Israel-Gaza: Deaths mount as Israel-Gaza violence worsens - BBC News

Violence in Gaza and Israel shows no sign of abating amid continued rocket fire and air strikes, and civil unrest among Jewish and Israeli Arab mobs.

Deaths continue to mount, with at least 83 people now killed in Gaza and seven in Israel.

A BBC reporter in Gaza said it had been the "longest and most difficult night since the 2014 war". Israel said it had been targeted with 1,600 rockets.

Israel is now mulling a possible ground operation in Gaza.

It has sent reinforcements to the border.

This is now the worst violence since 2014, fuelled initially by weeks of Israeli-Palestinian tension in East Jerusalem which led to clashes at a holy site revered by both Muslims and Jews. This spiralled into an incessant exchange of Palestinian rocket fire and Israeli airstrikes.

• Read the latest updates here from Gaza and Israel
• Jewish and Arab mobs spread violence
• What is going on between Israel and the Palestinians?

The fear among civilians on both sides is taking its toll.

Najwa Sheikh-Ahmada, a Gaza mother, said of Wednesday night: "You cannot sleep... In any moment your home might be your grave.

"You cannot be secure. As a mother it's very terrifying, it's very exhausting for my feelings, for my humanity," she told the BBC's Today programme.

In Israel, an apartment block was destroyed in the city of Petah Tikva shortly after residents had gone to their bomb shelters.

"We heard an alarm and suddenly there was a bang. Smoke entered the shelter, and the neighbour next to me who was sitting on a chair flew back," one resident told the news website Ynet.

Getty Images

Mohammed Abu Rayya, a doctor living in Gaza told the BBC: "[There are] a lot of deaths, a lot of wounded - children, old women and old men. We cannot sleep at home, we are not feeling safe. Air strikes all over Gaza. There are not any places safe."

• The strength and limitations of Hamas's arsenal
• Violence explodes in the mixed Arab-Jewish town of Lod
• Children terrified as locals scramble for cover

Authorities in Gaza, which is controlled by the Islamist militant group Hamas, say many civilians have died, including 17 children.

Israel says dozens of those killed in Gaza were militants, and that some of the deaths are from misfired rockets from Gaza.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said they had struck Hamas targets more than 600 times. They said they had targeted homes and businesses used by militants and a school Hamas was using "to hide a terror tunnel".

Getty Images

In the Israeli city of Sderot, a young boy was killed when rocket fire from Gaza hit his home, and shrapnel penetrated the shelter he was hiding in.

Ido Avigail was killed yesterday by shrapnel that pierced through the shelter he was in after a direct strike on his home in Sderot. pic.twitter.com/u0Fbi6dP2U

— Anna Ahronheim (@AAhronheim) May 13, 2021

The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.View original tweet on Twitter

The escalating conflict has prompted international airlines, including KLM, British Airways and Virgin Atlantic, to suspend services to Israel.

Earlier on Thursday, incoming flights were diverted south from Tel Aviv's main Ben Gurion airport to Ramon airport amid a flurry of rocket launches.

Ground offensive

On Thursday, the Israeli army will put forward plans for a possible ground offensive in Gaza, which needs to be approved by army chiefs and various levels of government before any operation begins.

• Jeremy Bowen: Old grievances fuel new fighting
• Israel-Gaza violence dominates Arab media

Israel has also called up 10 reserve border patrol companies to help tackle the worst unrest between Arab and Jewish communities for many years.

Israeli political leaders have appealed for calm, following the wave of street violence. President Reuven Rivlin described the outbreaks of rioting in several towns and cities as "senseless civil war".

More than 400 people have been arrested, with some as young as 13 years old, Israeli police said.

Israel's 'civil war'

• In the West Bank, Palestinians threw stones at Israeli forces, who fired back with bullets
• Police vehicles were torched in the central town of Kafr Kassem, AFP news agency reports
• There were incidents in the towns of Lod, Acre and Haifa, where Jewish mobs attacked lone Arab men and torched cars
• Camera crews broadcast the moment live on public television when a crowd of Jewish Israelis attacked a driver in Bat Yam
• Tova Levy, who fled her home in Lod, told the BBC: "I started seeing messages that there was a mob coming out of one of the local mosques. And they started burning things… [It was] really, really shocking"
• In Acre, a 37-year-old Jewish man was seriously injured when he was pelted with stones. Israel's Channel 12 television station is reporting the man is a high school teacher who went out looking for his students to stop them taking part in the riots

• Why Lod's mayor is warning of civil war

US President Joe Biden has said he hopes the violence will end "sooner than later" but a ceasefire does not appear immediate.

