Palestinian terrorists fired a rocket into southern Israel on Sunday, prompting the Israeli Air Force planes to hit back. The launch on Sunday comes less than 24 hours after a ceasefire was reached between Israel and the Islamic Jihad group in the Gaza Strip. The army said the rocket set off air-raid sirens in southern Israel but landed in an open area. Palestinians said the rocket launch was unintended and blamed it on technical failure.

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 A fragile ceasefire between Israeli forces and Palestinian groups in the Gaza Strip had appeared to be holding on Sunday after a five-day clash that killed 33 Palestinians and two Israelis. The latest round of Gaza fighting was sparked Tuesday when Israeli jets killed three top commanders from the Palestinian Islamic Jihad group in response to earlier rocket launches from Gaza. Those killings set off a barrage of fire and the conflagration threatened to drag the region into another all-out war until an Egyptian-brokered ceasefire took hold late Saturday.

While the calm appeared to bring a sense of relief to millions of Israelis who had been largely confined to bomb shelters in recent days, the agreement did nothing to address the underlying issues that have fueled numerous rounds of fighting between Israel and Palestinian groups in the Gaza Strip over the years. Saturday's deal did not address many of the causes of the repeated fighting, including the Gaza border, the large arsenals of weapons possessed by Hamas and PIJ, as well as the linkage to the West Bank and east Jerusalem.

Gaza's main cargo crossing with Israel reopened Sunday after warnings that keeping it closed would force Gaza's power plant to shut down. Israel was gradually lifting restrictions on residents in southern Israel, which had borne the brunt of the rocket fire. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the targeted attacks on the terrorists' hideouts would reverberate around the region. "Israel's enemies in Gaza and much farther than Gaza know that even if they try to hide, we are able and prepared to reach them at any time," he told a meeting of his Cabinet. Israel says it does its utmost to avoid harming civilians in its strikes and says terrorists operate from within the territory's densely populated areas to fire rockets indiscriminately at Israeli communities.

Throughout the fighting, Israel's repeated airstrikes targeting PIJ and its command centers and rocket-launching sites showed no signs of stopping the rocket fire, prompting PIJ to declare victory and sending cheering Palestinians out into the streets late Saturday. The Israeli military reported over 1,400 launches throughout the fighting, with some rockets reaching as far as the Tel Aviv and Jerusalem areas. Israeli jets struck more than 400 targets, according to a preliminary military tally, which also showed about a fifth of the rockets were misfired and landed in Gaza, while most of the rest were either intercepted or landed in open areas.

The more powerful Hamas has praised PIJ's strikes but remained on the sidelines during the latest round of fighting, limiting the scope of the conflict. As the de facto government held responsible for the abysmal conditions in the blockaded Gaza Strip, Hamas has recently tried to keep a lid on its conflict with Israel. PIJ, on the other hand, a more ideological and unruly group wedded to violence, has taken the lead in the past few rounds of fighting with Israel.

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Palestinian terrorists fired on Israeli communities repeatedly after 1 p.m. on Wednesday as Israel continued Operation Shield and Arrow against the Palestinian Islamic Jihad over its repeated rocket fire on Israel. Many communities near the Gaza border were targeted by incoming rockets from Gaza, prompting sirens to be activated in multiple communities, including in Ashkelon, Rishon LeZion, and ultimately as far north as Tel Aviv at around 2 p.m.. More than 100 rockets were fired on Israel in that salvo. Toward afternoon, rocket fire stopped, although Israelis by and large remained alert and authorities instructed residents to take precautions. They also canceled events and restricted gatherings, including in Tel Aviv, where the city told parents to pick up their kids from school.

Video: Reuters

Around noon, Israel's air force hit Palestinian Islamic Jihad targets in Gaza as Israelis braced for a response from the enclaves' Hamas rulers over the Israeli counterterrorism operation that began on Tuesday. The military said it had hit rocket launch sites belonging to the group, as a series of blasts rocked different points including what witnesses described as a training camp in the northern part of the Gaza Strip and an open area in the south.

Video: IDF Spokesperson's Unit

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The Israeli airstrikes came a day after the military launched a series of strikes it said were aimed at senior leaders of Islamic Jihad responsible for planning attacks against Israel. "We have no intention of waiting until they launch (rockets)," Israeli security cabinet minister Avi Dichter told Kan radio. "If launches can be prevented or disrupted, if launch crews can be hit – all of this ultimately creates deterrence."

Dawoud Shehab, an Islamic Jihad spokesperson, said the group would inevitably retaliate and the delay was "tactical". "The resistance decides the timing of the response in line with its tactics and calculations because we see that the response must match the size of the crime," he said.

