Bullets went flying through the streets of East Jerusalem ⛎on Friday, as Israeli police and Pale🗹stinian protesters clashed in bloody battles near the Old City during a “day of rage” called for by Palestinians in protest of the Gaza conflict.
In a street skirmish near East Jerusalem’s Old City just afte🔯r traditional Friday prayers, Palestinian protesters cowered away from Israeli undercover police. One Israeli officer aimed his gun at a Palestinian demonstrator as a bullet zoomed through the air and his colleagues scrambled to arrest another man.
Protesters hurled rocks and fireworks at Israeli ಌsecurity forces, who swiftly responded with stun gre♏nades and water cannons.
Tho💞usands of Israeli forces were unleashed on the Old City in anticipation of the “day of rage,” which Palestinian factions planned after an estimated 10,000 people protested in the West Bank on Thursday night. Police were on high alert after one Palestinian teenager died and 200 were wounded during the massive overnight demonstrations, the Guardian reportedꦐ.
As the violence raged on in the We๊st Bank and Jerusalem on Friday, Se♔cretary of State John Kerry fought his own battle behind closed doors.
Israel’s security cabinet rejected Kerry’s seven-day truce proposal for a cease-fire in the Gaza Strip Friday evening. Soon afꦦter, a US official said that Israel agreed to a 12-hour humanitarian halt on the violence starting at 7 a.m., Reuters reported.
“Gaps have been significantly narrowed,” Kerry said at a Friday press conference in Cairo. “It can be achieved, if we w♐ork through some of the🅷 issues that are important for the parties.”
Meanwhile, Israeli Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon told field soldiers to “prepare for t🧸he possibility that will very soon direct the IꦛDF to significantly expand the ground operation in Gaza.”
A government source told the Jerusalem Post that Israel would like to make modifications to Kerry’s proposal before the country co💛mes to a longer-term truce.
Israeli TV reports suggested the security cabinet didn’t agree to the proposal because Israel would have to temper its efforts to destroy str⛎ategically important tunnels built by Hamas.
Israeli airstrikes killed 55 people on Friday, Gaza officials said, bringing the number of Palestinian deaths to 844 after 18 days of bloody battles. Another 35 Israeli soꦛldiers and three Israeli civilians have died during the conflict.
Among those soldiers is Oron Shaul, who was declared dead on Friday after he went m♚issing six days ago following a bloody ambush in the Gaza Strip. His body has not been recovered, the Israeli army announced.
While the violence spread to the West Bank, where at least five Palestinians were killed in separate incidents on Friday, Gaza militants continued lobbing rockets into Israel. Hamas said it fired three rockets📖 at Tel Aviv’s Ben Gurion Airport — only one day after US carriers and some European airlines started flying there again following a two-day freeze.