A senior Hamas official said the group was ready for a "reciprocal" ceasefire if the international community pressures Israel to "suppress military actions" at the disputed Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem.

Reuters

Large crowds gathered again at the mosque on Thursday, to mark the first day of the Eid al-Fitr Muslim festival, which signifies the end of the Islamic holy month of Ramadan.

However, Israeli military spokesman Hilda Zilberman said Israel was not seeking a ceasefire at the current time, the Times of Israel reports.

What caused the violence?

The fighting between Israel and Hamas was triggered by days of escalating clashes between Palestinians and Israeli police at a holy hilltop compound in East Jerusalem.

The site is revered by both Muslims, who call it the Haram al-Sharif (Noble Sanctuary), and Jews, for whom it is known as the Temple Mount. Hamas demanded Israel remove police from there and the nearby predominantly Arab district of Sheikh Jarrah, where Palestinian families face eviction by Jewish settlers. Hamas launched rockets when its ultimatum went unheeded.

Palestinian anger had already been stoked by weeks of rising tension in East Jerusalem, inflamed by a series of confrontations with police since the start of Ramadan in mid-April.

• What makes Jerusalem so holy?
• The Israel-Palestinian conflict explained

It was further fuelled by the threatened eviction of Palestinian families from their homes in East Jerusalem by Jewish settlers and Israel's annual celebration of its capture of East Jerusalem in the 1967 Middle East war, known as Jerusalem Day.

The fate of the city, with its deep religious and national significance to both sides, lies at the heart of the decades-old Israel-Palestinian conflict. Israel in effect annexed East Jerusalem in 1980 and considers the entire city its capital, though this is not recognised by the vast majority of other countries.

Palestinians claim the eastern half of Jerusalem as the capital of a hoped-for state of their own.

Are you in Israel or Gaza and affected by these events? Please share your story by emailing haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.

Please include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can also get in touch in the following ways:

• WhatsApp: +44 7756 165803
• Tweet: @BBC_HaveYourSay
• Please read our terms & conditions and privacy policy

If you are reading this page and can't see the form you will need to visit the mobile version of the BBC website to submit your question or comment or you can email us at HaveYourSay@bbc.co.uk. Please include your name, age and location with any submission.

Adblock test (Why?)

https://news.google.com/__i/rss/rd/articles/CBMiM2h0dHBzOi8vd3d3LmJiYy5jb20vbmV3cy93b3JsZC1taWRkbGUtZWFzdC01NzA5NzQ3NdIBAA?oc=5

2021-05-13 14:34:57Z
52781577069323

Israel-Gaza: Deaths mount as Israel-Gaza violence worsens - BBC News

Violence in Gaza and Israel shows no sign of abating amid continued rocket fire and air strikes, and civil unrest among Jewish and Israeli Arab mobs.

Deaths continue to mount, with at least 83 people now killed in Gaza and seven in Israel.

A BBC reporter in Gaza said it had been the "longest and most difficult night since the 2014 war". Israel said it had been targeted with 1,600 rockets.

Israel is now mulling a possible ground operation in Gaza.

It has sent reinforcements to the Gaza border.

This is now the worst violence since 2014, fuelled initially by weeks of Israeli-Palestinian tension in East Jerusalem which led to clashes at a holy site revered by both Muslims and Jews. This spiralled into an incessant exchange of Palestinian rocket fire and Israeli airstrikes.

• Read the latest updates here from Gaza and Israel
• What is going on between Israel and the Palestinians?

The fear among civilians on both sides is taking its toll.

Najwa Sheikh-Ahmada, a Gaza mother, said of Wednesday night: "You cannot sleep... In any moment your home might be your grave.

"You cannot be secure. As a mother it's very terrifying, it's very exhausting for my feelings, for my humanity," she told the BBC's Today programme.

In Israel, an apartment block was destroyed in the city of Petah Tikva shortly after residents had gone to their bomb shelters.

"We heard an alarm and suddenly there was a bang. Smoke entered the shelter, and the neighbour next to me who was sitting on a chair flew back," one resident told the news website Ynet.

