A cease-fire agreement between Israel and Hamas capped 11 days of fighting that left hundreds dead, mostly Palestnians in the Gaza Strip.
Israel and Gaza militants moved to halt the fiercest fighting in years on May 20, one day after U.S. President Joe Biden urged Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to seek a “de-escalation”.
Each side said it stood ready to retaliate for any truce violations by the other. Cairo said it would send two delegations to monitor the ceasefire.
Hamas began its rocket assault on Monday, May 10, after weeks of tensions over a court case to evict several Palestinian families in East Jerusalem, and in retaliation for Israeli police clashes with Palestinians near the city’s Al-Aqsa Mosque, Islam’s third holiest site, during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.
Violence following weeks of tensions
May 7 – 10
Al-Aqsa Mosque clashes
Israeli police clash with worshipers and protesters in East Jerusalem at Al-Aqsa Mosque amid growing anger over the potential forced eviction of Palestinians from land claimed by Jewish settlers.
May 10 –
Civil unrest rises across Israel
Protests erupt in Israeli cities with high Arab populations. A state of emergency is declared in Lod on May 12 as unrest rises and an Arab man is killed.
May 10 –
Gaza fires rockets into Israel
Deaths were reported just north of the Gaza border in Ashkelon and in the Tel Aviv suburb of Rishon Lezion. Palestinian militants fired a barrage of rockets at Beersheba in southern Israel.
May 10 –
Israeli strikes targets in Gaza Strip
Hundreds of air strikes from Israel target Hamas operations in Gaza, including the destruction of a 12-storey tower housing the Associated Press and Al Jazeera. Palestinian authorities report hundreds dead.
May 18
Thousands displaced in Palestinian territories
A U.N. aid agency estimates 52,000 Palestinians have been displaced after days of air strikes in Gaza.
Palestinian territories
Rishon Lezion
WEST BANK
Lod
Ashkelon
Al-Aqsa Mosque
Associated Press and Al-Jazeera tower
GAZA
Beersheba
May 7 – 10
Al-Aqsa Mosque clashes
Israeli police clash with worshipers and protesters in East Jerusalem at Al-Aqsa Mosque amid growing anger over the potential forced eviction of Palestinians from land claimed by Jewish settlers.
Palestinian territories
May 10 –
Rishon Lezion
WEST BANK
Civil unrest rises across Israel
Lod
Protests erupt in Israeli cities with high Arab populations. A state of emergency is declared in Lod on May 12 as unrest rises and an Arab man is killed.
Ashkelon
Al-Aqsa Mosque
Associated Press and Al Jazeera tower
GAZA
May 10 –
Beersheba
Gaza fires rockets into Israel
Deaths were reported just north of the Gaza border in Ashkelon and in the Tel Aviv suburb of Rishon Lezion. Palestinian militants fired a barrage of rockets at Beersheba in southern Israel.
May 10 –
Israeli strikes targets in Gaza Strip
Hundreds of air strikes from Israel target Hamas operations in Gaza, including the destruction of a 12-storey tower housing the Associated Press and Al Jazeera. Palestinian authorities report hundreds dead.
A U.N. aid agency estimates 52,000 Palestinians have been displaced after days of air strikes in Gaza.
May 7 – 10
Al-Aqsa Mosque clashes
Israeli police clash with worshipers and protesters in East Jerusalem at Al-Aqsa Mosque amid growing anger over the potential forced eviction of Palestinians from land claimed by Jewish settlers.
Palestinian territories
WEST BANK
May 10 –
Rishon Lezion
Civil unrest rises across Israel
Lod
Protests erupt in Israeli cities with high Arab populations. A state of emergency is declared in Lod on May 12 as unrest rises and an Arab man is killed.
Al-Aqsa Mosque
Ashkelon
Associated Press and Al Jazeera tower
May 10 –
GAZA
Gaza fires rockets into Israel
Beersheba
Deaths were reported just north of the Gaza border in Ashkelon and in the Tel Aviv suburb of Rishon Lezion. Palestinian militants fired a barrage of rockets at Beersheba in southern Israel.
May 10 –
Israeli strikes targets in Gaza Strip
Hundreds of air strikes from Israel target Hamas operations in Gaza, including the destruction of a 12-storey tower housing the Associated Press and Al Jazeera. Palestinian authorities report hundreds dead.
