JEWISH KING JESUS IS COMING AT THE RAPTURE FOR US IN THE CLOUDS-DON'T MISS IT FOR THE WORLD.THE BIBLE TAKEN LITERALLY- WHEN THE PLAIN SENSE MAKES GOOD SENSE-SEEK NO OTHER SENSE-LEST YOU END UP IN NONSENSE.GET SAVED NOW- CALL ON JESUS TODAY.THE ONLY SAVIOR OF THE WHOLE EARTH - NO OTHER. 1 COR 15:23-JESUS THE FIRST FRUITS-CHRISTIANS RAPTURED TO JESUS-FIRST FRUITS OF THE SPIRIT-23 But every man in his own order: Christ the firstfruits; afterward they that are Christ’s at his coming.ROMANS 8:23 And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body.(THE PRE-TRIB RAPTURE)
DISEASES-ANIMAL TO HUMAN
REVELATION 6:7-8 (500 MILLION DEAD EACH FROM THE 4 JUDGEMENTS)(2 BILLION TOT DEAD HERE)
7 And when he had opened the fourth seal, I heard the voice of the fourth beast say, Come and see.
8 And I looked, and behold a pale horse:(CHLORES GREEN) and his name that sat on him was Death, and Hell followed with him. And power was given unto them over the fourth part of the earth,(2 billion) of (8 billion) to kill with sword,(WEAPONS)(500 million) and with hunger,(FAMINE)(500 million) and with death,(INCURABLE DISEASES)(500 million) and with the beasts of the earth.(ANIMAL TO HUMAN DISEASE)(500 million).
THE COVID-19 TOTALS.
WORLD OVER ALL CASES 159,591,969 DEAD 3,317,333 AS OF WED MAY 12,21
PROOF HALF ON EARTH DIE DURING THE 7 YR TRIBULATION PERIOD (8 BILLION ON EARTH)
REVELATION 6:7-8 (8 BILLION- 2 BILLION = 6 BILLION)
7 And when he had opened the fourth seal, I heard the voice of the fourth beast say, Come and see.
8 And I looked, and behold a pale horse:(CHLORES GREEN) and his name that sat on him was Death, and Hell followed with him. And power was given unto them over the fourth part of the earth,(2 BILLION) to kill with sword,(WEAPONS) and with hunger,(FAMINE) and with death,(INCURABLE DISEASES) and with the beasts of the earth.(ANIMAL TO HUMAN DISEASE).
REVELATION 9:15,18 (6 BILLION - 2 BILLION = 4 BILLION)
15 And the four(DEMONIC WAR) angels were loosed,
18 By these three was the third part of men killed,(2 BILLION) by the fire, and by the smoke, and by the brimstone, which issued out of their mouths.(NUCLEAR ATOMIC BOMBS)
HALF OF EARTHS POPULATION DIE DURING THE 7 YR TRIBULATION.(THESE VERSES ARE JUDGEMENT SCRIPTURES NOT RAPTURE SCRIPTURES)
LUKE 17:34-37 (8 TOTAL BILLION - 4 BILLION DEAD IN TRIB = 4 BILLION TO JESUS KINGDOM) (HALF DIE DURING THE 7 YR TRIBULATION PERIOD JUST LIKE THE BIBLE SAYS)(GOD DOES NOT LIE)(AND NOTICE MOST DIE IN WAR AND DISEASES-NOT COMETS-ASTEROIDS-QUAKES OR TSUNAMIS)
34 I tell you, in that night there shall be two men in one bed; the one shall be taken,(IN WW3 JUDGEMENT) and the other shall be left.(half earths population 4 billion die in the 7 yr trib)
35 Two women shall be grinding together; the one shall be taken,(IN WW3 JUDGEMENT) and the other left.
36 Two men shall be in the field; the one shall be taken,(IN WW3 JUDGEMENT) and the other left.
37 And they answered and said unto him, Where, Lord? And he said unto them, Wheresoever the body is, thither will the eagles be gathered together.(Christians have new bodies,this is the people against Jerusalem during the 7 yr treaty)(Christians bodies are not being eaten by the birds).THESE ARE JUDGEMENT SCRIPTURES-NOT RAPTURE SCRIPTURES.BECAUSE NOT HALF OF PEOPLE ON EARTH ARE CHRISTIANS.AND THE CONTEXT IN LUKE 17 IS THE 7 YEAR TRIBULATION OR 7 YR TREATY PERIOD.WHICH IS JUDGEMENT ON THE EARTH.NOT 50% RAPTURED TO HEAVEN.
MATTHEW 24:37-42 (THESE ARE JUDGEMENT SCRIPTURES-SURE NOT RAPTURE SCRIPTURES)
37 But as the days of Noe were, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.
38 For as in the days that were before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the ark,
39 And knew not until the flood came, and took them all away; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.
40 Then shall two be in the field; the one shall be taken,(IN WW3 JUDGEMENT) and the other left.41 Two women shall be grinding at the mill; the one shall be taken,(IN WW3 JUDGEMENT) and the other left.
42 Watch therefore:(FOR THE LAST DAYS SIGNS HAPPENING) for ye know not what hour your Lord doth come.
AMERICA (POLITICAL BABYLON)(NUKED BY SNEAK ATTACK FROM RUSSIA)
IN REVELATION 17 & 18 IS THE DESTRUCTION OF THE RELIGIOUS AND POLITICAL BABYLONS.IF YOU CAN NOT DECERN BETWEEN THE 2 BABYLONS IN REV 17 & 18.YOU WILL JUST THINK THEIR BOTH THE SAME.BUT NO-THERES A RELIGIOUS BABYLON (THE VATICAN IN REV 17)(AND THE POLITICAL BABYLON IN REV 18 (AMERICA OR NEW YORK TO BE EXACT)
ISAIAH 34:10
10 It (AMERICA-POLITICAL BABYLON) shall not be quenched night nor day; the smoke thereof shall go up for ever: from generation to generation it shall lie waste; none shall pass through it for ever and ever.
JEREMIAH 51:29-32 (CYBER ATTACK 1ST)
29 And the land shall tremble and sorrow: for every purpose of the LORD shall be performed against Babylon,(AMERICA-NEW YORK) to make the land of Babylon (AMERICA) a desolation without an inhabitant.
30 The mighty men of Babylon (AMERICA) have forborn to fight, they have remained in their holds: their might hath failed; they became as women: they have burned her dwellingplaces; her bars are broken.
