Israel was edging towards war on Tuesday night after pummelling Gaza with missiles, killing at least 26 people including nine children and a Hamas commander.
Israel said 15 of the dead were militants, and its military sent reinforcements to the Gaza border and called up 5,000 reserves.
Palestinian militants fired more than 250 rockets into Israel, killing two women in the city of Ashkelon.
Sirens warning of incoming rocket fire blared in Tel Aviv and central Israel last night.
Multiple explosions were also heard minutes after Gaza militants Hamas and Islamic Jihad vowed to respond to an Israeli air strike on a block of flats in the Strip.
Hamas said it had fired 130 rockets towards Tel Aviv and its suburbs.
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(Image: Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)
One person was killed in a rocket attack on the city, according to Israel’s Channel 12 TV station.
All flights at Tel Aviv’s Ben Gurion Airport were stopped amid the continued fire from Gaza.
It came after clashes between police and Palestinians in Jerusalem sparked fears of the region’s first war since 2014, when 1,500 died.
As many as 700 Palestinians were injured, 500 of them hospitalised, in flare-ups across the city.
(Image: AFP via Getty Images)
Israel has a weakened government, with Benjamin Netanyahu as a stand-in Prime Minister since inconclusive elections in March.
But the outbreak of hostilities has led his political opponents to suspend negotiations on forming a coalition of right-wing, leftist and centre-left parties to unseat him.
Unpopular Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas is also in a weakened position, with Hamas clamouring to position itself as the protector of Palestine.
How did the flare-up start?
It started during the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan and centred upon celebrations of Jerusalem Day – from Sunday into Monday – marking the 1967 Arab-Israeli conflict or Six Day War.
Palestinians were outraged by restricted movements to the Old City of Jerusalem where they gather for prayer during Ramadan.
(Image: REUTERS)
East Jerusalem, which the Palestinians also hold religiously sacred, was annexed by Israel in 1967.
Israeli settler policy there has escalated violence between protesting Palestinians and police, who have been accused of being heavy handed.
Confrontations have also flared up at the al-Aqsa Mosque compound, the third holiest of Islamic sites, which is built on Temple Mount, the holiest of sites in Judaism.
For four successive days, Israeli police fired tear gas, stun grenades and rubber bullets at Palestinians in the compound, who hurled stones and chairs.
What is the settler policy for Jerusalem?
(Image: POOL/AFP via Getty Images)
Over 600,000 Israelis live as settlers in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, in homes that have appeared since shortly after the 1967 war.
Around 3% of the West Bank is lived on by settlers, who number around 400,000, and there are about 200,000 in East Jerusalem.
The International Court of Justice and the United Nations says the settlers are violating international law. The Fourth Geneva Convention rules: “The occupying power shall not deport or transfer parts of its own civilian population into the territory it occupies.”
Since Israel is the occupying power it is deemed to be in breach of the law, though it argues that these territories are within its remit.
There was fury at a delayed court hearing on Monday over further evictions of Palestinians from East Jerusalem to make way for more Israeli settler homes.
Did former us president Trump worsen the situation?
(Image: REUTERS)
Donald Trump solidified Israel’s control over the Palestinian territories and increased Palestinian fury with his decision to move the US embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.
This marked out the world’s most powerful country as rubber-stamping Israel’s claim of Jerusalem as its undisputed capital.
Previous presidents had always deferred the move, knowing it would add a flame to a tinderbox region.
Why has the situation become so bad now?
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The combination of a weak Israeli government and an unpopular Palestinian authority has meant Hamas in Gaza is desperate to project strength through attacks.
This both appeals to militant Palestine, which is desperate for strong leadership, and also appeases outside paymasters such as Iran, which supplies it with weapons.
The timing of Jerusalem Day, from the evening of May 9 to May 10, Ramadan restrictions on worshippers in the Old City and the settler court case created a perfect storm.
What do the two sides say about the situation?
Israel’s caretaker leader Mr Netanyahu has warned of worse to come.
After meeting with senior defence officials he said Israel would “increase even more the strength of the strikes and also the rate of the strikes” against Hamas and Islamic Jihad.
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He added: “Hamas will receive blows now that it didn’t expect.”
The Palestinian Authority confirmed it is trying to reach a ceasefire deal.
The Gaza Health Ministry said Israel’s “relentless assault” was overwhelming the healthcare system, which has been struggling with the pandemic.
How has the world reacted?
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Neighbouring Egypt is trying to broker peace between the two sides.
But elsewhere in the Muslim world, Israel’s tough tactics over access for Palestinian worshippers to the al-Aqsa Mosque drew fury.
Saudi Arabia’s foreign ministry called on the rest of the world to hold Israel accountable for its actions.
Is there a solution?
In the short term a ceasefire must be reached, but that would require both Hamas and Israel to back off when both are under huge pressure to take a tough stand.
Long term, the much-talked-about two-state solution might be the only bitter result of so many years of war, offering Palestine its own state.
Despite the massive complexities of overlapping territories, both would live side by side.
Israel would gain security and retain a demographic majority.
The problem is that no one wants to relinquish their claim to Jerusalem, which both want as their capital and which would have to be divided into an Israeli west and Palestinian east.
Israel has much invested in its control of the east, and the big religious sites are virtually on top of each other and unmovable.