A U.N. aid agency estimates 52,000 Palestinians have been displaced after days of air strikes in Gaza.
May 7 – 10
Al-Aqsa Mosque clashes
Israeli police clash with worshipers and protesters in East Jerusalem at Al-Aqsa Mosque amid growing anger over the potential forced eviction of Palestinians from land claimed by Jewish settlers.
Palestinian territories
May 10 –
Civil unrest rises across Israel
Protests erupt in Israeli cities with high Arab populations. A state of emergency is declared in Lod on May 12 as unrest rises and an Arab man is killed.
WEST BANK
May 10 –
Rishon Lezion
Gaza fires rockets into Israel
Deaths were reported just north of the Gaza border in Ashkelon and in the Tel Aviv suburb of Rishon Lezion. Palestinian militants fired a barrage of rockets at Beersheba in southern Israel.
Lod
ISRAEL
Ashkelon
Al-Aqsa Mosque
May 10 –
Israeli strikes targets in Gaza Strip
Associated Press and Al Jazeera tower
Hundreds of air strikes from Israel target Hamas operations in Gaza, including the destruction of a 12-storey tower housing the Associated Press and Al Jazeera. Palestinian authorities report hundreds dead.
GAZA
Beersheba
May 18
Thousands displaced in Palestinian territories
A U.N. aid agency estimates 52,000 Palestinians have been displaced after days of air strikes in Gaza.
May 7 – 10
Al-Aqsa Mosque clashes
Israeli police clash with worshipers and protesters in East Jerusalem at Al-Aqsa Mosque amid growing anger over the potential forced eviction of Palestinians from land claimed by Jewish settlers.
Palestinian territories
May 10 –
Civil unrest rises across Israel
Protests erupt in Israeli cities with high Arab populations. A state of emergency is declared in Lod on May 12 as unrest rises and an Arab man is killed.
May 10 –
WEST BANK
Gaza fires rockets into Israel
Deaths were reported just north of the Gaza border in Ashkelon and in the Tel Aviv suburb of Rishon Lezion. Palestinian militants fired a barrage of rockets at Beersheba in southern Israel.
Rishon Lezion
Lod
May 10 –
Israeli strikes targets in Gaza Strip
ISRAEL
Al-Aqsa Mosque
Ashkelon
Hundreds of air strikes from Israel target Hamas operations in Gaza, including the destruction of a 12-storey tower housing the Associated Press and Al Jazeera. Palestinian authorities report hundreds dead.
Associated Press and Al Jazeera tower
May 18
GAZA
Thousands displaced in Palestinian territories
A U.N. aid agency estimates 52,000 Palestinians have been displaced after days of air strikes in Gaza.
Beersheba
Gaza health officials said 232 Palestinians, including 65 children, had been killed and more than 1,900 wounded in aerial bombardments. Israel said it had killed at least 160 combatants.
Authorities put the death toll in Israel at 12, with hundreds of people treated for injuries in rocket attacks that caused panic and sent people rushing into shelters.
Palestinians have suffered disproportionately
Deaths since May 10
Gaza
West Bank
Israel
Deaths each year since 2008
Palestinians
Israelis
Total deaths since 2008
Palestinians
Israelis
Nearly 450 buildings in the Gaza Strip have been destroyed or badly damaged by Israeli airstrikes, including six hospitals and nine primary care health centres, the United Nations humanitarian agency said. Some 47,000 of the 52,000 displaced people fled to U.N. schools.
On May 15, Israel destroyed a 12-story tower block in Gaza that housed the offices of the U.S.-based Associated Press and other news media, saying the building was also used by the Islamist militant group Hamas.
Israel has launched thousands of air and artillery strikes into the densely populated coastal strip, saying they were aimed at Hamas and other militant targets. The bombardments have sent columns of smoke above Gaza City and lit up the enclave’s night sky.
The Israeli military said Hamas and other armed factions had fired about 4,000 rockets from Gaza. Israel’s missile defence system intercepted most of them, it said.
‘A very heavy price’
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has warned that militants would pay a “very heavy” price for the rockets.
“We are at the height of a weighty campaign,” Netanyahu said in televised remarks. “Hamas and Islamic Jihad paid … and will pay a very heavy price for their belligerence.”