031 One post shall run to meet another, and one messenger to meet another, to shew the king of Babylon (NEW YORK) that his city is taken at one end,
32 And that the passages are stopped,(THE WAR COMPUTERS HACKED OR EMP'D) and the reeds they have burned with fire, and the men of war are affrighted.(DON'T KNOW WHAT TO DO)
COMPLETE SILENCE AFTER AN EMP GOES OFF
REVELATION 8:1
1 And when he had opened the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven about the space of half an hour.
JEREMIAH 50:3,24
3 For out of the north (RUSSIA) there cometh up a nation against her, which shall make her land desolate, and none shall dwell therein: they shall remove, they shall depart, both man and beast.
24 I have laid a snare for thee, and thou art also taken, O Babylon,(AMERICA) and thou wast not aware: thou art found, and also caught, because thou hast striven against the LORD. (RUSSIA A SNEAK CYBER,EMP ATTACK,THEN NUKE ATTACK ON AM
FOR AT LEAST THE NEXT 3 DAYS ISRAEL WILL BE BOMBARDING GAZA.ISRAEL YOU HAVE TO TOTALY THIS TIME GET RID OF GAZA AND THE MURDERER ARABS. AND SET THERE CEMETARY WERE THE BIBLE SAYS IT WILL BE. EAST OF THE DEAD SEA IN THE JORDAN VALLEY.
EZEKIEL 39:11-22
11 And it shall come to pass in that day, that I will give unto Gog (RUSSIA/ARAB/MUSLIMS) a place there of graves in Israel, the valley of the passengers (EAST OF THE DEAD SEA IN JORDAN VALLEY) on the east of the sea: and it shall stop the noses of the passengers: and there shall they bury Gog (RUSSIAN) and all his multitude:(ARAB/MUSLIM HORDE) and they shall call it The valley of Hamongog.(BURIEL SITE OF THE 300 MILLION,RUSSIAN/ARAB/MUSLIMS)
12 And seven months shall the house of Israel be burying of them, that they may cleanse the land.(OF ISRAEL)
13 Yea, all the people of the land (OF ISRAEL) shall bury them; and it shall be to them a renown the day that I (GOD-JESUS) shall be glorified, saith the Lord GOD.
14 And they shall sever out men of continual employment,(NUCLEAR ATOMIC BOMB EXPERTS) passing through the land to bury with the passengers those that remain upon the face of the earth, to cleanse it: after the end of seven months shall they search.
15 And the passengers that pass through the land, when any seeth a man’s bone, then shall he set up a sign by it,(WON'T TOUCH IT) till the buriers have buried it (PROPERLY) in the valley of Hamongog.(RUSSIA/ARAB/MUSLIMS NEW BURIEL SITE)(EAST OF THE DEAD SEA IN THE JORDAN VALLEY)
16 And also the name of the city shall be Hamonah. Thus shall they cleanse the land.(OF THE ISRAEL-GOD HATERS)
17 And, thou son of man, thus saith the Lord GOD; Speak unto every feathered fowl,(500 MILLION MIGRATING BIRDS THREW ISRAEL EVERY SPRING,FALL) and to every beast of the field, Assemble yourselves, and come; gather yourselves on every side to my sacrifice that I do sacrifice for you, even a great sacrifice upon the mountains of Israel, that ye may eat flesh, and drink blood.(OF THE RUSSIAN/ARAB/MUSLIM ARMIES)
18 Ye shall eat the flesh of the mighty, and drink the blood of the princes of the earth, of rams, of lambs, and of goats, of bullocks, all of them fatlings of Bashan.
19 And ye shall eat fat till ye be full, and drink blood till ye be drunken, of my sacrifice which I have sacrificed for you.
20 Thus ye shall be filled at my table with horses and chariots, with mighty men, and with all men of war, saith the Lord GOD.
21 And I will set my glory among the heathen, and all the heathen shall see my judgment that I have executed, and my hand that I have laid upon them.
22 So the house of Israel shall know that I am the LORD their God from that day and forward.
Hamas hails ‘victory in battle for Jerusalem’ after onslaught on central Israel-Ismail Haniyeh says Gaza-ruling terror group ready for any scenario, celebrates ‘new balance of power’ with Israel after huge rocket barrages, eruption of violence in Arab sector-By Aaron Boxerman-12 May 2021, 12:59 am
Hamas terror chief Ismail Haniyeh said in a speech on Tuesday night that the Palestinians have set a new “balance of power” with Israel after a day of massive rocket attacks on Israel, including an unprecedented 130 rockets fired at central Israel in the evening.“We have achieved victory in the battle for Jerusalem, the defense of Jerusalem,” Haniyeh said. He later added: “Jerusalem is the axis of conflict.”Tuesday saw a barrage of missiles over central Israel not seen since 2014, when Hamas and Israel last fought an all-out war. Terror groups launched hundreds of rockets over Israel’s most densely populated areas, with air raid sirens wailing in Tel Aviv, Herzliya and as far north as Netanya.The escalation began late Monday afternoon, when Hamas fired six rockets toward the Jerusalem area, prompting the brief evacuation of the Knesset plenum, and the suspension of a Jerusalem Day Flag March in the Old City.Tensions had been rising in the capital since the beginning of Ramadan, with clashes between East Jerusalem Palestinians and Israeli police at the Old City’s Damascus Gate, prompted in part by the pending eviction of Palestinian families from East Jerusalem’s Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood, and subsequent heavy clashes around Al-Aqsa Mosque on the Temple Mount.The Hamas leader said that the terror group had been in contact with leaders around the region since events began to escalate in recent weeks.“There were contacts I held with regional leaders since the recent events broke out in Jerusalem, Sheikh Jarrah, Damascus Gate,” Haniyeh said.International mediators, including Egypt and Qatar, have been seeking to achieve a ceasefire as the conflict has escalated since Monday.“Hamas is ready for every scenario, whether escalation or ceasefire,” Haniyeh said.He added that Hamas “would not abandon Jerusalem, nor will we abandon resistance.”Haniyeh said Tuesday’s “victory” followed success Monday in preventing the annual march of largely right-wing religious-nationalist Jews from following its usual route into the Old City via Damascus Gate and through the Muslim Quarter, and a success days earlier when Israel’s High Court delayed a hearing on the pending evictions in Sheikh Jarrah.“What is taking place right now is an honor for our people, our nation,” Haniyeh said. “There is a new balance of power right now.”A woman in Rishon Lezion was killed and dozens were injured in the rocket onslaught on central Israel. The massive attack caused Israel to briefly suspend flights at its major international airport and cancel schools Wednesday in all areas south of Herzliya.Rockets also hit the Tel Aviv suburbs of Holon and Givatayim, injuring at least eight people, some of them seriously, police said.One rocket fell next to a bus in Holon, injuring four people, two of them seriously and two of them moderately. Medics said a five-year-old girl was among the wounded in Holon.The night was also marked by an eruption of unrest in various cities around Israel with substantial Arab populations. In Rahat, Haifa, Acre and beyond, Arab Israelis clashed violently with police. In Ramle, Jewish residents wielding clubs and rocks sought to stone Arab passersby.In Lod, three synagogues were set alight by Arab mobs, Channel 12 news said, in a huge eruption of violence. Over 30 cars belonging to Jewish residents were torched by Arab residents, stores vandalized, and petrol bombs thrown into Jewish homes; an Arab Israeli had been shot by a Jewish man on Monday night, in what eyewitnesses said was self-defense against mob violence.Lod Mayor Yair Revivo called for Israeli military intervention to control the situation Tuesday night, warning the civil war was erupting and comparing the situation to the Nazis’ Kristallnacht pogrom.