Deadly violence between Israel and Palestinian militants in Gaza intensified Friday, a day after President Joe Biden called for a de-escalation in the worst fighting since 2014.
The president told reporters he expects to have additional conversations with leaders in the region.
Israeli forces have been bombing and sending troops and tanks to the Gaza border after militants fired more rockets into Israeli cities.
At least 103 people have been killed, including 27 children, in Gaza in the past four days, according to Palestinian medical officials. Seven people have been killed in Israel, including a soldier and some civilians, amid airstrikes and rocket attacks between the Israeli military and militant group Hamas, which governs the Gaza Strip.
It was the most severe outbreak of violence between Israel and the Palestinians since the 2014 war in Gaza.
The dramatic escalation followed protests over the potential eviction of Palestinian families from a neighborhood in east Jerusalem by Israel’s Supreme Court. In Jerusalem last Friday, Israeli security forces clashed with stone-throwing Palestinians near Al-Aqsa Mosque, Islam’s third holiest site in advance of a Monday court hearing in the eviction case. With tensions rising, the high court delayed the hearing in the case brought by right-wing Israelis. Monday also was the anniversary of Israel’s recapture of east Jerusalem in the 1967 war and the Muslim observance of Ramadan.
Israel said it is deploying troops to the Gaza frontier ahead of a possible ground invasion of the territory following four days of continued cross-border conflict. In addition to the Hamas rocket attacks on Tel Aviv, Jerusalem and other cities and Israeli retaliatory airstrikes on Gaza, Jewish and Arab mobs have clashed in the streets of several Israeli towns this week, leading to dozens of arrests.
Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned in a televised speech that the escalating conflict has put Israel in two fighting campaigns — in Gaza and in Israel’s cities —and reiterated his promise to deploy forces to combat violence in the cities.
