Palestinian fighters slipped into an Israeli village from the Gaza Strip and fought a gun battle with troops on Monday as an unofficial truce called for the Muslim Eid al-Fitr festival disintegrated.
U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon expressed alarm on Wednesday that 20 rockets found hidden in a United Nations school in the Gaza Strip had gone missing and directed the world body to deploy experts to deal with the situation.
The United States has committed $47 million to help alleviate the humanitarian crisis in Gaza.
The U.S. State Department warned American citizens to defer non-essential travel to Israel and the West Bank.
An Israeli soldier was killed in Israel’s Gaza Strip incursion, the first Israeli military casualty in the latest conflict.
Expressing concern about civilian casualties, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said Israel’s operation in the Gaza Strip should be a “precise” one, targeting Hamas tunnels.
Amid rumors that a cease-fire between Israel and the Islamist Hamas movement is close after ten days of Hamas rocket attacks and Israeli air strikes on the Gaza Strip, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas is coming under criticism in both the West Bank and Gaza for not speaking out more strongly against Israel during the fighting.
The United States on Thursday called on Israel to do more to prevent Palestinian civilian casualties in its conflict with Hamas militants after four children were killed on a beach in the Gaza Strip.
Hamas said Israel\’s ground incursion into the Gaza Strip that started on Thursday would have \”dreadful consequences.\”
Some of the Israeli soldiers stationed on the Gaza border are calling for Israel to resettle the Gaza Strip — in song.
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