“Gaza and Jerusalem and the 1948 areas are moving together,” Haniyeh said, in remarks apparently relating to the upsurge in violence in the Israeli Arab sector.Meanwhile, Israel continued to strike targets in the Gaza Strip. Israeli Chief of Staff Aviv Kohavi said that the Israeli military had struck over 500 targets since the beginning of hostilities on Monday.The Hamas-run health ministry said 30 Gazans were killed, including 10 minors, and 203 wounded in the ongoing escalation with Israel. Fifteen Gazans sustained serious injuries, according to Hamas health ministry spokesperson Ashraf al-Qidra. Israel said more than half of the fatalities were Hamas fighters.IDF Spokesperson Hidai Zilberman said a number of those killed in Gaza, including at least three children, were hit by errant rockets fired by Palestinian terrorists, not by Israeli airstrikes.The IDF spokesperson said Israel was taking steps to avoid Palestinian civilian casualties, but that they were liable to occur as Hamas deliberately operates within a densely populated area, using the residents of the Strip as human shields.Zilberman said the fighting was expected to last at least several days.Defense Minister Benny Gantz said the IDF would continue striking Hamas and other terrorists in the Strip until “long-term and complete quiet” is restored. Gantz also threatened Hamas’s leadership, saying its commanders would “be held responsible and pay the price for the aggression.”
Gantz: Gaza operation aims to ‘strike Hamas hard,’ make it ‘regret’ rockets-Defense minister says fighting likely to last several days; Netanyahu says IDF ordered to expand attacks on terror groups in the Strip, after 2 women killed in rocket attacks-By Judah Ari Gross Today, 6:26 pmUpdated at 6:58 pm
Defense Minister Benny Gantz on Tuesday said Israel’s goal with its ongoing strikes in the Gaza Strip in response to rocket fire from the enclave is to severely weaken the Hamas terror group and restore calm to southern Israel.Gantz said the operation, dubbed Guardian of the Walls, was likely to last at least several days as Israeli aircraft, ground forces and naval ships bombed assets and operatives of Hamas and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad.“The purpose of the operation is to strike Hamas hard, to weaken it and to make it regret its decision [to launch rockets at Israel],” Gantz said, speaking to reporters next to an Iron Dome missile defense battery in southern Israel.“Every bomb has an address. We will continue this in both the coming hours and the coming days. It’s hard to estimate how long it will take,” he said.Defense Minister Benny Gantz speaks to air defense soldiers operating an Iron Dome missile defense battery in southern Israel on May 11, 2021. (Judah Ari Gross/Times of Israel)-Israel Defense Forces Spokesperson Hidai Zilberman said the military was launching a major offensive against the Hamas terror group’s rocket launching capabilities in the northern Gaza Strip, with some 80 fighter jets, including the advanced F-35 aircraft, taking part in the operation.Zilberman said the military also conducted an additional targeted killing of a terrorist commander, killing the head of the Hamas’s anti-tank guided missile unit in Gaza City, Iyad Fathi Faik Sharir, who has led a number of attacks against Israel in recent years.“The ATGM unit in Gaza City was prepared to carry out anti-tank guided missile attacks at the time of the strike,” the military said, releasing footage of the raid.The spokesman said the IDF also bombed an attack tunnel approaching the border with Israel, which had Hamas special forces members in it at the time, who were killed.The defense minister said the catalyst for Hamas’s rocket attacks appeared to be the massive clashes in Jerusalem’s Old City and on the Temple Mount on Monday between Palestinians and Israeli security forces, as well as pending evictions of several Palestinian families from their homes in East Jerusalem’s Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood as a result of a contentious lawsuit currently being reviewed by the High Court of Justice.“Our efforts to cool things down in Jerusalem led to where they led, and ultimately Hamas acted against the State of Israel against Jerusalem on Jerusalem Day,” Gantz said, referring to the Israeli holiday marking the reunification of Jerusalem after IDF troops captured eastern parts of the city in the 1967 Six Day War.At 6 p.m. on Monday, after issuing an ultimatum to Israel to remove all its troops from the Temple Mount and Sheikh Jarrah, Hamas launched seven rockets at Jerusalem, all of which fell short of the capital. Several landed in open areas outside Jerusalem suburbs, sparking fires and damaging one home.Terror groups in the Strip then fired a massive barrage of rockets and mortar shells at cities and towns throughout southern Israel, notably Ashkelon and Sderot. These rocket attacks have continued regularly throughout Monday night and all of Tuesday. Hundreds of rockets and mortar shells have been fired at Israel in that time, killing at least two women in Ashkelon — an Israeli woman and a foreign worker — and injuring dozens more.The military later acknowledged that the Iron Dome missile defense system malfunctioned during the rocket barrage on Ashkelon in which the two women were killed, but that the issue had been resolved. Hamas said it had used a new type of rocket, the Sajil, which had a different type of flight path that was more difficult for the Iron Dome to intercept. The IDF refused to comment on the terror group’s claim.An Israeli firefighter extinguishes a burning vehicle after a rocket launched from the Hamas-run Gaza Strip hit the southern Israeli city of Ashkelon on May 11, 2021. (JACK GUEZ / AFP)-In response to the rocket attacks from Gaza, the IDF launched Operation Guardian of the Walls on Monday night, some three hours after the attack on Jerusalem, striking Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad targets in the Strip, as well as members of the terror group. According to the military, a number of high-level commanders in the groups have been targeted, including the head of PIJ’s rocket unit in the northern Gaza Strip and the brother of its former top commander, who was killed in an Israeli strike in November 2019, sparking a large conflict.According to Gaza’s Hamas-run health ministry, 28 Gazans have been killed in the fighting, including nine minors, and 125 wounded in the ongoing escalation with Israel. Fifteen Gazans sustained serious injuries, according to Hamas health ministry spokesperson Ashraf al-Qidra. Israel said more than half were Hamas fighters and that some of those killed, including at least three of the children, were struck by errant rockets fired by Palestinian terrorists, not Israeli strikes.Earlier in the day, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the Israeli military had been ordered to “intensify the severity and pace of the attacks.”“We are in the midst of a campaign,” he said. “Since yesterday afternoon the IDF has carried out hundreds of strikes against Hamas and Islamic Jihad in Gaza. We’ve hit commanders and many high-quality targets.”The Israel Defense Forces’ Arabic-language spokesperson Maj. Avichai Adraee warned residents of the Gaza Strip that the military was preparing to conduct a large number of airstrikes in the enclave.