Getty Images

Mohammed Abu Rayya, a doctor living in Gaza told the BBC: "[There are] a lot of deaths, a lot of wounded - children, old women and old men. We cannot sleep at home, we are not feeling safe. Air strikes all over Gaza. There are not any places safe."

• The strength and limitations of Hamas's arsenal
• Violence explodes in the mixed Arab-Jewish town of Lod
• Children terrified as locals scramble for cover

Authorities in Gaza, which is controlled by the Islamist militant group Hamas, say many civilians have died, including 17 children.

Israel says dozens of those killed in Gaza were militants, and that some of the deaths are from misfired rockets from Gaza.

Getty Images

In the Israeli city of Sderot, a young boy was killed when rocket fire from Gaza hit his home, and shrapnel penetrated the shelter he was hiding in.

Ido Avigail was killed yesterday by shrapnel that pierced through the shelter he was in after a direct strike on his home in Sderot. pic.twitter.com/u0Fbi6dP2U

— Anna Ahronheim (@AAhronheim) May 13, 2021

The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.View original tweet on Twitter

Ground offensive

On Wednesday, the Israeli army will put forward plans for a possible ground offensive in Gaza, which needs to be approved by army chiefs and various levels of government before any operation begins.

• Jeremy Bowen: Old grievances fuel new fighting
• Israel-Gaza violence dominates Arab media

Israel has also called up 10 reserve border patrol companies to help tackle the worst unrest between Arab and Jewish communities for many years.

Israeli political leaders have appealed for calm, following the wave of street violence. President Reuven Rivlin described the outbreaks of rioting in several towns and cities as "senseless civil war".

More than 400 people have been arrested, with some as young as 13 years old, Israeli police said.

Israel's 'civil war'

• In the West Bank, Palestinians threw stones at Israeli forces, who fired back with bullets
• Police vehicles were torched in the central town of Kafr Kassem, AFP news agency reports
• There were incidents in the towns of Lod, Acre and Haifa, where Jewish mobs attacked lone Arab men and torched cars
• Camera crews broadcast the moment live on public television when a crowd of Jewish Israelis attacked a driver in Bat Yam
• Tova Levy, who fled her home in Lod, told the BBC: "I started seeing messages that there was a mob coming out of one of the local mosques. And they started burning things… [It was] really, really shocking"
• In Acre, a 37-year-old Jewish man was seriously injured when he was pelted with stones. Israel's Channel 12 television station is reporting the man is a high school teacher who went out looking for his students to stop them taking part in the riots

• Why Lod's mayor is warning of civil war

US President Joe Biden has said he hopes the violence will end "sooner than later" but a ceasefire does not appear immediate.

A senior Hamas official said the group was ready for a "reciprocal" ceasefire if the international community pressures Israel to "suppress military actions" at the disputed Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem.

Large crowds gathered again at the mosque on Thursday, to mark the first day of the Eid al-Fitr Muslim festival, which signifies the end of the Islamic holy month of Ramadan.

However, Israeli military spokesman Hilda Zilberman said Israel was not seeking a ceasefire at the current time, the Times of Israel reports.

Reuters

What is the latest on the fighting?

Rockets continued to be fired from the Gaza Strip into Thursday. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said they were intercepted by the Iron Dome missile defence system, or crashed into open land.

• The strength and limitations of Hamas's arsenal

The IDF said they had struck Hamas targets more than 600 times, and had widened targets - from homes and businesses used by militants, to its treasury, banks and a school - which Hamas was using "to hide a terror tunnel".

A building that Israel said held Hamas military intelligence services was also destroyed.

What has caused the violence?

The fighting between Israel and Hamas was triggered by days of escalating clashes between Palestinians and Israeli police at a holy hilltop compound in East Jerusalem.

The site is revered by both Muslims, who call it the Haram al-Sharif (Noble Sanctuary), and Jews, for whom it is known as the Temple Mount. Hamas demanded Israel remove police from there and the nearby predominantly Arab district of Sheikh Jarrah, where Palestinian families face eviction by Jewish settlers. Hamas launched rockets when its ultimatum went unheeded.

Palestinian anger had already been stoked by weeks of rising tension in East Jerusalem, inflamed by a series of confrontations with police since the start of Ramadan in mid-April.

• What makes Jerusalem so holy?
• The Israel-Palestinian conflict explained

It was further fuelled by the threatened eviction of Palestinian families from their homes in East Jerusalem by Jewish settlers and Israel's annual celebration of its capture of East Jerusalem in the 1967 Middle East war, known as Jerusalem Day.