Meanwhile, the Israeli military has instructed residents of southern communities to remain near bomb shelters, and schools were still closed for a second day as a precaution against attacks by Palestinian terrorist groups in the Gaza Strip. In Gaza, businesses and schools remained closed, and Israel kept its two commercial and people crossings with Gaza closed.

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Human Rights Watch on Tuesday accused the IDF of carrying out attacks that "apparently amount to war crimes" during Operation Guardian of the Walls against Hamas infrastructure in May.

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The international human rights organization issued its conclusions after investigating three Israeli airstrikes that it said killed 62 Palestinian civilians. It said "there were no evident military targets in the vicinity" of the attacks.

The report also accused Palestinian terrorists of apparent war crimes by launching over 4,000 unguided rockets and mortars at Israeli population centers. Such attacks, it said, violate "the prohibition against deliberate or indiscriminate attacks against civilians."

The report, however, focused on Israeli actions during the fighting, and the group said it would issue a separate report on the actions of Hamas and other Palestinian groups in August.

"Israeli forces carried out attacks in Gaza in May that devastated entire families without any apparent military target nearby," said Gerry Simpson, associated crisis and conflict director at HRW. He said Israel's "consistent unwillingness to seriously investigate alleged war crimes," coupled with Palestinian rocket fire at Israeli civilian areas, underscored the importance of an ongoing investigation into both sides by the International Criminal Court, or ICC.

There was no immediate reaction to the report by the IDF, which has repeatedly said its attacks were aimed at military targets in Gaza. It says it takes numerous precautions to avoid harming civilians and blames Hamas for civilian casualties by launching rocket attacks and other military operations inside residential areas.

The HRW report looked into Israeli airstrikes. The most serious, on May 16, involved a series of strikes on Al-Wahda St., a central thoroughfare in downtown Gaza City. The airstrikes destroyed three apartment buildings and killed a total of 44 civilians, HRW said, including 18 children and 14 women. Twenty-two of the dead were members of a single family, the al-Kawlaks.

Israel has said the attacks were aimed at tunnels used by Hamas terrorists in the area and suggested the damage to the homes was unintentional.

In its investigation, HRW concluded that Israel had used US-made GBU-31 precision-guided bombs, and that Israel had not warned any of the residents to evacuate the area ahead of time. It also found no evidence of military targets in the area.

"An attack that is not directed at a specific military objective is unlawful," it wrote.

The investigation also looked at a May 10 explosion that killed eight people, including six children, near the northern Gaza town of Beit Hanoun. It said the two adults were civilians.

Israel has suggested the explosion was caused by a misfired Palestinian rocket. But based on an analysis of munition remnants and witness accounts, HRW said evidence indicated the weapon had been "a type of guided missile."

"Human Rights Watch found no evidence of a military target at or near the site of the strike," it said.

The third attack it investigated occurred on May 15, in which an Israeli airstrike destroyed a three-story building in Gaza's Shati refugee camp. The strike killed 10 people, including two women and eight children.

HRW investigators determined the building was hit by a US-made guided missile. It said Israel has said that senior Hamas officials were hiding in the building. But the group said no evidence of a military target at or near the site and called for an investigation into whether there was a legitimate military objective and "all feasible precautions" were taken to avoid civilian casualties.

The May conflict was the fourth war between Israel and Hamas since the Islamic militant group, which opposes Israel's existence, seized control of Gaza in 2007. Human Rights Watch, other rights groups and UN officials have accused both sides of committing war crimes in all of the conflicts.

In Tuesday's report, HRW called on the United States to condition security assistance to Israel on it taking "concrete and verifiable actions" to comply with international human rights law and to investigate past abuses.

It also called on the ICC to include the recent Gaza war in its ongoing investigation into possible war crimes by Israel and Palestinian terrorist groups.

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US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Monday that the United States is committed to replenishing Israel's Iron Dome missile defense system.

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"We are working with the Israelis to fully understand their needs and working with Congress," the country's top diplomat told the House Foreign Affairs Committee during testimony on US President Joe Biden's 2022 budget request and the department's foreign policy priorities.

"This is under very active review and we look forward to working with you to make sure that happens," Blinken said, referring to Israel's request for $1 billion in emergency funding for Iron Dome following 11 days of fighting with Gaza-based terrorist groups who launched more than 4,000 rockets at Israeli territory.

Blinken reiterated the Biden administration's position that Israel has a right to defend itself against rockets fired indiscriminately at Israeli civilians.

"It would be unacceptable for any country to have rockets rain down on it indiscriminately targeting civilians and not do something about it," Blinken said, adding that as a democracy, Israel has an "extra burden to do everything it possibly can to avoid civilian casualties."