“The Israel Defense Forces is currently launching a large and exceptional round of airstrikes on the Gaza Strip,” Avichay Adraee wrote in a tweet.“For your safety: Stay away from any site that contains Hamas weapons,” he added.According to Zilberman, the military destroyed dozens of rocket launch tubes that the terror group has buried around the northern Gaza Strip. In order to avoid being killed by the IDF during rocket launches or having their weapons destroyed in advance, terror groups in the Strip typically bury their launch tubes and operate them remotely. Zilberman said “precise intelligence” led the IDF to the 50 to 70 rocket tubes that were bombed in the raids.The spokesman said the strikes would “totally neutralize” the rocket launching capabilities of at least three Hamas brigades in northern Gaza.Asked why the military was not striking all of Hamas’s rocket launchpads, Zilberman said the IDF was still conducting operations and will expand them going further.“This is not something that will end in 24 hours. This is something that will last,” he says, echoing the similar comments made by Gantz earlier in the day.According to Zilberman, 3,000 reservists have been called up to various units in the military, notably the Southern Command and Home Front Command, and reinforcements were sent to the Gaza Division from the Golani Infantry Brigade and 7th Armored Brigade. He said an additional Iron Dome missile defense battery has also been deployed in southern Israel.The Barzilai Medical Center in Ashkelon said that it treated 74 casualties, including two seriously wounded and two in moderate condition. Forty-nine people received treatment for light injuries, with the remainder suffering from anxiety.With a number of buildings in the city suffering direct hits over the course of the day and concerns over the number of residential buildings without bomb shelters, the Israel Defense Forces instructed residents to remain in reinforced areas. Although this restriction was since been lifted, residents were asked to remain within close proximity of a fortified location.Ashkelon Mayor Tomer Glam said some 25 percent of residents don’t have access to a protected area when rockets are fired at the city.“It is impossible when normal life becomes a state of emergency within minutes,” he told Army Radio. “There are houses from the 1960s where there is no basic protection — it is time for Treasury officials and decision-makers to understand what is happening here in the city.”Tuesday afternoon saw the rocket attacks shift slightly northward, with projectiles fired at Ashdod including a rocket that directly hit a residential building. Buildings were also hit in Ashkelon, including a school that was empty in light of military orders to close all academic institutions.On Monday night, a rocket directly struck a house in the Sha’ar Hanegev region, damaging it but not injuring its occupants.In the early hours of Tuesday, a missile hit a residential building in Ashkelon, wounding six Israelis, four of them members of the same family: parents in their 40s, an 8-year-old and an 11-year-old. The father was seriously hurt with a head wound and the others sustained light injuries from shrapnel.On Monday, an Israeli man was lightly injured when Palestinian terrorists fired an anti-tank guided missile at his car.The IDF spokesperson said Israel was taking steps to avoid Palestinian civilian casualties, but that they were liable to occur anyway as Hamas deliberately operates within a densely populated area, using the residents of the Strip as human shields.IDF Chief of Staff Aviv Kohavi on Tuesday afternoon gave the military a green light to keep targeting Hamas and PIJ members operating in the Strip and bombing sites connected to the terror groups’ rocket production and storage efforts.Soldiers from the IDF’s Golani Infantry Brigade and 7th Armored Brigade were sent to the Gaza border as reinforcements and additional troops were called in to aerial defense, intelligence and air force units, the military said. The police said that eight reserve companies of Border Police would be called up to help deal with disturbances across the country.Zilberman said the military was deploying additional air defenses throughout the country, notably in the Tel Aviv metropolitan area. Tel Aviv had yet to be targeted as of Tuesday afternoon, but the IDF suspected that rocket fire may be directed there as well.In light of the ongoing rocket attacks, Gantz on Monday declared the area within 80 kilometers (50 miles) of the Gaza Strip to be under military control, giving the IDF the power to issue directives to civilians there. The IDF ordered schools closed in communities near Gaza on Tuesday and limited gatherings to groups of 10 people outdoors and 50 people indoors. Businesses would be allowed to open only if they had easy access to bomb shelters.The military also limited gatherings in the Tel Aviv metropolitan area and the Shfela region around Beit Shemesh to 30 people outdoors and 50 people indoors. Schools and businesses there could also only be opened if they had easy access to a bomb shelter. A number of cities in central Israel announced they were preemptively canceling schools on Tuesday as a precautionary measure.Meanwhile, the Hamas-run health ministry in Gaza said that the Strip’s sole power plant was running low on diesel fuel after Israel closed all of its crossings on Monday evening in response to the hundreds of rockets fired.The coastal enclave normally receives most of its fuel through the Kerem Shalom commercial crossing with Israel, and according to the Gaza Electrical Company, one of the plant’s generators has already been turned off and the plant as a whole will likely shut down “soon” due to lack of fuel, threatening to severely restrict the number of hours of electricity Gazans receive.Al-Qidra said that an electrical shortage would threaten the effectiveness of Gaza’s health care system. “This will have a serious effect on public health and the health of our society,” he said.Hamas, which is officially dedicated to the destruction of the State of Israel, took effective control of the Gaza Strip in 2007 from the Palestinian Authority in a violent coup. Since then, Israel has imposed a naval blockade on the enclave, as well as stiff control over what can enter the Strip, maintaining that it is necessary in order to prevent terror groups from smuggling weapons into the area.The military initially believed that Hamas was not interested in a large-scale conflict with Israel at this time, but that assessment changed over the past two days and the IDF began preparing accordingly.
Fire billows from Israeli airstrikes in the Gaza Strip, controlled by the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas, on May 10, 2021. (MAHMUD HAMS / AFP)-Palestinian terror groups have tied the attacks to the unrest in Jerusalem connected to both prayer on the Temple Mount during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan and the pending eviction of a number of Palestinian families from their homes in East Jerusalem’s Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood.Israel has fought three large operations against Hamas and other terror groups in the Gaza Strip since 2008, most recently in 2014 with a 51-day war known as Operation Protective Edge.Aaron Boxerman and Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.