The fate of the city, with its deep religious and national significance to both sides, lies at the heart of the decades-old Israel-Palestinian conflict. Israel in effect annexed East Jerusalem in 1980 and considers the entire city its capital, though this is not recognised by the vast majority of other countries.

Palestinians claim the eastern half of Jerusalem as the capital of a hoped-for state of their own.

Are you in Israel or Gaza and affected by these events? Please share your story by emailing haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.

Please include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can also get in touch in the following ways:

• WhatsApp: +44 7756 165803
• Tweet: @BBC_HaveYourSay
• Please read our terms & conditions and privacy policy

If you are reading this page and can't see the form you will need to visit the mobile version of the BBC website to submit your question or comment or you can email us at HaveYourSay@bbc.co.uk. Please include your name, age and location with any submission.

Adblock test (Why?)

https://news.google.com/__i/rss/rd/articles/CBMiNWh0dHBzOi8vd3d3LmJiYy5jby51ay9uZXdzL3dvcmxkLW1pZGRsZS1lYXN0LTU3MDk3NDc10gEA?oc=5

2021-05-13 12:25:00Z
52781577069323

Liz Cheney vows to lead the Republican anti-Trump resistance - The Times

Liz Cheney vowed to lead the internal Republican battle to stop Donald Trump returning to the White House after colleagues in the House of Representatives ousted her from the party leadership yesterday.

Cheney, 54, Trump’s fiercest Republican critic in Congress, was removed in a swift meeting held behind closed doors that underlined the former president’s grip on the party. She turned on Trump over his role in stoking the attack on the US Capitol on January 6 but found herself increasingly out of step with her party as it closed ranks.

Her rejection of what she called Trump’s “big lie” became a problem for the party as it uses his unfounded claim that the 2020 election was rigged as the basis for changing laws to

Adblock test (Why?)

https://news.google.com/__i/rss/rd/articles/CBMiaWh0dHBzOi8vd3d3LnRoZXRpbWVzLmNvLnVrL2FydGljbGUvbGl6LWNoZW5leS12b3dzLXRvLWxlYWQtdGhlLXJlcHVibGljYW4tYW50aS10cnVtcC1yZXNpc3RhbmNlLW1qMzk2MzBoNtIBAA?oc=5

2021-05-12 23:01:00Z
52781581663055

Israel-Gaza violence: Street battles break out in cities where Jews and Arabs have coexisted - Sky News

The horror for the communities of Gaza and the terror for communities in southern Israel is rightly the focus in this latest clash in the long struggle between the Israelis and the Palestinians.

From Gaza the rockets continue to fly, and into Gaza the missiles continue to drop.

But this renewed conflict, the bitter history behind it and a toxic politics has spawned something else.

In Israeli cities for the past two nights, lynch mobs have run riot.

Image: Israeli security force members patrol during a night-time curfew in Lod

Extraordinary, violent and gruesome videos are flooding Israeli social media.

Advertisement

They show Israeli Arabs and Israeli Jews in street battles.

In Bat Yam near Tel Aviv a video shows an Israeli Arab being attacked in his car by mobs of Israeli Jews.

More on Gaza

Another video shows a bloodied man lying on the ground and being repeatedly kicked in the face.

Image: Extraordinary, violent and gruesome videos are flooding Israeli social media

Another shows rocks being hurled at a shop owned by an Arab.

In the northern town of Acre rioters set fire to one of the country's most famous restaurants, Uri Buri (which was ironically a local symbol of coexistence).

In the central city of Lod, Jewish Israelis told me that Arab gangs had run amok in the town smashing cars owned by Jews and throwing rocks at police.

But around the corner next to charred cars owned by Arabs, young men told me it was the Jews who started it.

Image: Cars belonging to people on both sides of the violence have been destroyed during days of fighting

Whoever it began with, the point is that there is significant civil unrest in cities across the country.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is spooked by it all and he is right to be.

He can end the conflict in Gaza with a single order. It may take days or weeks but it's in his gift.

But such open hatred on Israeli streets - that feels rather more existential. This country's deep schisms are well known and these past few days they have been dangerously exposed.

Remember - what's happening here isn't clashes between Jews in Israel and Palestinians in the West Bank.

This is unrest in cities within Israel, where people of these different cultures and different religions had managed to live alongside each other.