With regard to Hamas, Blinken called it "hard to fathom" how anyone in the world could accept a terrorist organization that has "vowed in its own charter to destroy Israel."

In response to the rise in antisemitic attacks on Jewish communities across the US, Blinken stated that the administration is working "expeditiously" to nominate a State Department Special Envoy to Monitor and Combat Antisemitism.

This article was first published by i24NEWS.

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In a telephone conversation Friday, Foreign Minister Gabi Ashkenazi spoke to Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry on Friday to express Israel's appreciation for the role Egypt played in brokering a ceasefire that ended 11 days of hostilities with Hamas in the Gaza Strip, Egyptian news outlets reported.

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According to the reports, Ashkenazi emphasized that Israel would uphold its end of the ceasefire and discussed with Shoukry steps to be taken to rehabilitate the destruction caused in the Gaza Strip during the next stage of negotiations for a longer-term truce.

Additional reports said that Ashkenazi and Shoukry underscored the importance of coordinating between Israel and Egypt, as well as with the Palestinian Authority and international officials, both in ensuring stability and renewing channels of communication that could lead to peace.

The end to Operation Guardian of the Walls has seen Egypt restored to a position of influence in dealing with the Hamas political and military leadership, both in Gaza and abroad. According to high-ranking officials in Israel's Military Intelligence Directorate, the Egyptians proved that "no one can replace them" in dealing with the Hamas leadership.

When Israel suggested that the ceasefire take effect at 2 a.m. Friday, the Egyptian mediators, led by Gen. Abdel Halak, who is in charge of the Israeli-Palestinian portfolio in Egypt's intelligence services, secured a commitment from Hamas, the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, and other armed factions in Gaza that not only would they hold fire starting at the agreed-upon hour, they would also refrain from a final rocket onslaught, something that has marked previous rounds of escalation between Israel and Hamas.

Hours before the ceasefire took effect, the IDF thwarted a major Hamas attack, Channel 12 News reported Friday evening.

The outlet added that if the attack had been successful, it could have scuttled the agreement between the two sides, likely leading to prolonged violence.

According to the report, the IDF identified a Hamas terror cell as it made its way through an underground tunnel, apparently with the intention of emerging in Israel and attacking soldiers.

The Israeli Air Force carried out a precision strike and eliminated the terrorists, the report said.

According to Channel 12, Israel's new underground barrier would have prevented them from crossing and attacking civilians, but would still have left troops vulnerable to attack.

Meanwhile, PA President Mahmoud Abbas spoke to US Secretary of State Antony Blinken about recent developments between Israel and Hamas, including the ceasefire. Abbas stressed the need to "stop Israeli aggression in Jerusalem, the West Bank, and the Gaza Strip, and stop attacks by settlers."

Abbas also cited the need to rebuild Gaza and start Israeli-Palestinian peace talks immediately.

On Saturday, the UN Security Council is welcoming the ceasefire between Israel and Hamas rulers for full adherence to the cessation of hostilities.

Saturday's statement was approved by all 15 members of the council. It said the council "mourned the loss of civilian lives resulting from the violence" and "stressed the immediate need for humanitarian assistance to the Palestinian civilian population, particularly in Gaza."

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The statement further said it was urgent to restore calm and "reiterated the importance of achieving a comprehensive peace based on the vision of a region where two democratic states, Israel and Palestine, live side by side in peace with secure and recognized borders."

Council members backed UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres' call for the international community to work with the United Nations in developing a "robust package of support for a swift, sustainable reconstruction and recovery."

The council recognized the important role played by Egypt in achieving the ceasefire as well as other regional countries, the UN, the Quartet of Mideast mediators – the UN, US, European Union and Russia – and other international players.

After touring rubble-strewn areas of Gaza hit by air strikes during fighting between Israel and Hamas, the top U.N. aid official in the region appealed to both sides on Saturday to observe a ceasefire as aid teams assess the damage.

Also Saturday, UN Humanitarian Coordinator for the Palestinian territories Lynn Hastings toured the Gaza Strip and pressed both sides on the ceasefire.

"Last night was calm, and we hope obviously that it is going to hold and everybody just needs to stand down and not to engage in any provocative moves," Hastings said in Gaza City.

Standing by the rubble of residential buildings, Hastings said she had seen more than just damaged infrastructure.

"I have been speaking to the families here and what they all said is that they have no hope, they feel that they have no control of their lives and their situation is, one woman said, helpless," she told Reuters.

US President Joe Biden has said Washington will work with UN agencies on expediting humanitarian aid for Gaza "in a manner that does not permit Hamas to simply restock its military arsenal."

