 11 days of conflict.
As thousands of displaced Palestinians returned to their homes, and Israelis also began to resume normal life, international focus turned to the reconstruction of the bomb-shattered Gaza Strip.
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Israeli security forces and Palestinian Muslim worshippers clash at Jerusalem s Al-Aqsa Mosque compound, atop Temple Mount, on May 21, 2021. (AHMAD GHARABLI / AFP)
Palestinians clashed with Israeli police on Jerusalem’s Temple Mount on Friday afternoon, mere hours after a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas went into effect.
It was not immediately clear how the confrontation had erupted. According to Israeli police, officers acted to contain a riot by Palestinian worshippers at the scene.
“Immediately after the noon prayer, a riot broke out on the Temple Mount by hundreds of young people that included throwing stones and throwing a Molotov cocktail at the forces,” Israel Police said in a statement.
Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh said the militant group had successfully fought against Israel.
“We will rebuild what the occupation [Israel] destroyed and restore our capabilities,” he said.
Israel and Hamas have warned that their commitment to the ceasefire, brokered by Egypt, depends on their respective enemy maintaining the peace.
A senior Israeli military official said its strikes had set Hamas back years and damaged “most of their underground tunnel capabilities”.
Israel recorded more than 4,300 rockets fired from Gaza, while the military official said the armed forces had hit “thousands” of targets.
The Gaza war erupted on May 10 after weeks of violence around occupied East Jerusalem, with tension inflamed by Israeli police officers’ use of force at the Al Aqsa Mosque compound.