Arabs with Israeli citizenship (Palestinian Citizens of Israel) are those Palestinians who were not forcibly moved from their homes during the Nakba in 1948.

Around 700,000 Palestinians were forced out of their land during Israel's "War of Independence" but some managed to stay.

Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player

What is Israel's Iron Dome?

A coexistence in these towns has been blown apart in the space of just a few days.

Mr Netanyahu visited some of the towns in the safety of daylight and called the clashes "unbearable".

"It is something we cannot accept, it is anarchy. Nothing justifies it..."

But is he just reaping what he sowed? Far right Israeli nationalism had been emboldened as he tried to build a coalition. And harder line Palestinian/Arab nationalism grows every time perceived injustices are committed against the Palestinians.

Rockets from Gaza again fell on Israeli cities overnight. And the Israelis retaliated once more.

Behind all this, a land so divided for so long feels, right now, extremely tense.

Adblock test (Why?)

https://news.google.com/__i/rss/rd/articles/CBMif2h0dHBzOi8vbmV3cy5za3kuY29tL3N0b3J5L2lzcmFlbC1nYXphLXZpb2xlbmNlLXN0cmVldC1iYXR0bGVzLWJyZWFrLW91dC1pbi1jaXRpZXMtd2hlcmUtamV3cy1hbmQtYXJhYnMtaGF2ZS1jb2V4aXN0ZWQtMTIzMDQ5NjTSAYMBaHR0cHM6Ly9uZXdzLnNreS5jb20vc3RvcnkvYW1wL2lzcmFlbC1nYXphLXZpb2xlbmNlLXN0cmVldC1iYXR0bGVzLWJyZWFrLW91dC1pbi1jaXRpZXMtd2hlcmUtamV3cy1hbmQtYXJhYnMtaGF2ZS1jb2V4aXN0ZWQtMTIzMDQ5NjQ?oc=5

2021-05-13 03:43:27Z
52781591515543

Rockets pound Israel after militants killed - Israel-Gaza @BBC News live BBC - BBC

Adblock test (Why?)

https://news.google.com/__i/rss/rd/articles/CBMiK2h0dHBzOi8vd3d3LnlvdXR1YmUuY29tL3dhdGNoP3Y9QlpCU2VReXZGd2vSAQA?oc=5

2021-05-13 05:42:20Z
52781577069323

Israel-Gaza: Rockets pound Israel after militants killed - BBC News

Hamas militants have launched dozens of rockets at Israel after Israeli air strikes killed senior commanders and felled a multi-storey building in Gaza.

Reports say several locations in southern Israel were hit, killing a young child in Sderot.

The escalation of the fighting, which began on Monday, has prompted the UN to warn of a "full-scale war".

At least 65 people in Gaza, including 14 children, and seven people in Israel have been killed since then.

The fighting erupted after weeks of rising Israeli-Palestinian tension in East Jerusalem which culminated in clashes at a holy site revered by Muslims and Jews.

• Violence explodes in the mixed Arab-Jewish town of Lod
• Children terrified as locals scramble for cover
• Jeremy Bowen: Old grievances fuel new fighting
• Israel-Gaza violence dominates Arab media

Further violence in Israeli areas with mixed Jewish and Arab populations led to the arrests of more than 374 people on Wednesday evening, Israeli police said, and 36 officers being injured.

There were reports in Israeli media of both Jewish and Arab individuals being attacked by mobs in Israeli towns and cities.

They include a Jewish man who suffered injuries at the hands of Arabs in the city of Acre, and an Arab man who was dragged out of his car and beaten by a mob of right-wing Jews in Bat Yam.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, speaking late on Wednesday night, said he planned to send in military forces to help police maintain order in cities ruptured by violence.

Mr Netanyahu said the attacks in recent days amounted to "anarchy".

"Nothing can justify an Arab mob assaulting Jews, and nothing can justify a Jewish mob assaulting Arabs," he said in a video statement, as reported by the Times of Israel.

Reuters

Palestinian militants have been firing rockets into Israel since Monday night, and Israel has responded by hitting targets in the territory.

Hundreds of air strikes and rocket attacks have been carried out.

The Hamas-run health ministry in Gaza says that more than 360 people have been injured there since the conflict began, as well as the 65 who have died.

Mr Netanyahu said the government would use all its strength to protect Israel from enemies on the outside and rioters on the inside.