The IDF reportedly thwarted a major Hamas attack just hours before a ceasefire took effect that has tentatively ended more than a week of fighting, Hebrew-language broadcaster Channel 12 reported Friday evening.

The outlet added that if the attack had been successful, it could have scuttled the agreement between the two sides, likely leading to prolonged violence.

According to the report, the IDF identified a Hamas terror cell as it made its way through an underground tunnel, apparently with the intention of emerging in Israel and attacking soldiers.

The Air Force carried out a precision strike and eliminated the terrorists, the report said.

Israel's new underground barrier would have prevented them from crossing and attacking civilians, but would still leave troops vulnerable to attack, according to Channel 12.

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In the 11 days of Operation Guardian of the Walls, Israeli forces destroyed some 100 km. (62 miles) of Hamas' "Metro" network of tunnels in the Gaza Strip, IDF Spokesman Brig. Gen. Hidai Zilberman reported Friday morning, listing the damage done to Hamas' terrorist infrastructure.

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Speaking hours after an Egyptian-brokered ceasefire took effect, Zilberman reported that some 200 Hamas operatives, including 25 high-ranking members, had been targeted and killed in IDF strikes.

Israeli forces also demolished some 340 rocket launching devices and 70 multiple rocket launchers with four to 18 barrels, as well as 35 assets used to launch mortars.

IDF strikes – executed through combined air, artillery, and naval operations – destroyed 10 of Hamas' government offices, 11 premises of its internal security forces, and five banks used by Hamas.

Israel also targeted and destroyed "dozens" of training camps and outposts, command and control center, and nine high-rise buildings that housed infrastructure used by Hamas, Zilberman added.

IDF strikes eliminated dozens of attack tunnels and openings designed to allow Hamas operatives to attack Israeli forces, such as shafts, openings, and structures; and several dozen anti-tank targets, as well as seven drones and UAVs, and two unspecified "maritime threats."

Zilberman also said that two attempts by Hamas operatives to deploy drone-operated parachutes had been thwarted, and said that Israel had damaged Hamas' manufacturing and development capabilities by targeted strikes on key R&D personnel and its manufacturing workshops and weapons and cyber research centers.

As for the performance of Israel's Iron Dome, Zilberman said that over the course of the operation, the system had intercepted 90% of incoming rockets deemed to pose a threat to populated areas.

After the Diplomatic-Security Cabinet voted on Thursday night to accept the ceasefire, Defense Minister Benny Gantz said, "the defense establishment maintains its willingness to defend the citizens of Israel, and the security forces and the IDF are deployed in the field, on all fronts, for defense and offense. The reality on the ground will decide how we continue to operate."

Gantz said that the IDF and Israel's other security forces had secured "military achievements unprecedented in their power, precision, and strategic significance" during Operation Guardian of the Walls.

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Maybe one day, we will discover that the impetus for Hamas's newest onslaught against Israel wasn't the pending Supreme Court decision about whether or not to respect the property rights of Jewish landlords in the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood in Jerusalem. Maybe we'll discover that Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas' efforts to deflect Palestinian public opinion away from his decision to cancel the elections to the Palestinian Legislative Council and chairmanship had little to do with Hamas's missile offensive against Israel or the Arab Israeli pogroms against their Jewish neighbors in cities and on roads throughout the country.

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It's possible that in the fullness of time, we will learn that, acting with Iranian guidance and permission, Hamas chose to open its new campaign against Israel now because its leaders and their Iranian bosses were desperate to block MK Mansour Abbas from making good on his offer to provide parliamentary support for the next government of Israel – whatever form it takes.

Mansour Abbas, the leader of the four-man Ra'am Islamist Knesset faction is a riddle. Is he playing Israeli Jews for fools, speaking of Jewish-Muslim cooperation from one side of his mouth while staying true to the Muslim Brotherhood's jihadist creed from the other side? Or is he the real deal; the domestic Arab Israeli expression of the Abraham Accords, predicated on a willingness to make lasting peace between Arabs and Jews?

The truth, at this point, is unknowable.

In the face of the violent Arab Israeli onslaught against Jews countrywide, now is no time for Israelis to base a governing coalition on a riddle like Abbas. But while for Israelis he is a source of confusion, for Hamas, Abbas is a nightmare. Whatever Abbas's actual intentions are, it is self-evident that Hamas and its partners and supporters think he is acting in good faith and consequently, they view him as the gravest threat their longstanding political war against Israel has ever faced.

In a speech in Doha, Qatar on May 15, translated by MEMRI, Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh discussed the meaning of Hamas's new war. Although he didn't mention Mansour Abbas, the text of his speech demonstrated that Abbas was living rent-free in Haniyeh's head. Haniyeh declared that obliterating the very notion of true peace between Arabs and Jews in Israel was Hamas's chief goal in this war.