After rockets rain on Tel Aviv, Netanyahu says terror groups will pay dear price-PM: Terrorist leaders’ ‘blood on their own hands’; Defense Minister Gantz, IDF chief say many more Gaza targets in pipeline-By TOI staff-12 May 2021, 12:42 am
After over a hundred rockets fired from the Gaza Strip pummeled central Israel on Tuesday night, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that Hamas and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad terror groups will “pay a dear price” for their attacks on Israeli civilians.“Their blood is on their own hands,” Netanyahu said of the terror groups’ leadership, delivering statements alongside Defense Minister Benny Gantz and IDF Chief of Staff Aviv Kohavi.“We stand united in the face of a vile enemy. We all mourn the dead and pray for the wounded and stand behind the IDF forces,” the prime minister said after a day that saw three Israeli fatalities from the rocket fire.Rocket sirens blared repeatedly throughout central and southern Israel on Tuesday evening, sending millions of Israelis rushing for shelter, as Gaza-based terror groups fired multiple long-range rockets from the coastal enclave toward Tel Aviv and its suburbs.The Hamas terror group, which rules Gaza, claimed to have launched over 130 rockets in the volley — an unprecedented onslaught.In the central city of Rishon Lezion, a woman was killed by a rocket strike. Rockets also hit the Tel Aviv suburbs of Holon and Givatayim, injuring at least eight people, some of them seriously, police said.Israeli security forces stand by extinguished burnt vehicles in Holon near Tel Aviv, on May 11, 2021, after rockets from the Gaza Strip hit central Israel. (Ahmad GHARABLI/AFP)-Israeli jets earlier on Tuesday evening destroyed a 13-story residential building in Gaza City, in a retaliatory airstrike to the hundreds of rockets fired from Gaza since Monday afternoon.Netanyahu said that the military has so far struck hundreds of targets in the Gaza Strip and will continue to conduct raids in the enclave.“We continue with full force,” he said. “Hamas and [Palestinian Islamic] Jihad has paid and will pay a heavy price.”But he added that “this campaign will take time.”Saying that it “simply saves lives,” Netanyahu called on Israelis to follow all safety instructions issued by authorities.The Israel Defense Forces’ Home Front Command had instructed all residents of central and southern Israel to enter bomb shelters during the attacks. The Home Front Command also ordered schools shuttered south of Herzliya Wednesday amid the rocket bombardments from Gaza.Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at a press conference on the conflict with Gaza, May 11, 2021 (video screenshot)“With determination, unity and strength, we will restore security to the citizens of Israel,” Netanyahu vowed.Speaking after Netanyahu, Defense Minister Gantz said Israel has “a great many targets in the pipeline” that it can yet strike in Gaza.He said terror organizations “have been severely hit and will continue to be hit due to their reckless decision to fire at Israel.”He also called for calm between Arabs and Jews within the country.“The IDF keeps everyone safe, Jews and Arabs alike,” he said, calling for “all Israelis to behave responsibly and avoid violence.”Defense Minister Benny Gantz speaks to an air defense soldier operating an Iron Dome missile defense battery in southern Israel on May 11, 2021. (Ariel Hermoni/Defense Minister)-IDF Chief Kohavi said that the Israeli military has conducted strikes on over 500 targets in the past day and a half as part of the “Guardians of the Walls” operation, killing dozens of terrorist operatives, which he said have been painful to Palestinian terror groups in the enclave.“We are determined to strike terror groups in the most serious way possible,” Kohavi said.The IDF chief said the military will continue to conduct strikes on Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad sites in the Gaza Strip and is prepared for a wider conflict.Shin Bet chief Nadav Argaman, speaking at the same event, said it was “insufferable” for a terrorist organization to be threatening Israel, and added: “Now is not the time for talking.”Hamas and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad terror groups reported that several high-ranking commanders were killed in Israeli raids, including three top PIJ leaders in a drone strike on a building in the upscale Rimal neighborhood of Gaza City.One of those killed was the brother of another top PIJ commander, Baha Abu al-Ata, who was killed in an Israeli strike in November 2019, kicking off a major round of fighting in the Strip. Islamic Jihad vowed revenge for the death of the three commanders in its armed wing, saying the response will be “harsh.”Additionally, the IDF said it killed the head of Islamic Jihad’s special rocket unit, in an operation carried out in cooperation with the Shin Bet. Sameh Abed al-Mamluk was killed along with several other senior rocket officials, the army said.According to the IDF, the military’s targets also included the home of a top Hamas commander, Hamas’s intelligence headquarters in southern Gaza, two attack tunnels that approached the border with Israel, rocket production and storage sites, observation posts, military installations and launchpads.The IDF said it was also targeting terrorist operatives as they fired rockets or attempted to launch anti-tank missiles at Israel. On Monday, an Israeli man was lightly injured when Palestinian terrorists fired an anti-tank guided missile at his car.A Palestinian man inspects the rubble of a partially destroyed residential building after it was said to have been hit by Israeli retaliatory strikes on the al-Shati refugee camp in Gaza City, May. 11, 2021. (AP Photo/Khalil Hamra)-Hamas, which is officially dedicated to the destruction of the State of Israel, took effective control of the Gaza Strip in 2007 from the Palestinian Authority in a violent coup. Since then, Israel has imposed a naval blockade on the enclave, as well as stiff control over what can enter the Strip, maintaining that it is necessary in order to prevent terror groups from smuggling weapons into the area.The military initially believed that Hamas was not interested in a large-scale conflict with Israel at this time, but that assessment changed over the past two days and the IDF began preparing accordingly.Palestinian terror groups have tied the attacks to the unrest in Jerusalem to both tensions on the Temple Mount during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan and the pending eviction of a number of Palestinian families from their homes in East Jerusalem’s Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood.Israel has fought three large operations against Hamas and other terror groups in the Gaza Strip since 2008, most recently in 2014 with a 51-day war known as Operation Protective Edge.
