Israel Increases Attacks; Deny ground incursion into Gaza

Israel concentrates forces in area contiguous to Gaza 3:52

Jerusalem (CNN) -

Gaza came under heavy artillery fire on Friday morning amid reports, later conclusively denied, that the Israeli army had launched a possible ground invasion of the Strip.

A tweet from the army, simply saying "IDF air and ground troops are currently attacking in the Gaza Strip" - which coincided with the start of a new round of artillery and airstrikes - led many news organizations to reporting that a ground incursion, much discussed in the Israeli media on Thursday, was underway.

(Photo by EMMANUEL DUNAND / AFP via Getty Images)

A clarification came about an hour later.

"There are currently no IDF ground troops inside the Gaza Strip," army spokesman Lt. Col. Jonathan Conricus told CNN early Friday local time.

• Situation in Israel: minute by minute of the conflict with the Palestinians

A CNN producer in Gaza reported heavy incoming artillery fire by Israeli forces, as well as dozens of airstrikes.

United Nations officials inside Gaza said dozens of people had fled their homes in the north and east of the enclave to seek refuge in schools belonging to the United Nations aid agency for Palestinian refugees, which are considered shelters. designated emergency services.

This is how the Iron Dome of Israel works 3:08

A few kilometers away, residents of the Israeli city of Ashkelon were fleeing back to their bomb shelters, as sirens wailed warning of a new barrage of rockets.

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Earlier in the day, Israel's defense minister, Benny Gantz, warned that Israel has "many, many more targets" and there is no time limit on its military operations against Gaza, as the Israeli army and Palestinian fighters continued to exchange. deadly airstrikes and rocket bombardments.

Israel has summoned 7,000 army reservists so far, he added.

Most analysts believe that the current accumulation of armor and infantry from a single division is not enough to carry out such a major raid.

Fighters in Gaza have fired more than 1,750 rockets at Israel since the new conflict began Monday afternoon.

Of these, hundreds have failed or been intercepted by Israel's Iron Dome defense system.

Israel has responded with devastating airstrikes in Gaza.

Israel's bombing campaign in Gaza has so far killed at least 109 people, including 28 children and 15 women, the Gaza-based Palestinian Ministry of Health reported on Thursday.

At least 621 people have been injured as a result of Israeli airstrikes this week, the ministry added.

Seven Israelis have been killed and more than 200 injured since Monday, the Israeli army said.

A six-year-old boy was killed on Wednesday when a rocket fired from Gaza hit a residential building in Sderot, according to an emergency service.

This is the map of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict 1:04

Addressing Israeli troops on Thursday, Gantz said: "I am saying this explicitly: we will continue to defend and we will continue to attack until the fire stops and we will ensure a lasting silence."

Riots and violent clashes between Arab and Jewish citizens also spread across several Israeli cities this week, prompting Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to warn against "lynching" by either community.

In Bat Yam, south of Jaffa, graphic video Wednesday night showed a right-wing Jewish mob trying to lynch an Arab driver.

Police say the man was pulled from his car before the assault began.

The video shows about 20 people hitting him with metal objects and repeatedly kicking him in the head.

He was taken to hospital where police described his injuries as moderate.

In Acre, north of Haifa, an attempted lynching by an Arab mob left a Jew seriously injured, according to Israeli police.

A police spokesman said the mob attacked the policemen with stones before attacking the victim with stones and iron bars.

An Israeli policeman inspects the car of an Israeli Arab who was attacked and injured by a mob on Wednesday in Bat Yam, Israel.

Israel's ambassador to the UN, Gilad Erdan, wrote to the Security Council on Thursday urging it to strongly condemn what it called terrorist attacks from Gaza, as well as to support Israel's "right to defend itself," according to a statement.

A day earlier, the Palestinians wrote to the president of the UN Security Council and the president of the General Assembly to ask that the Council fulfill its responsibility to maintain international peace and security.

The United States has opposed a declaration proposed by the Security Council and has so far blocked any action by the body, preferring instead a more direct diplomacy.

A requested Security Council meeting on the crisis will not take place on Friday because the United States blocked the session, according to two UN diplomats.

The United States indicated it could accept a meeting next week, a UN diplomat said.

Relatives mourn Wednesday during the funeral of Reema Telbani and her 5-year-old son Zaid, who were killed in an airstrike in Gaza City.

No truce for the moment

A spokesman for Israel's Foreign Ministry on Thursday ruled out a ceasefire with Hamas in Gaza.

"We don't think this is the right time for a ceasefire," Lior Haiat told CNN.

"This is the time when Israel must defend itself and attack Hamas's terrorist infrastructure ... and we will reach a point where Hamas will understand that launching this type of terrorist attack against Israeli civilians is not effective for the future."

Asked if any mediating country has sent representatives to Israel, Haiat said he "does not have this information ... but a ceasefire is not on the table for Israel now."

A senior Hamas official, Izzat Al Rishq, told CNN early Thursday that Egypt, Qatar and the United Nations were communicating with Hamas about mediation to end the fighting.

