Israel shells Lebanon in response to rocket fire — live updates

• Israel confirms shelling targeted areas in Lebanon
• Gaza death toll reaches 212, including 61 children
• Gaza says sole COVID lab stopped testing due to Israeli strikes
• Norway says the UN Security Council is set to hold emergency talks on Tuesday
• US President Biden tells Netanyahu he backs a cease-fire

This article was last updated at 23:53 UTC

UNIFIL says situation in southern Lebanon has calmed

The United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) said security control was intensified in southern Lebanon after rockets were fired into and from Israel. 

“UNIFIL in coordination with the Lebanese Armed Forces is enhancing security control in the area and has intensified patrols to prevent any further incidents that endanger the safety of the local population and the security of southern Lebanon,” the UN peacekeeping mission said on Twitter. 

“The situation in the area is now calm,” the UNIFIL added. 

US expresses ‘support’ for cease-fire 

US President Joe Biden backed a cease-fire during a call with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. 

However, Biden stopped short of openly demanding a truce.

The White House said that Biden “expressed his support for a cease-fire and discussed US engagement with Egypt and other partners towards that end.”

The call came following reports of the US blocking a United Nations Security Council statement calling for de-escalation in the Israel-Gaza violence. 

How realistic is a two-state solution?

The idea of a two-state solution is almost as old as the conflict between Israelis and Palestinians. In light of the current hostilities, it also seems increasingly unrealistic. DW looks at the history of trying to find a two-state solution.

• A history of the Middle East peace process

  UN Security Council Resolution 242, 1967

  United Nations Security Council Resolution 242, passed on November 22, 1967, called for the exchange of land for peace. Since then, many of the attempts to establish peace in the region have referred to 242. The resolution was written in accordance with Chapter VI of the UN Charter, under which resolutions are recommendations, not orders.

• A history of the Middle East peace process

  Camp David Accords, 1978

  A coalition of Arab states, led by Egypt and Syria, fought Israel in the Yom Kippur or October War in October 1973. The conflict eventually led to the secret peace talks that yielded two agreements after 12 days. This picture from March 26, 1979, shows Egyptian President Anwar Sadat, his US counterpart Jimmy Carter and Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin after signing the accords in Washington.

• A history of the Middle East peace process

  The Madrid Conference, 1991

  The US and the former Soviet Union came together to organize a conference in the Spanish capital. The discussions involved Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, and the Palestinians — not from the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) — who met with Israeli negotiators for the first time. While the conference achieved little, it did create the framework for later, more productive talks.

• A history of the Middle East peace process

  Oslo I Accord, 1993

  The negotiations in Norway between Israel and the PLO, the first direct meeting between the two parties, resulted in the Oslo I Accord. The agreement was signed in the US in September 1993. It demanded that Israeli troops withdraw from West Bank and Gaza Strip and a self-governing, interim Palestinian authority be set up for a five-year transitional period. A second accord was signed in 1995.

• A history of the Middle East peace process

  Camp David Summit Meeting, 2000

  US President Bill Clinton invited Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak and PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat to the retreat in July 2000 to discuss borders, security, settlements, refugees and Jerusalem. Despite the negotiations being more detailed than ever before, no agreement was concluded. The failure to reach a consensus at Camp David was followed by renewed Palestinian uprising, the Second Intifada.

• A history of the Middle East peace process

  The Arab Peace Initiative, 2002

  The Camp David negotiations were followed first by meetings in Washington and then in Cairo and Taba, Egypt — all without results. Later the Arab League proposed the Arab Peace Initiative in Beirut in March 2002. The plan called on Israel to withdraw to pre-1967 borders so that a Palestinian state could be set up in the West Bank and Gaza. In return, Arab countries would agree to recognize Israel.

• A history of the Middle East peace process

  The Roadmap, 2003

  The US, EU, Russia and the UN worked together as the Middle East Quartet to develop a road map to peace. While Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas accepted the text, his Israeli counterpart Ariel Sharon had more reservations with the wording. The timetable called for a final agreement on a two-state solution to be reached in 2005. Unfortunately, it was never implemented.

• A history of the Middle East peace process

  Annapolis, 2007

  In 2007, US President George W. Bush hosted a conference in Annapolis, Maryland, to relaunch the peace process. Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas took part in talks with officials from the Quartet and over a dozen Arab states. It was agreed that further negotiations would be held with the goal of reaching a peace deal by the end of 2008.

• A history of the Middle East peace process

  Washington, 2010

  In 2010, US Middle East Envoy George Mitchell convinced Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to agree to and implement a 10-month moratorium on settlements in disputed territories. Later, Netanyahu and Abbas agreed to relaunch direct negotiations to resolve all issues. Negotiations began in Washington in September 2010, but within weeks there was a deadlock.

• A history of the Middle East peace process

  Cycle of escalation and ceasefire continues

  A new round of violence broke out in and around Gaza in late 2012. A ceasefire was reached between Israel and those in power in the Gaza Strip, which held until June 2014. The kidnapping and murder of three Israeli teenagers in June 2014 resulted in renewed violence and eventually led to the Israeli military operation Protective Edge. It ended with a ceasefire on August 26, 2014.