In his words, "Jerusalem unites us. Today the geographical barriers within historic Palestine have been removed. Today Palestine is waging an Intifada from Rosh Hanikra to Eilat.

"They have thought that 70 years or more could kill the spirit of belonging of our people within the occupied land in 1948 [sovereign Israel, CBG]. They thought our people there would lose their identity and would assimilate in the Zionist entity…

"But today our people within the 1948 borders are the ones defending the Al-Aqsa mosque. They are the ones waging an intifada against the occupier and the settlers. Today brothers and sisters, some theories collapse and some are being rebuilt. The theory of coexistence between two peoples within the 1948 borders, a theory they have been cultivating for 70 years, is being trampled underfoot today by our sons and our people in Lod, Ramle, Baka al-Gharbiyeh, the Galilee, the Negev, Rahat, Beersheba and Safed. Safed is ours!"

The axis that supports Hamas begins in Iran continues through Qatar and Turkey, Syria and Lebanon. It then moves to the west – to the European Union and to progressive activists and lawmakers in the Democrat Party in the US.

Azmi Bishara, a former Knesset member who fled to Qatar just before he was arrested for treason for spying for Hezbollah in the 2006 war in Lebanon, serves today as senior advisor to the Emir of Qatar. In an interview with Al Araby network last week, Bishara discussed the expanding ties between the American left and the Hamas-Iran axis. The interview was translated by MEMRI.

Bishara argued that US President Joe Biden's ostensible support for Israel is a relic of his 40 years in Congress. Bishara claimed that during Biden's long tenure on Capitol Hill, Congress was controlled by "the Zionist lobby," so Biden had no choice but to hold the line.

Bishara mocked what he presented as Biden's slavish devotion to the "Zionist lobby," scoffing, "Biden's the one who said you don't have to be Jewish to be a Zionist. It was Biden who made this strange statement!"

Today, Bishara maintained, the situation in Washington has changed.

"In the long run," he maintained, "we should rely on the grassroots of the Democrat Party. There are more Arabs and Muslims among these activists now. There are more African-Americans and leftists there…. These people constitute the pressure group within the Democrat Party and elsewhere. We should put our trust in them for the long run."

The same Arab, Muslim, Black and leftist activists Bishara was referring to that are now sitting in Congress came through for him and his fellow members of the Hamas-Iran axis this week. Congresswomen Rashida Tlaib, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Ilhan Omar were joined by a dozen or so other lawmakers as they collectively came out of the closet as anti-Semites.

The Democrat lawmakers adopted classic anti-Semitic language when they condemned Israel as an "apartheid state," rejecting its very right to exist. They also mounted a pressure campaign on Rep. Gregory Meeks (D-NY), chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, demanding that he place a hold on an approved sale of $735 million worth of precision guided missiles to Israel.

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It took an even more powerful pressure campaign on Meeks from Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-MD) to cancel the effort. And while Hoyer was able to avoid a direct assault on US military sales to Israel, the very fact that the progressive anti-Semites in the Democrat caucus put the issue on the agenda – where it still remains – is a testament to the fact that today, they are dictating the terms of debate on Israel in the Democrat Party, and their terms begin with the assumption that Israel is evil. So great is the Democrats' fear of their anti-Semitic members that this week every single Democrat voted against supplemental aid to Israel and every single Democrat voted against sanctioning Hamas.

Hamas/Iran felt that Mansour Abbas was a threat worth going to war to destroy because they perceive him as the Israeli expression of the Abraham Accords. And in the minds of the Iranian leadership and those of their Hamas proxies, the Abraham Accords represent the single greatest military and political threat to Iran's nuclear and hegemonic ambitions. Destroying them is their strategic goal.

The Abraham Accords provide a formal framework for the operational partnership that developed since 2006 between Israel and the Sunni Arab states that, like Israel, are threatened by Iran. In formalizing those ties, the Abraham Accords split the Arab/Islamic world into two camps. The first camp includes Iran and the states and terror groups Iran supports, controls and is allied with. Political forces hostile to Israel in the West support this camp. Members of the Iran camp and its supporters in the West insist the Jewish state is the greatest source of instability and the primary obstacle to peace in the Middle East.

The second camp is comprised of Israel and the Arab states that understand that Iran is the greatest threat to peace and security in the Middle East. Arab members of this camp include Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Bahrain, Egypt, Sudan and Morocco. These Arab states believe that in alliance with Israel they will be able to contain and eventually defeat the Iranian regime.

Until the Abraham Accords were formalized, only the Iranian camp had an international presence. The anti-Israel, pro-Iran narrative, which claims that Israel is the greatest threat to regional and world peace, had the stage to itself from Tehran to California. Since the Abraham Accords were signed last September, the Iranian camp has been on the defensive.