Egypt: Israel hasn’t responded to our offer to mediate to defuse tensions-Diplomat involved in mediation attempts says Hamas relayed message that it was interested in deescalation, but would respond if Israeli strikes continued-By Agencies and Jacob Magid-Today, 8:46 pm
Egypt has reached out to Israel to help calm ongoing tensions amid days of unrest in Jerusalem and rocket fire from Gaza, but has yet to receive a response, its foreign minister told an emergency Arab League meeting Tuesday.The Israel Defense Forces expanded its airstrikes in the Gaza Strip Tuesday afternoon in retaliation for the firing of hundreds of rockets at Israeli cities, in an escalation sparked by violent unrest at Jerusalem’s flashpoint Temple Mount compound.The international community has called for calm, while Muslim countries have voiced outrage amid the worst flare-up of Israel-Palestinian violence in years.“In the last few days, Egypt extensively reached out to Israel and other concerned countries urging them to exert all possible efforts to prevent the deterioration of the situation in Jerusalem,” said Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry.“But we did not get the necessary response,” he told the meeting of the Arab League via videoconference.While not specifying which other countries Egypt contacted, Shoukry condemned “Israeli violations at the walls of Al-Aqsa Mosque which crossed over into Sheikh Jarrah” in East Jerusalem.Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry prepares to take a question during press conference following talks in Moscow, Russia, May 14, 2018. (Alexander Zemlianichenko/AP)“Egypt is still conducting intensive contacts with all international and regional actors in order to ensure calm in Jerusalem,” Shoukry said.A diplomat familiar with mediation attempts told The Times of Israel that Hamas relayed Tuesday morning that it was interested in deescalating tensions, but that it would respond if Israeli strikes continued.The diplomat also said that Israel has not responded to his country’s proposals aimed at ending the ongoing violence.Israeli media reports said Jerusalem is currently not interested in pursuing a truce as it seeks to exact a “heavy price” from the Hamas terrorist group over its rocket fire. The Saudi-based Al-Arabiya TV said on Tuesday, however, that Israel reached out to Egypt to mediate a ceasefire agreement.According to the Arabic-language Al-Jazeera network, Hamas has demanded that any ceasefire negotiations be preceded by an immediate cessation of Israeli military activity against Gaza, a demand Israel is unlikely to grant.Tensions have been running high in Jerusalem for days, with thousands of Palestinians clashing violently with Israeli police at the Temple Mount. The holy site is deeply revered by Muslims for its Al-Aqsa Mosque and by Jews, whose two biblical temples were built on the hilltop.Over 800 Palestinians and more than 30 police officers were wounded in the clashes, according to the Palestinian Red Crescent and Israeli police. Hundreds were hospitalized for wounds from rubber-tipped steel bullets and tear gas, the first aid group said.Palestinian violence also focused on the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Sheikh Jarrah. An Israeli court has ruled to evict a number of Palestinian families from their homes. The Palestinians live in houses built on land that courts have ruled were owned by Jewish religious associations before the establishment of Israel in 1948. The neighborhood has seen nightly clashes between protesters and police. The families have appealed the evictions to Israel’s Supreme Court.Speaking at the Tuesday gathering, Arab League chief Ahmed Aboul Gheit lambasted Israeli violence directed towards Palestinians in East Jerusalem.“Israel wants to convince the world that what happened in Sheikh Jarrah is a real estate dispute over some homes, as if we don’t have a memory,” he said.On Sunday, Israel’s Supreme Court delayed a potentially definitive hearing on the Sheikh Jarrah evictions. But the terror group launched a barrage of rockets toward Jerusalem on Monday afternoon after issuing a brief ultimatum. Rocket fire continued on southern Israel throughout the night and through Tuesday, with over 600 rockets fired overall and 200 intercepted, according to the army.Gheit described the government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as being “completely beholden to the hardened agenda of settlers and extremist religious parties in Israel.”An Israeli firefighter walks next to cars hit by a rocket fired from the Gaza Strip, in the southern Israeli town of Ashkelon, May 11, 2021. (AP Photo/Ariel Schalit)-Netanyahu warned Tuesday that Israel would “intensify the power” of its attacks on Hamas after two Israeli women were killed by rockets.In response to the ongoing rockets attacks, IDF fighter jets, aircraft and tanks struck some 130 targets in the Gaza Strip, most of them associated with Hamas, but also some linked to other terror groups in the enclave, including the Palestinian Islamic Jihad. Three Islamic Jihad commanders and a Hamas commander were killed in targeted Israeli strikes.According to the Hamas health ministry, 28 Gazans were killed, including nine minors, and 122 wounded. Israel says that at least 18 of them were terror group members.Local media has identified at least six of the minors so far. Mustafa Aloush, Zakaria Aloush, and Mohammad Suleiman were all high school students; Zakara and Mustafa were in eleventh grade, while Mohammad was in tenth grade.Another three children were allegedly killed in an Israeli airstrike in Beit Hanoun in the northern Gaza Strip, including a ten-year-old girl named Rahaf al-Masri. The Israeli military has said the children were killed by an errant Palestinian rocket, however, not Israeli fire.Fifteen Gazans sustained serious injuries, according to Hamas Health Ministry spokesperson Ashraf al-Qidra.
Hamas hits central Israel with unprecedented rocket fire; woman killed-Terror group says 130 projectiles fired at Tel Aviv area, injuring dozens; Ben Gurion Airport briefly shuttered, schools south of Herzliya closed Wednesday-By Judah Ari Gross and Aaron Boxerman-MAY 11,21
A woman was killed and dozens were injured on Tuesday evening when Palestinian terror groups in the Gaza Strip pummeled central Israel with a major rocket fusillade, in what appeared to be the largest-ever barrage aimed at the broader Tel Aviv area.The massive attack caused Israel to briefly suspend flights at its major international airport and cancel schools Wednesday in all areas south of Herzliya.Rocket sirens blared repeatedly throughout central and southern Israel on Tuesday evening, sending millions of Israelis rushing for shelter, as Gaza-based terror groups fired multiple long-range rockets from the coastal enclave toward Tel Aviv and its suburbs.The Hamas terror group, which rules Gaza, claimed to have launched over 130 rockets in the volley. There was no immediate statement from the Israel Defense Forces on the number of rockets fired.RAW FOOTAGE: This is the moment the Iron Dome intercepted a barrage of rockets over Tel Aviv and central Israel. pic.twitter.com/8jl8OTgWCl — Israel Defense Forces (@IDF) May 11, 2021-In the central city of Rishon Lezion, a woman was killed from a rocket strike, bringing the number of fatalities from the rocket fire in Israel since Monday to three. She was not immediately identified.Rockets also hit the Tel Aviv suburbs of Holon and Givatayim, injuring at least eight people, some of them seriously, police said.One rocket fell next to a bus in Holon, injuring four people, two of them seriously and two of them moderately. Medics said a five-year-old girl was among the wounded in Holon.In nearby Givatayim, fragments of a rocket that was intercepted by the Iron Dome missile defense system hit a house, lightly injuring four people inside, police said. A building in north Tel Aviv was also apparently hit.Ben Gurion Airport temporarily stopped all air traffic and diverted flights to Cyprus. Flights were resumed less than two hours later.The Israel Defense Forces’ Home Front Command had instructed all residents of central and southern Israel to enter bomb shelters during the attacks. The Home Front Command also ordered schools shuttered south of Herzliya Wednesday amid the rocket bombardments from Gaza.A tank on fire on the Ashkelon-Eilat oil pipeline after a rocket strike from Gaza, May 11, 2021 (Channel 12 screenshot)Separately, a large tank in Ashkelon belonging to the Eilat-Ashkelon oil pipeline was hit by a rocket earlier Tuesday and has been on fire for several hours.Firefighters have been working to douse the blaze, so far unsuccessfully.There are fears that hazardous materials could be