Enlarge image
Israeli security forces used tear gas during protests in the West Bank
Photo: ABBAS MOMANI / AFP
Even if the calls for a ceasefire are getting louder, the recent wave of violence in the Middle East continues.
According to rescue workers, at least two people died in new massive rocket attacks by militant Palestinians on Israeli towns.
Several other people were injured, some seriously.
According to the police, the dead were Thai people.
An attack in the border area with the Gaza Strip hit a house where foreign workers lived.
A total of twelve people have been killed in Israel and hundreds more injured in rocket fire from the Gaza Strip, which militant Palestinians began last Monday.
The Ministry of Health in Gaza put the number of deaths in Israeli attacks at 213, including 61 children.
1442 people were injured.
In Ramallah, thousands of Palestinians protested against Israel's actions in the Gaza Strip.
On one of the protest signs, against a background of blood-red handprints, it read: "Bombing children is not self-defense."
Many of the demonstrators waved Palestinian flags.
Some then went to an Israeli military lockdown to protest.
However, according to eyewitness reports, they were forced to withdraw using tear gas.
Eyewitnesses confess of firefight at Israeli checkpoint
There were also reports that Palestinian militants and Israeli soldiers engaged in a gun battle at the checkpoint.
According to the Palestinian Ministry of Health in Ramallah, one person was killed and more than a dozen people are said to have been shot injured.
It was the first time in a week of fighting that Palestinian militants had used firearms in the West Bank.
Before that, there were repeated clashes there, but also in the old city of Jerusalem and in Arab-populated areas in Israel.
So far, all international appeals to end the violence have died down.
Germany is now making around 40 million euros available for humanitarian aid in the Gaza Strip.
Federal Foreign Minister Heiko Maas announced this on the sidelines of an EU video conference on the recent escalation of the conflict between Israelis and Palestinians.
more on the subject
Germany and the Middle East conflict: Forget the two-state solutionA comment by Juliane von Mittelstaedt
It is good that Israel opened the border crossing, which was closed a week ago, for the flow of humanitarian goods to Gaza, said the SPD politician.
He also wants to work for better humanitarian supplies in Gaza at the EU level.
In the discussion about a possible role for the EU in mediating efforts to end the conflict, Maas spoke out in favor of joint engagement with other actors.
"One building block of how the EU can get involved is the Middle East Quartet, which is now active again," he said, referring to the group from the USA, Russia, the United Nations and the EU.
Maas once again demanded an end to the violence from the Islamist Hamas.
"With its rocket terror, Hamas has deliberately escalated a situation that was already extremely tense - with terrible consequences for Israelis and also for the civilian population in Gaza," he said.
"The guns must now finally be silent." In the past few days the German government had already emphasized Israel's right to protect itself against Hamas' rocket terror.
asc / dpa / AFP