But the Palestinian Authority condemned Israel's "military aggression" in a tweet, saying it was "traumatizing an already beleaguered population of 2 million people".

What happened on Wednesday?

Militants in Gaza said they had fired 130 rockets into Israel in response to an Israeli aid raid which destroyed the al-Sharouk tower in Gaza City.

The tower, which is the third tall building to be destroyed by air strikes this week, housed al-Aqsa TV, the station run by Hamas.

Reuters

Israel said it had killed senior Hamas officials in Gaza, and was also targeting missile launching sites. Hamas confirmed a senior commander and "other leaders" had died.

The Israel Defence Forces (IDF) said on Wednesday that their strikes on Gaza were the largest since the conflict in 2014.

Residents had been warned to evacuate the buildings before fighter jets attacked; however health officials said there were still civilian deaths.

Five members of one family were killed in an air strike on Tuesday, including two young brothers, according to AFP news agency.

"We were laughing and having fun when suddenly they began to bomb us. Everything around us caught fire," their 14-year-old cousin, Ibrahim, said, breaking down in tears as he described their death.

Meanwhile millions of Israelis were in bomb shelters on Wednesday evening, according to the IDF, after sirens warning of rockets sounded across the country.

The child killed in the Israeli town of Sderot was named as Ido Avigal, aged six, who was caught in an attack on a block of flats.

Anna Ahronheim, the defence and security correspondent of the Jerusalem Post, described spending Tuesday night in a shelter with her five-month-old baby.

"To hear hundreds of interceptions and even to hear rockets fall near us was horrifying," she told the BBC.

On Thursday morning, the IDF said about 1,500 rockets had been fired from Gaza into Israeli cities since hostilities escalated at the start of this week.

Reuters

On Wednesday morning an Israeli soldier was killed by an anti-tank missile fired from Gaza into Israel, authorities said, while two Israeli Arabs died in Lod when a rocket hit their car.

How has the world responded?

United Nations Secretary General António Guterres said he was "gravely concerned" by the ongoing violence. The UN Security Council has met to discuss the issue, but has not issued a statement.

In a phone call with Mr Netanyahu on Wednesday, US President Joe Biden offered his support for Israel's security but stressed the need to restore "a sustainable calm".

"My expectation and hope is that this will be closing down sooner than later, but Israel has a right to defend itself when you have thousands of rockets flying into your territory," he told reporters at the White House.

US Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, said he had sent an envoy to the region to meet both sides.

Russia has called for an urgent meeting of the Middle East Quartet (the US, EU, UN and Russia).

A Russian foreign ministry statement quoted a Hamas spokesman as saying the movement was ready for a ceasefire if Israel stopped "violent acts" in East Jerusalem and "illegal measures in respect of its native Arab residents".

What has caused the violence?

The fighting between Israel and Hamas was triggered by days of escalating clashes between Palestinians and Israeli police at a holy hilltop compound in East Jerusalem.

The site is revered by both Muslims, who call it the Haram al-Sharif (Noble Sanctuary), and Jews, for whom it is known as the Temple Mount. Hamas demanded Israel remove police from there and the nearby predominantly Arab district of Sheikh Jarrah, where Palestinian families face eviction by Jewish settlers. Hamas launched rockets when its ultimatum went unheeded.

Palestinian anger had already been stoked by weeks of rising tension in East Jerusalem, inflamed by a series of confrontations with police since the start of the Islamic holy month of Ramadan in mid-April.

• What makes Jerusalem so holy?
• The Israel-Palestinian conflict explained

It was further fuelled by the threatened eviction of Palestinian families from their homes in East Jerusalem by Jewish settlers and Israel's annual celebration of its capture of East Jerusalem in the 1967 Middle East war, known as Jerusalem Day.

The fate of the city, with its deep religious and national significance to both sides, lies at the heart of the decades-old Israel-Palestinian conflict. Israel in effect annexed East Jerusalem in 1980 and considers the entire city its capital, though this is not recognised by the vast majority of other countries.

Palestinians claim the eastern half of Jerusalem as the capital of a hoped-for state of their own.

Are you in Israel or Gaza and affected by these events? Please share your story by emailing haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.

Please include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can also get in touch in the following ways:

• WhatsApp: +44 7756 165803
• Tweet: @BBC_HaveYourSay
• Please read our terms & conditions and privacy policy

If you are reading this page and can't see the form you will need to visit the mobile version of the BBC website to submit your question or comment or you can email us at HaveYourSay@bbc.co.uk. Please include your name, age and location with any submission.