Conflict between Israel and Palestinians could lead to war 2:31

"In Hamas we have told them that they must talk to the enemy to stop the aggression first and after that, Hamas will decide," Al Rishq said.

"We emphasize that we have the ability to stay long-term and respond to aggression (for) as long as it takes."

Fueled by controversy over planned evictions of Palestinian families in Jerusalem, and restrictions on a popular meeting point in East Jerusalem when Ramadan began, the conflict between Israelis and Palestinians erupted this week, rapidly escalating to one of the worst rounds. of violence between the two parties in recent years.

Netanyahu called the intercommunal violence in Israeli cities on Wednesday "unacceptable" and said he had ordered the police to adopt emergency powers, reinforce themselves with Border Police units and impose curfews where necessary.

"Nothing justifies the lynching of Jews by Arabs and nothing justifies the lynching of Arabs by Jews," he said in a statement.

“I tell the citizens of Israel that I don't care if their blood is boiling.

They cannot take the law into their own hands, "Netanyahu added.

"You can't grab an ordinary Arab citizen and try to lynch him, just like we can't see Arab citizens do this to Jewish citizens."

Is this the most violent conflict between Israel and Gaza?

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"We are very, very concerned about this deterioration," Israeli lawmaker Aida Touma-Suleiman told CNN's Hala Gorani in Acre in a live interview Wednesday night local time.

“Tear gas is filling houses and the situation is unsafe.

Today there have been attacks against Arab citizens in different cities, ”he said.

“I am very, very worried about this city (Acre).

The same is happening in Haifa.

The same is happening in Lod.

There are different attacks against different citizens.

The Arab-Israeli lawmaker went on to say: "I'm not sure the police can or are even willing to control the situation."

Decades of 'trampled' coexistence

Anger over the situation has fueled fierce protests in the central Israeli city of Lod, where Israeli police reported Wednesday that people were throwing stones at passing cars and blocking roads until early morning.

Lod Mayor Yair Revivo said decades of coexistence have been "trampled on."

He said that Israeli-Arab agitators had been "burning synagogues, Talmud Torah, dozens of vehicles, burning garbage containers, destroying Israeli flags and worse still, lowering the Israeli flag and raising the Palestinian flag, in a night of riots that injured people. policemen and residents who found themselves under siege ”.

A truck burns near the entrance to the city of Lod.

Meanwhile, an Arab-Israeli resident of Lod, Wael Essawi, told CNN that Israeli police and Jewish residents stormed a mosque during Tuesday night prayers before tear gas was fired and cars were set ablaze.

"We couldn't do anything, but we opened the windows so we could breathe… it was very intense," said Essawi.

Another resident, Khaled Zabarqah, said that following a Palestinian demonstration Monday against Israeli policies in Jerusalem, thousands of people were hit with tear gas, stun grenades and rubber bullets before the Israelis began to throw stones and hit the group. .

"My 15-year-old daughter woke up to the sound of stones being thrown at her bedroom window, then I was awakened by her screams of terror," Zabarqah said.

Israeli police patrol during clashes between Arab citizens and Jews in Lod on Wednesday.

"We could do nothing more than protect ourselves and defend ourselves with the tools we have, or we defend ourselves or they kill us," he said.

On Tuesday, a 25-year-old Arab-Israeli man was shot dead in the city by a 34-year-old Jewish man, who fired at protesters after they attacked him with stones, according to police.

Police arrested two suspects in connection with another shooting also in Lod.

Community violence was also reported on Wednesday in the Israeli cities of Tiberias, Umm al-Fahm and Hadera.

The unrest has also spread to the West Bank and East Jerusalem, where at least 322 Palestinian protesters were injured during clashes with the Israeli army in the West Bank and with Israeli police in East Jerusalem on Wednesday, according to a Media Luna brochure. Palestine Red obtained by CNN.

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Israel: attacks on 'terrorist targets'

The Israeli army said Thursday that it had struck more than 600 "terrorist targets" in Gaza since the recent hostilities began.

Israel has been "capable of hitting a significant part, if not most, of Hamas's military leadership" in the last three days of shelling, Israel Defense Forces spokesman Lt. Col. Jonathan Conricus told reporters. .

Smoke rises from a tower destroyed by Israeli airstrikes.

Israel did not yet have an exact number of enemy combatants killed, Conricus said.

"Until yesterday there were more than 30. It has increased since then," he said.

The IDF has hit "significant parts" of Hamas and Islamic Jihad's rocket-launching capability, he added, "but it is by no means totally degraded."

The Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades, Hamas's military wing, said in a statement Thursday that they had carried out drone strikes against Israeli targets using new "homemade 'Shehab' drones."

In a tweet, IDF spokesman Avichay Adraee said that Israeli forces were aware of the brigade's drone fleet and could "attack" them.

Airlines around the world, including Delta Air Lines, American Airlines, United Airlines, Lufthansa and British Airways, have canceled flights to Israel amid escalating violence.

CNN's Eyad Kourdi, Ibrahim Dahman, and Sugam Pokharel contributed to this report, as did journalist Ali Younes.

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