WASHINGTON – President Joe Biden is under mounting pressure to help end the deadly conflict between Israel and Hamas, the militant group that controls the Gaza Strip. In a week of airstrikes and rocket attacks, at least 212 Palestinians and 10 Israelis have been killed.
But while the United States has significant leverage in the region and has long sought to broker a peace deal between Israel and the Palestinians, the White House is not the most important player right now.
Here s a look at the roles and motivations of those engaged in the military confrontation – and those trying to end it.
Hamas
Workers Revolutionary Party
RIGHT-wing Zionists who planned a march through Jerusalem yesterday were forced to call it off.
They planned to mark the beginning of the occupation of Jerusalem in the 1967 war. However, Israel’s PM Netanyahu said that the 30,000-strong right-wing march could not go through the Arab quarter of the City, fearing the Palestinian uprising. As a result, the organisers called it off.
Palestinian resistance movement Hamas gave a deadline of 6.00pm yesterday for Israel to withdraw all its armed forces from the mosque, and when it was not met, Hamas fired rockets in the direction of Jerusalem. Air raid sirens could be heard in the city as the sound of explosions erupted and Hamas claimed a successful rocket strike.
In remarks after EU Foreign Affairs Council, Borrell doesn t mention rocket barrages from Gaza into Israel
Watchdog groups warned that Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas’ Fatah party, the terror group Hamas, and a major international Muslim organization are stoking the flames.
According to a translation by Palestinian Media Watch (PMW), Fatah said in a statement “in the name of All Merciful Allah,” that “the Fatah Movement with all its elements and leadership calls to continue this uprising and stand against the occupation forces, the settlers, and their terrorist organizations that are working with the support of the right-wing fascist Israeli government.”
Media watchdog group demands Facebook shut down accounts from the Fatah organization that promote violence against Israel.
By Yakir Benzion, United With Israel
A leading Israeli watchdog group that monitors what the Palestinians are saying in Arabic is demanding that Facebook immediately shut down pages run by the Fatah organization of Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas that are being used to incite violence in Jerusalem.
Palestinian Media Watch founder and director Itamar Marcus sent a letter to Adi Soffer Teeni, CEO of Facebook Israel, with clear and detailed evidence of how Fatah is inciting to violence.
The documentation by Marcus includes a posting on May 8 on Fatah’s official Facebook account which read in part: “The Fatah Movement with all its elements and leadership calls to continue this uprising… Fatah calls on everyone to raise the level of confrontation in the coming days and hours in the Palestinian lands, the points of friction, and the settlers’ roads.”
Report: Fatah calls for violent uprising in Jerusalem
P.A. leader Mahmoud Abbas’s Fatah Party calls to “raise the level of confrontation in the coming days” and urges protesters to gather on Jerusalem Day for a “day of action.”
Israeli police clash with rioters outside Damascus Gate in Jerusalem on April 22, 2021. Photo by Jamal Awad/Flash90.
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(May 10, 2021 / JNS) In the wake of clashes in Jerusalem that left some 200 Arabs and 17 Israeli police officers injured, Palestinian Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas’s Fatah Party called on Saturday for increased violence in the city, Palestinian Media Watch (PMW) reported.
“The Fatah Movement with all its elements and leadership calls to continue this uprising … Fatah calls on everyone to raise the level of confrontation in the coming days and hours in the Palestinian lands, the points of friction and the settlers’ roads,” the Fatah Central Committee announced in a statement.