spread by the fire, Channel 12 reported. But the local fire chief said the fire does not pose a danger to local residents, and that firefighters expect to put it out by the morning.Smoke billows from an Israeli airstrike on the Hanadi compound in Gaza City, controlled by the Palestinian Hamas terror group on May 11, 2021. (MOHAMMED ABED / AFP)-Israeli jets earlier on Tuesday evening destroyed a 13-story residential building in Gaza City, in a retaliatory airstrike to the hundreds of rockets fired from Gaza since Monday afternoon.Prior to the strike, people in the building received several warnings, including phone calls and messages, telling them to leave, and a preliminary “roof-knocking” strike — using a small missile to strike the roof with minimal damage in order to cause all inside to leave before a major raid.In videos from the scene, the building — which housed offices of several Hamas commanders — can be seen being enveloped in dense smoke before collapsing.Hamas earlier on Tuesday threatened to launch long-range rockets at Tel Aviv should Israel continue airstrikes in residential areas.It is not yet clear why Israel targeted the building. Channel 12 reported it apparently served as the home for many terror operatives, including some released by Israel during the 2011 Gilad Shalit prisoner exchange.After the rocket strikes on central Israel, Israeli forces destroyed the al-Jawharah high-rise in Gaza City, flouting additional threats from terror groups. Hamas and Islamic Jihad had previously said that such demolitions would lead to further rocket fire on Tel Aviv.Earlier on Tuesday, two women were killed and dozens injured, including two seriously, when Palestinian terror groups in the Gaza Strip fired massive barrages of rockets at southern Israel.The deaths in Ashkelon marked the first fatalities in Israel in the round of fighting with Gaza terrorist groups that began Monday evening.The deadly rocket attack directly struck a home where an elderly woman was sitting with her caregiver, 32-year-old Soumya Santosh. Santosh was killed while her elderly charge, 80, was hospitalized in serious condition, according to Hebrew media reports.Channel 12 reported that the rocket shelter was at least a minute’s run away from the woman’s home and the pair did not manage to reach it in time. The home did not have a fortified room of its own.According to the Haaretz daily, Santosh is survived by her husband and nine-year-old daughter.The second victim of the Ashkelon rocket fire was not immediately identified.A technical issue with an Iron Dome battery during the massive rocket barrage toward the coastal city on Tuesday afternoon prevented some rockets from being intercepted and may have been responsible for the casualties and deaths. The malfunction was repaired and the battery returned to being fully operational shortly after, Hebrew-language media reports said.The Barzilai Medical Center in Ashkelon on Tuesday said that it treated 95 casualties, including two seriously wounded and two in moderate condition.Before the attack on central Israel, the army said over 630 rockets were fired at Israel from Monday evening through Tuesday afternoon, 200 of which were intercepted by Iron Dome missile defense batteries while 150 others fell short of their targets and landed inside the Strip.Projectiles fired at Ashdod earlier Tuesday directly hit a residential building. Buildings were also hit in Ashkelon, including an empty school.On Monday night, a rocket directly struck a house in the Sha’ar Hanegev region, damaging it but not injuring its occupants.In the early hours of Tuesday, a missile hit a residential building in Ashkelon, wounding six Israelis, four of them members of the same family: parents in their 40s, an 8-year-old, and an 11-year-old. The father was seriously hurt with a head wound, and the others sustained light injuries from shrapnel.The assaults continued Tuesday night as the IDF conducted strikes on more than 500 targets in the coastal enclave, as part of what it has called “Operation Guardian of the Walls,” the military said. The previous day saw a major outbreak of violence from Gaza, including rare rocket fire on Jerusalem, where Palestinians have been clashing with police for days.In response to the ongoing rocket rockets, IDF fighter jets, aircraft and tanks struck some 500 targets in the Gaza Strip, most of them associated with Hamas, but also some linked to other terror groups in the enclave, including the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, IDF Chief of Staff Aviv Kohavi announced Tuesday night.Hamas and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad terror groups reported that several high-ranking commanders were killed in Israeli raids, including three top PIJ leaders in a drone strike on a building in the upscale Rimal neighborhood of Gaza City.One of those killed was the brother of another top PIJ commander, Baha Abu al-Ata, who was killed in an Israeli strike in November 2019, kicking off a major round of fighting in the Strip. Islamic Jihad vowed revenge for the death of the three commanders in its armed wing, saying the response will be “harsh.”Additionally, the IDF said it killed the head of Islamic Jihad’s special rocket unit, in an operation carried out in cooperation with the Shin Bet. Sameh Abed al-Mamluk was killed along with several other senior rocket officials, the army said.According to the IDF, the military’s targets also included the home of a top Hamas commander, Hamas’s intelligence headquarters in southern Gaza, two attack tunnels that approached the border with Israel, rocket production and storage sites, observation posts, military installations and launchpads.The IDF said it was also targeting terrorist operatives as they fired rockets or attempted to launch anti-tank missiles at Israel. On Monday, an Israeli man was lightly injured when Palestinian terrorists fired an anti-tank guided missile at his car.A Palestinian man inspects the rubble of a partially destroyed residential building after it was said to have been hit by Israeli retaliatory strikes on the al-Shati refugee camp in Gaza City, May. 11, 2021. (AP Photo/Khalil Hamra)-Palestinian media also reported strikes around the southern cities of Rafah and Khan Younis and on an apartment building in the al-Shati camp near Gaza city. A building was also destroyed in Gaza City’s upscale Tel al-Hawa neighborhood.The Hamas Health Ministry said 30 Gazans were killed, including 10 minors, and 203 wounded in the ongoing escalation with Israel. Fifteen Gazans sustained serious injuries, according to Hamas Health Ministry spokesperson Ashraf al-Qidra. Israel said more than half were Hamas fighters.IDF Spokesperson Hidai Zilberman said a number of those killed in Gaza, including at least three children, were hit by errant rockets fired by Palestinian terrorists, not by Israeli airstrikes.The IDF spokesperson said Israel was taking steps to avoid Palestinian civilian casualties, but that they were liable to occur anyway as Hamas deliberately operates within a densely populated area, using the residents of the Strip as human shields.Israel on Tuesday showed no indications that it was interested in an immediate ceasefire, as Zilberman said the fighting was expected to last at least several days.Defense Minister Benny Gantz said the IDF would continue striking Hamas and other terrorists in the Strip until “long-term and complete quiet” is restored. Gantz also threatened Hamas’s leadership, saying its commanders would “be held responsible and pay the price for the aggression.”Hamas, which is officially dedicated to the destruction of the State of Israel, took effective control of the Gaza Strip in 2007 from the Palestinian Authority in a violent coup. Since then, Israel has imposed a naval blockade on the enclave, as well as stiff control over what can enter the Strip, maintaining that it is necessary in order to prevent terror groups from smuggling weapons into the area.The military initially believed that Hamas was not interested in a large-scale conflict with Israel at this time, but that assessment changed over the past two days and the IDF began preparing accordingly.Palestinian terror groups have tied the attacks to the unrest in Jerusalem connected to both prayer on the Temple Mount during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan and the pending eviction of a number of Palestinian families from their homes in East Jerusalem’s Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood.Israel has fought three large operations against Hamas and other terror groups in the Gaza Strip since 2008, most recently in 2014 with a 51-day war known as Operation Protective Edge.Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.