Adblock test (Why?)

https://news.google.com/__i/rss/rd/articles/CBMiNWh0dHBzOi8vd3d3LmJiYy5jby51ay9uZXdzL3dvcmxkLW1pZGRsZS1lYXN0LTU3MDk0NzM30gEA?oc=5

2021-05-12 22:55:13Z
52781577069323

House Republicans oust Liz Cheney from leadership post - Financial Times

Liz Cheney has been ousted from Republican congressional leadership over her opposition to Donald Trump, the latest dramatic development in an intraparty war over the former US president.

GOP lawmakers voted overwhelmingly to remove Cheney from party leadership in a closed-door meeting on Capitol Hill on Wednesday morning. The vote was held by voice, rather than a recorded ballot.

Cheney, who is a staunch economic and geopolitical conservative, told reporters after Wednesday’s vote that she was ready to “lead the fight” against Trump’s influence in the GOP.

“I will do everything I can to ensure that the former president never again gets anywhere near the Oval Office,” Cheney said. “We have seen the danger that he continues to provoke with his language.”

The vote came a day after Cheney tore into her fellow Republicans for their support of Trump, who continues to repeat false claims that last year’s election was stolen from him.

“Our duty is clear. Every one of us who has sworn the oath must act to prevent the unravelling of our democracy,” Cheney told her fellow lawmakers in a blistering speech on the floor of the US House of Representatives. “Remaining silent, and ignoring the lie, emboldens the liar.”

She added: “I will not participate in that. I will not sit back and watch in silence while others lead our party down a path that abandons the rule of law and joins the former president’s crusade to undermine our democracy.”

The Wyoming congresswoman’s relationship with fellow Republicans deteriorated after the January 6 attack on the US Capitol, which interrupted the certification of Joe Biden’s electoral victory and left five people dead. Cheney, daughter of former vice-president Dick Cheney, was one of 10 House Republicans who voted to impeach Trump for his role in the riot.

She survived a confidence vote of her peers in February, but her base of support has eroded in recent weeks. The most senior House Republican, Kevin McCarthy, openly campaigned for her removal and said he would support her being replaced by Elise Stefanik, the New York Republican who is loyal to Trump. McCarthy this week wrote to colleagues saying: “It’s clear that we need to make a change.”

Cheney’s expulsion from Republican party leadership underscores the enduring influence Trump has on the GOP heading into next year’s midterm elections, when Republicans will jockey to regain control of both the House of Representatives and the Senate.

Lindsey Graham, the Republican senator from South Carolina and fierce Trump ally, said Cheney was a “solid conservative and strong voice on national security”, but had taken a stance that was “out of the mainstream of the Republican party”.

Cheney told reporters on Wednesday she did not feel betrayed by her colleagues, but added that the caucus vote was “an indication of where the Republican party is”.

“I think that the party is in a place that we have got to bring it back from, and we have got to get back to a position where we are a party that can fight for conservative principles, that can fight for substance,” she said. “We cannot be dragged backward by the very dangerous lies of a former president.”

Chuck Schumer, the Democratic Senate majority leader, said Republicans had reached a “new and very dangerous low point”, adding: “Congresswoman Cheney spoke truth to power, and for that, she has been fired.

“Make no mistake,” he added. “The congresswoman and I disagree on so many policy issues. But we both agree that truth matters.”

Despite being banned from most social media platforms, Trump continues to release regular statements through Save America, his fundraising vehicle.

On Wednesday morning, the former president said House Republicans had a “great opportunity” to “rid themselves of a poor leader, a major Democrat talking point, a warmonger and a person with absolutely no personality or heart”, calling Cheney “bad for our country and bad for herself”.

Adblock test (Why?)

https://news.google.com/__i/rss/rd/articles/CBMiP2h0dHBzOi8vd3d3LmZ0LmNvbS9jb250ZW50LzMzOTYxYzEwLWNiMTAtNDNmOS04NTFkLWRmY2Y3Njg3Mzk0M9IBP2h0dHBzOi8vYW1wLmZ0LmNvbS9jb250ZW50LzMzOTYxYzEwLWNiMTAtNDNmOS04NTFkLWRmY2Y3Njg3Mzk0Mw?oc=5

2021-05-12 15:39:42Z
52781581663055