In a press briefing on Tuesday, President Joe Biden's spokeswoman Jen Psaki indicated that the administration is just as unhappy with the Abraham Accords as the Iranians and Palestinians are. In response to a reporter's question about the Trump administration's peace efforts, Psaki pretended that the Abraham Accords don't exist.

"Aside from putting forward a peace proposal that was dead on arrival," she said derisively, "we don't think they did anything constructive, really, to bring an end to the longstanding conflict in the Middle East."

This asinine statement put paid the notion that Biden will ever opt for an alliance with the Abraham Accords member nations over the Iran/Hamas axis.  Just as the administration refuses to even utter the term "Abraham Accords," so it insists on ignoring their political significance for the states of the region and their military capacity to contain Iran.

Despite the massive pressure that has been exerted against Abraham Accords member states to disavow their ties with Israel since Hamas opened its offensive last week, so far they have not wavered. The UAE, Bahrain and Morocco have put out mild statements on the Hamas war. Morocco sent humanitarian aid to Gaza. There have been no anti-Israel demonstrations in the streets of any of the Abraham Accords member states.

Sudan's leader, Abdel Fattah Al-Burhan discussed the issue in an interview with France 24 in Arabic earlier this week. The interview was translated by MEMRI.

In his words, "The normalization [of relations between Sudan and Israel] has nothing to do with the Palestinians' right to establish their own state. The normalization is reconciliation with the international community, and with Israel as part of the international community."

Making clear that Sudan would not be bullied into ending its relations with Israel, Al-Burhan added that the decision to maintain relations with Israel is a sovereign Sudanese decision. It is "the prerogative of the state institutions," said.

Since it is clear that Israel made clear from the outset that it had no interest in conquering Gaza, Hamas will declare victory no matter how much damage it sustained from Israeli airstrikes. So too, after the Biden administration placed the threat of condemning Israel at the UN Security Council on the table in the first days of the conflict, it was clear that Israel wouldn't dare defy Biden for long once he publicly demanded a ceasefire. So Israel stood down without ever stating outright what it would view as a victory in this confrontation.

Despite the deliberate lack of clarity, Israel may well emerge the victor. Two parameters will determine who has won this round of war. First, if the Supreme Court sides with the law and respects the property rights of the Jewish land owners in Sheikh Jarrah, their ruling will deliver a stinging defeat to the Iranian/Hamas axis and their American and European supporters who insist that Jews have no property rights in the neighborhood because they are Jews.

Second, if the Abraham Accords survive the war and ties between Israel and its Arab partners expand and deepen, then Hamas and its partners will be the losing side. As for Mansour Abbas, time will tell if he is a friend or an enemy. But in the meantime, his political survival is a national interest.

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US President Joe Biden spoke with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu Monday night and "reiterated his firm support for Israel's right to defend itself against indiscriminate rocket attacks," the White House said in a statement.

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The American president also "encouraged Israel to make every effort to ensure the protection of innocent civilians" and expressed support for a ceasefire with Gaza's terrorist Hamas rulers.

According to the statement, "The two leaders discussed progress in Israel's military operations against Hamas and other terrorist groups in Gaza. The President expressed his support for a ceasefire and discussed US engagement with Egypt and other partners towards that end. The two leaders agreed that they and their teams would remain in close touch."

An administration official familiar with the call said the decision to express support and not explicitly demand a ceasefire was intentional. While Biden and top aides are concerned about the mounting bloodshed and loss of innocent life, the decision not to demand an immediate halt to hostilities reflects White House determination to support Israel's right to defend itself from Hamas, the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss the private deliberations.

Netanyahu told Israeli security officials late Monday that Israel would "continue to strike terror targets" in Gaza "as long as necessary in order to return calm and security to all Israeli citizens."

Meanwhile, ceasefire mediation by Egypt and others has shown little sign of progress. Overnight Monday, Egyptian officials contacted their Israeli counterparts with a request not to intensify the pace of attacks, reported Saudi Arabia-based newspaper Al Arabiya. 

According to the report, Israel wants to paralyze Hamas' military capabilities in order to enter ceasefire talks from a better position. An Egyptian delegation was expected to arrive in Tel Aviv to advance the talks. 

Separately, the US blocked for a third time Monday what would have been a unanimous statement by the 15-nation UN Security Council expressing "grave concern" over the intensifying conflict and the loss of civilian lives. The final US rejection killed the Security Council statement, at least for now.

White House press secretary Jen Psaki and national security adviser Jake Sullivan said the United States was focusing instead on "quiet, intensive diplomacy."