Kristallnacht in Lod’: State of emergency as Arab mobs set synagogues on fire-Eruptions of Arab violence across Israel; Lod mayor describes ‘civil war’ in Jewish-Arab city, army sent in as police chief calls situation unprecedented-By TOI staff-12 May 2021, 1:56 am
Intense Arab rioting broke out in the central Israeli city of Lod late Tuesday, with three synagogues and numerous shops reportedly set on fire, and dozens of cars set alight. The Israeli government declared a state of emergency in the mixed Jewish-Arab city, and urgently despatched several Border Police companies to work to restore order.Some residents reported power was cut in their homes and petrol bombs were thrown through their windows, Channel 12 news said, and police acknowledged having to escort some residents from a community center to their homes as Arab mobs marauded in the streets. A local man, 56, was seriously hurt when hit by a slab in his car, and was hospitalized. Another local resident was seriously hurt.The mayor, Yair Revivo, said City Hall and a local museum were also attacked, and compared the situation to the Nazis’ 1938 Kristallnacht pogrom. “Civil war” is breaking out, he said, lamenting that decades of coexistence efforts had collapsed.After he appealed directly to Prime Minister for urgent help, a state of emergency was declared in the city for the first time in decades, and large Border Police forces deployed to work to restore order. “Prime Minister Netanyahu directed that lawbreakers be dealt with severely and that units on the ground be reinforced in order to restore quiet and order to the city forthwith,” a government statement said. ????A synagogue is burning in Lod-pic.twitter.com/Qk0smCbtow— Gabriel Hébert-Røuillier (@Gab_H_R) May 11, 2021-National Police Commissioner Kobi Shabtai called the situation unprecedented. “We are seeing a situation in the mixed (Jewish Arab) cities that we have never seen before, including the incidents of October 2000,” Shabtai said. (Widespread rioting broke out among Arab Israelis in October 2000 at the start of the second Intifada.)-Arab violence erupted in numerous other cities across Israel, and there were also reports of Jewish revenge attacks, including in Lod, where a Muslim cemetery was set ablaze.Attacks were reported on Jewish homes in Ramle, where cars were also stoned. In Acre, a restaurant and a hotel were set ablaze. Roads were blocked in Umm al-Fahm. There were confrontations reported after midnight in Jaffa, where a car was overturned and set alight, and even minor fights reported in Tel Aviv’s Habimah Square.The surge in violence came hours after Hamas fired some 130 rockets at central Israel, and hailed “victory” in what its leader Ismail Haniyeh said was “the battle for Jerusalem.” Hamas later hailed Israeli Arabs for joining the struggle against Israel.Lod resident Shiloh Fried told Channel 12: “Gangs of Arab youths are going street to street, burning stores, smashing windows… Jewish families are huddled at home, terrified of going out… Their cars are being set alight outside… Police are nowhere to be seen.”There were reports that some residents were avoiding using public shelters during rocket sirens, out of fear they would be attacked by mobs.Channel 12 also showed footage of Jewish residents of Lod hurling rocks at cars of Arab residents, though Fried said these incidents were minor ones compared to the scope of Arab rioting. An Arab resident was killed on Monday night amid violence, in what Jewish eyewitnesses said was self-defense against Arab assailants.Before the army was sent in, Lod Mayor Revivo had warned “this is too big for police.”“This is Kristallnacht in Lod,” Revivo said on Channel 12. “I have called on the prime minister to declare a state of emergency in Lod. To call in the IDF. To impose a curfew. To restore quiet… There is a failure of governance… This is a giant incident — an Intifada of Arab Israelis. All the work we have done here for years [on coexistence] has gone down the drain.“All of Israel should know, this is a complete loss of control,” Revivo added, sounding desperate. “This is unthinkable. Synagogues are being burned. Hundreds of cars set alight. Hundreds of Arab thugs are roaming the streets… Civil war has erupted in Lod… The Orthodox-nationalist community here has guns. I’m imploring them to go back home but they understandably want to protect their homes. Petrol bombs are being thrown into [Jewish] homes. The situation is incendiary.”Situation getting out of hand in Lod. An Arab citizen shoots at Israeli police with an automatic weapon. #Israel pic.twitter.com/nxPfcAh14V— Joe Truzman (@Jtruzmah) May 11, 2021-Reacting to the ongoing riots in mixed Arab-Jewish cities across Israel, Meretz MK Isawi Frej said “anyone who calls themself a public figure in Arab society must call for restoring calm.”“I call on [the Joint List’s] Ahmad Tibi, Ayman Odeh along with Arab mayors: This is the test of your leadership. Don’t hide. Don’t only speak out during elections. It’s your job to go out and influence,” Frej said.President Reuven Rivlin had urged Arab Israeli leaders earlier on Tuesday to speak out against the previous night’s outbursts of violence.“I just made an urgent phone call to Mudar Younes, chair of the Arab Councils Mayors Committee, and passed on a sharp message about the Arab violence that went wild in the streets of some mixed cities last night, including Lod, Ramle, and the cities of the Triangle,” Rivlin said in a statement on social media.“We must not let those sights recur. We must not become hostages to the terrorist murderers of Hamas and Islamic Jihad, who fire on Israel’s citizens indiscriminately.”In his statement, Rivlin said he asked Younes “to do everything in his power to calm things down. The people of Israel, Jews and Arabs alike, must hear the Arab leadership sounding a clear and strident voice against this wild violence, against damage to synagogues, against this wild behavior. The police will do all that is required to restore the peace. I ask for cooperation from the Arab leadership to restore calm and law and order to our streets.”Aaron Boxerman and Judah Ari Gross contributed to this report