• A history of the Middle East peace process

  Paris summit, 2017

  Envoys from over 70 countries gathered in Paris, France, to discuss the conflict between Israelis and Palestinians. Netanyahu slammed the discussions as “rigged” against his country. Neither Israeli nor Palestinian representatives attended the summit. “A two-state solution is the only possible one,” French Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault said at the opening of the event.

• A history of the Middle East peace process

  Deteriorating relations in 2017

  Despite the year’s optimistic opening, 2017 brought further stagnation in the Israeli-Palestinian peace process. A deadly summer attack on Israeli police at the Temple Mount, a site holy to both Jews and Muslims, sparked deadly clashes. Then US President Donald Trump’s plan to move the US Embassy to Jerusalem prompted Palestinian leader Abbas to say “the measures … undermine all peace efforts.”

• A history of the Middle East peace process

  Trump’s peace plan backfires, 2020

  US President Donald Trump presented a peace plan that freezes Israeli settlement construction but retains Israeli control over most of the illegal settlements it has already built. The plan would double Palestinian-controlled territory but asks Palestinians to cross a red line and accept the previously constructed West Bank settlements as Israeli territory. Palestinians reject the plan.

• A history of the Middle East peace process

  Conflict reignites in 2021

  Plans to evict four families and give their homes in East Jerusalem to Jewish settlers led to escalating violence in May 2021. Hamas fired over 2,000 rockets at Israel, and Israeli military airstrikes razed buildings in the Gaza Strip. The international community, including Germany’s Foreign Ministry, called for an end to the violence and both sides to return to the negotiating table.

  Author: Aasim Saleem

Israel retaliates after shots fired from Lebanon: IDF

The Israeli military said six rockets were fired from Lebanon towards Israel, but fell short of crossing the border. 

“In response, our artillery forces fired toward the sources of the launches,” the Israeli Defense Force (IDF) said on Twitter. 

The AFP news agency cited a Lebanese security source as saying that three shells were fired from Lebanon into Israel.    

“Three Grad-type rockets were fired from the Shebaa Farms area,” near the Israeli border, the military source told AFP. 

There were no immediate reports of casualties. 

 Air raid sirens sounded in northern Israel near the border with Lebanon as residents were instructed to prepare bomb shelters.

Gaza: Death toll reaches 212

Gaza’s Health Ministry spokesman Ashraf al-Qidra said that 212 Palestinians were killed, including 61 children, and 1,400 were injured in Israeli attacks since the beginning of the fresh round of violence.

The spokesman said that, according to examinations by medical crews, “it is clear that the Israeli occupation targets defenseless civilians in their homes and neighborhoods using excessive force.” 

Gaza officials say Israeli strike hit their sole COVID testing site

The only coronavirus laboratory in Gaza can no longer carry out testing as the clinic housing it was hit by an Israeli airstrike Monday, health officials said. 

The Israeli attacks “threaten to undermine the efforts of the health ministry in the face of the COVID pandemic,” said Gaza’s Health Ministry spokesman Ashraf al-Qidra.

What is Hamas and who supports it?

Hamas has controlled the Gaza Strip since 2007, repeatedly attacking Israel. It has a number of foreign allies. A majority of Western governments have classed it as a terrorist group. So where does it get its money and supplies? DW has an overview.

UN: 42,000 Palestinians seeking shelter in schools

The recent escalation in hostilities in the Gaza Strip has internally displaced tens of thousands of Palestinians, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) said. 

More than 2,500 people have been made homeless as their houses were demolished due to Israeli strikes, UNRWA said in an earlier statement. 

The UN agency said on Twitter 42,000 Palestinians were seeking shelter in 50 UNRWA schools.

Erdogan says Biden has ‘bloody hands’ 

Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan slammed US President Joe Biden for backing Israel in the raging conflict in the Gaza Strip.

“You are writing history with your bloody hands,” Erdogan said in remarks addressed to Biden. 

“Today we saw Biden’s signature on weapons sales to Israel,” the Turkish president said in reference to media reports of a new arms deal approved by the Biden administration.

“Palestinian territories are awash with persecution, suffering and blood, like many other territories that lost the peace with the end of the Ottomans. And you are supporting that,” Erdogan added. 

Norway says it will raise crisis on Security Council agenda 

Norway, China and Tunisia will push the Israel-Gaza crisis on the UN Security Council agenda for another round of talks on Tuesday, the Norwegian delegation to the Security Council said. 

“The situation on the ground continues to deteriorate. Innocent civilians continue being killed [and] injured. We repeat: Stop the fire. End hostilities now,” Norway’s delegation said on Twitter. 

At a Security Council session on Sunday, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres had called for an immediate end to the “utterly appalling” fighting.

Israel-Gaza violence enters second week

Welcome to our rolling coverage of the crisis in Israel and Gaza, where fighting has entered a second week. Tension continue to rise despite increased international calls for a de-escalation.

fb/rt (AFP, AP, Reuters) 

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