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, speaking in Denmark on the first stop of an unrelated tour of Nordic countries, said Monday the United States was ready to spring in to help if Israel and Hamas signal interest in ending hostilities, but that the US wasn't demanding that they do so.

"Ultimately it is up to the parties to make clear that they want to pursue a ceasefire," Blinken said.

Blinken defended the US handling of the decades-old Israeli-Palestinian conflict as America works to push for climate-accord deals, withdraw troops from Afghanistan, and turn US attention to what Biden sees as the nation's most pressing foreign policy priorities.

It's "a big world and we do have responsibilities," he said.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer on Monday joined dozens of Democratic lawmakers − and one Republican, and independent Sen. Bernie Sanders − in calling for the ceasefire by both sides. A prominent Democrat, Rep. Adam Schiff, the House intelligence committee chairman, pressed the US over the weekend to get more involved.

Progressive Democrats have been more outspoken in demanding pressure on Israel. Rep. Cori Bush, a Missouri Democrat, linked Palestinian issues to those of black Americans.

"We oppose our money going to fund militarized policing, occupation, and systems of violent oppression and trauma," Bush tweeted.

But Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky, took the Senate floor on Monday to assail lawmakers for including Israel in their demands for a ceasefire.

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"To say that both sides, both sides need to de-escalate downplays the responsibility terrorists have for initiating the conflict in the first place and suggests Israelis are not entitled to defend themselves against ongoing rocket barrages," McConnell said.

In a shot at Democrats, McConnell said, "The United States needs to stand foursquare behind our ally, and President Biden must remain strong against the growing voices within his own party that create a false equivalence between terrorist aggressors and a responsible state defending itself."

Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla., led 19 Republican senators releasing a resolution supporting Israel's side of the fighting. They plan to try to introduce the legislation next week.

Blinken also said Monday he had asked Israel for any evidence for its claim that Hamas was operating in a Gaza office building housing The Associated Press and Al Jazeera news bureaus that was destroyed in an Israeli airstrike over the weekend. But he said that he personally had "not seen any information provided."

The IDF, which gave AP journalists and other tenants about an hour to evacuate, claimed Hamas used the building for a military intelligence office and weapons development. IDF spokesman Lt. Col. Jonathan Conricus said Israel was compiling evidence for the US but declined to commit to providing it within the next two days.

Netanyahu said Israel would share any evidence of Hamas' presence in the targeted building through intelligence channels.

The European Union said it would redouble its efforts to end the surge in violence and seek progress during a special meeting of its foreign ministers on Tuesday.

The EU also called the destruction of the building housing The Associated Press and other major international media "extremely worrying" and said safe working conditions for journalists were essential.

The EU has never had the impact that Washington can wield in the region and no immediate breakthrough was expected from Tuesday's meeting. Ever since the outbreak of violence last week, the EU has been calling for restraint and condemned attacks that hit civilian populations.

Individual member states also let their voices be heard.

France's President Emmanuel Macron and Egypt's President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi stressed the "absolute need" to cease hostilities. Macron reaffirmed France's support for the Egyptian mediation in the conflict.

Rome also looked ahead to Tuesday's meeting. Foreign Minister Luigi Di Maio said Italy had requested to discuss the Mideast violence and said: "The violence and attacks between Israel and Palestine must stop." In a Facebook post, he added that "the EU with its 27 member states must take a clear and unified position and work to press the parties to sit together again at the negotiation table."

As the EU's Middle East policies require unanimity among its 27 member nations, its actions and statements haven't had the impact that could be expected from a bloc of 450 million people that has large trade interests in the region.

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Terrorist groups resumed their rocket fire on Israel on Tuesday, with at least several salvos targeting major population centers, including Beersheba, Ashdod, Ofakim.

At least 2 were in critical condition following in the immediate aftermath of the rocket fire that targeted the south around 2 p.m. and they were later pronounced dead. Another 2 were also treated for major injuries, and several others were also reported injured. The dead were apparently workers at some packaging facility. Another direct rocket hit was reported in Ashdod.

This was the second wave of the rocket fire for that day, as Israel continued Operation Guardian of the Walls. Following the barrage, the IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Aviv Kochavi and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu were scheduled to hold consultations, and Israeli forces hit the launchers that were responsible for that salvo.

The barrage hours after Aviv Kochavi told local authority leaders Tuesday morning the Israeli military offensive to hurt the Hamas radical terrorist group controlling Gaza strip was likely to continue for at least another 48 hours, as the operation entered its ninth day.

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The first wave of rocket fire, after a rather calm night, began in the morning and then resumed just after noon after a six-hour lull. It included targets as far as Beersheba.

