Israel-Gaza border heats up after West Bank violence

Gaza fighters fired rockets and Israel carried out air strikes across the Israel-Gaza frontier today, a day after 11 Palestinians were killed during a Israeli raid in the occupied West Bank, renewing concerns of broader escalation.

Mediation efforts were underway by Egypt and the United Nations to calm the situation, officials said, as UN Middle East envoy Tor Wennesland arrived in Gaza to meet Hamas leaders.

Israel's military said six rockets had been fired from the Gaza Strip overnight, setting off air raid sirens in southern Israeli communities. Five rockets were intercepted by missile defences and the other fell in an open area. No injuries were reported.

The Palestinian faction Islamic Jihad stopped short of claiming it fired the rockets but said it had the right to defend against Israeli aggression.

Israeli fighter jets later struck a weapons manufacturing site belonging to Hamas, the Islamist group that controls Gaza, the Israeli military said. No injuries were reported.

Planning imminent attacks

The cross-border attacks followed an Israeli operation in the West Bank city of Nablus yesterday. Israeli troops had killed 11 Palestinians, including six gunmen and five civilians, and wounded more than 100 people, Palestinian sources said.

The Israeli army said troops there had tried detaining Palestinian fighters suspected of planning imminent attacks when they had come under fire and shot back.

The Islamic Jihad said Israeli troops had surrounded two of its Nablus commanders in a house, triggering a clash that drew in other gunmen. Explosions sounded and youths pelted armoured troop transports with rocks.

Palestinian sources said the two Islamic Jihad commanders had been killed along with another gunman. The five civilian fatalities had included a 72-year-old man and a 16-year-old boy, they said.

Open confrontation

UN Middle East envoy Wennesland arrived in Gaza to meet Hamas leaders in an effort to calm the situation, a diplomatic source told Reuters.

"I am continuing my engagement with all concerned parties to de-escalate the situation. I urge all sides to refrain from steps that could further inflame an already volatile situation," Wennesland said in a statement before the visit.

A Palestinian official said leaders from Hamas and the Islamic Jihad warned mediators, including Egypt, the situation could slide into an "open confrontation" if there was no change.

Israeli officials had no immediate comment.

Palestinian groups in East Jerusalem, the West Bank and Gaza went on strike today. Schools, universities and banks in all those places kept their doors closed.

Abdel-Latif Abdu, a vegetable seller in Gaza, kept his shop closed in support of residents of Nablus and the rest of the West Bank.

"They (Israel) can’t divide us. We are all one people and can’t be divided,” he told Reuters.

Nablus and nearby Jenin have been the focus of raids that Israel has intensified over the past year following a spate of lethal Palestinian street attacks in its cities.

Sixty-two Palestinians, including gunmen and civilians, were killed in 2023, the Palestinian Health Ministry said. Ten Israelis and a Ukrainian tourist died in Palestinian attacks in the same period, according to Israel's foreign ministry.

- Reuters