The attack took place as Cairo announced that a delegation of Egyptian intelligence officials was planning to visit Israel later in the day. International efforts to halt the fighting have been gaining speed over the weekend.

In response, the IDF bombed Hamas positions in the Strip, taking out nine rocket launchers.

Over the past nine days, Hamas and other terrorist factions in Gaza have fired over 3,500 rockets at Israel. Some 600 misfired and landed in Gaza, the IDF said. Twelve Israelis – 11 civilians and one soldier – have been killed, and over 650 Israelis have been wounded.

According to Defense News, since May 10, the Iron Dome defense system has intercepted over 1,000 rockets fired from Gaza, approximately 90% of those determined to pose a threat. Rockets headed for unpopulated areas are allowed to hit the ground.

Earlier, the military said that it identified a drone that was approaching the Israeli border over the Jordan Valley. The UAV was shot down and its fragments were collected by troops deployed to the scene, the IDF said.

This was the third drone downed by Israeli forces in the area since the Gaza campaign was launched on May 10.

A rocket fired from the Gaza Strip hit a home in Ashdod on Tuesday morning. Three Israelis were lightly wounded. Another rocket hit a home in the western Negev, with no wounded reported.

Overnight Monday, the IDF launched a new series of strikes against Hamas targets in the Gaza Strip, Palestinian sources reported, noting that both IAF aircraft and Israeli Navy vessels were participating in the operation. The IDF reported Tuesday that the latest offensive against terrorist infrastructure in Gaza had killed 30 Hamas operatives and 30 Palestinian Islamic Jihad operatives.

The Shehab news agency reported shortly after 2 a.m. on Tuesday that a building belonging to the government authorities in the Gaza Strip had been demolished. The IDF reported overnight that it had taken out the main operations center used by Hamas' internal security forces. The IDF alerted occupants of the building ahead of the strike, allowing them time to leave.

IDF fighter jets struck the main operations center of the Hamas internal security forces in northern Gaza. The operations center was a central part of Hamas' terror infrastructure.

We provided advance warning to those inside & allowed sufficient time to evacuate. pic.twitter.com/uJ9LQsRAHo

— Israel Defense Forces (@IDF) May 17, 2021

Early Tuesday morning, terrorist factions in Gaza renewed rocket attacks on southern Israel after some six hours of quiet. Warning sirens were activated in Netivot and the western Negev.

If you won't listen to us, listen to them: pic.twitter.com/6NkklMHWh8

— Israel Defense Forces (@IDF) May 17, 2021

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The political echelon expects the international community to begin pressuring Israel and Hamas to agree to a ceasefire, the government said Sunday. 

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Egypt attempted to broker a ceasefire on Friday, but failed. An official involved in the talks told Israel Hayom that both sides rejected all proposals for a truce, especially Israel. According to the official, the IDF is intent on completing its operations against Hamas in the Gaza Strip, and only then would be open to a ceasefire. 

As of Sunday afternoon, no country has pressured Israel to stop its operation in Gaza. In fact, many expressed full support for the country's right to defend itself. 

On Tuesday, European Union foreign ministers will hold urgent video talks on the escalating fighting between Israel and Hamas, EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell announced on Twitter.

"In view of the ongoing escalation between Israel and Palestine and the unacceptable number of civilian casualties, I am convening an extraordinary VTC of the EU Foreign Ministers on Tuesday," Borrell said.

"We will coordinate and discuss how the EU can best contribute to end the current violence."

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi on Sunday called on the UN Security Council to seek an early de-escalation of violence between Israel and Hamas, and blamed the U. for the council's lack of action so far.

"Regrettably, the council has so far failed to reach an agreement, with the United States standing on the opposite side of international justice," the state-run Xinhua News Agency quoted Wang as saying in a phone conversation Saturday with Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi.

He expressed support for a two-state solution, and said China, which holds the Security Council presidency this month, expects all parties to speak with a unified voice when the council discusses the conflict later Sunday.

Wang said the Security Council should reconfirm a two-state solution and urge Palestinians and Israelis to resume talks on that basis as soon as possible.

On Saturday night, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke with US President Joe Biden by phone.

"The President reaffirmed his strong support for Israel's right to defend itself against rocket attacks from Hamas and other terrorist groups in Gaza. He condemned these indiscriminate attacks against towns and cities across Israel," the White House published in a statement afterward. 

Biden updated Netanyahu on high-level US engagement with regional partners on the issue. The US President also raised concerns about the safety of journalists and reinforced the need to ensure their protection, the statement said.

Also, Biden condemned intercommunal violence across Israel and commended the government's efforts to hold rioters accountable and establish order. The two agreed to be in touch in the days ahead.  

i24NEWS contributed to this report

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