Live Updates: Israeli Jets Strike Nine Underground Rocket Launchers in Gaza, IDF Says

🚨 Sirens sounding in southern Israel 🚨

Israelis are being woken up again by the warning of incoming rocket fire.

— Israel Defense Forces (@IDF) May 19, 2021

UNITED NATIONS (Sputnik) – France, together with Tunisia, Egypt and Jordan, is preparing a draft UN Security Council resolution that will call for the ceasefire between Israel and Hamas as well as organizing humanitarian corridor in the conflict zone, a diplomatic source in the UN Security Council told Sputnik.

"France is preparing with Egypt, Tunisia and Jordan a draft resolution calling for a ceasefire and humanitarian access. It is written to be acceptable to everyone," the source said.

The current episode of the long-standing Israeli-Palestinian conflict broke out last week after civil unrest in East Jerusalem, prompting hostilities on the border of Israel and the Gaza Strip, with Palestinian militants having fired thousands of rockets at Israel and the latter retaliating with airstrikes.

So far, the UN Security Council has adopted no statements on the Israeli-Palestinian violence over the US veto on the documents.

UNITED NATIONS (Sputnik) - UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator Mark Lowcock said he hopes the world body will release $14 million for emergency assistance to the Palestinian families amid the escalation of the situation in the Gaza Strip.

“We need adequate funding to enable a speedy response. The Humanitarian Coordinator, Lynn Hastings, hopes to release some US$14 million from the OPT Humanitarian Fund,” Lowcock said on Tuesday.

Lowcock added that UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres will soon launch a fuller appeal as the initial funding seeks to meet only immediate needs.

GAZA (Sputnik) – The Gaza Strip-based Hamas Islamist movement has refuted the reports about its consent to establish a ceasefire with Israel starting from Thursday, a member of the Hamas Political Bureau Izzat Rishq said.

On late Tuesday, Israeli television reported that Egypt had proposed to impose a ceasefire between Israel and the Palestinian militants starting from Thursday, adding that Hamas had already accepted the initiative.

"The reports from the rival party that Hamas has agreed on the ceasefire starting from Thursday are not true ... No solution or timeframe for the cessation of hostilities has been agreed," Rishq wrote on his Twitter page.

#Eurovision broadcast stopped in main @kann channel as fresh rockets land on major cities in southern Israel. pic.twitter.com/3tbYhhEd0R

— ⁦🏳️‍🌈⁩ ערן סיקורל |Eran Cicurel |عيران شيكوريل (@EranCicurel) May 18, 2021

🚨BARRAGES OF ROCKETS ARE BEING FIRED AT ISRAEL FOR THE 9TH NIGHT IN A ROW🚨

— Israel Defense Forces (@IDF) May 18, 2021

WASHINGTON (Sputnik) – Israel has not asked the US for any additional support for its operations against Palestinians amid the ongoing military conflict, the Defense Department spokesperson John Kirby said on Tuesday.

“They [Israel] have not asked for any additional support. We continue to stand by Israel’s right to defend itself and its citizens. As you know, we have a strong bilateral military relationship with Israel and that has not changed as a result,” Kirby told reporters during a briefing.

Kirby also underscored that during the telephone conversation with his Israeli counterpart Benjamin Gantz earlier in the day, the US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin was clear that Washington did not want to see any additional innocent civilian lives lost on either side of the clash while supporting Israel’s right to defend itself.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) - Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov on Tuesday discussed the situation in the Middle East in light of the renewed conflict between Israel and Palestine o a phone conversation with Maher Taher, a member of the political bureau of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), the Russian Foreign Ministry said.

The conversation is said to have taken place at the request of the Palestinian side.

"During the conversation, they discussed the situation in the Middle East in relation to the ongoing escalation of the armed struggle between the Israelis and the Palestinians," the ministry said in a statement.

The Russian side stressed the need for a swift ceasefire and prevention of further deterioration of the humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip, as well as consolidated efforts by the Middle East Quartet.

DOHA (Sputnik) - The Qatar Red Crescent Society (QRCS) will continue to work in the Gaza Strip, despite the bombing of its building, and expects to provide humanitarian aid worth a million dollars, Faisal Al-Emadi, the executive director of international relief and development sector of QRCS, told Sputnik.

"We in the Qatar Red Crescent pledge to continue our humanitarian projects to help our people in Palestine, and coordination is underway to implement a relief movement worth one million dollars to help the affected people in cooperation with the Palestinian Red Crescent," Al-Emadi said.

"In the last few hours, fighter jets and aircraft have attacked six Hamas terrorist rocket launch sites throughout the Gaza Strip", IDF stated in its Twitter account on Tuesday.

דיווח: מצרים מציעה הפסקת אש מיום חמישי ב-6:00 בבוקר, חמאס הסכים לכך @EhudYaariJLM

— החדשות - N12 (@N12News) May 18, 2021

DOHA, May 18 (Sputnik) - Palestine's Hamas movement, which controls the Gaza Strip, expects that Palestinians living in the West Bank will join its resistance movement against Israel, a member of the movement's political bureau, Husam Badran, said in an interview with Sputnik.

On Sunday, Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhum told Sputnik that the movement could not rule out the possibility of armed resistance to Israeli authorities on the Palestinian territories of the West Bank. According to Barhum, an all-Palestinian rebellion in the West Bank is "just a matter of time."

"The escalation has also affected the West Bank, there has accumulated experience associated with resistance to the occupation, and there is a noticeable development of the popular resistance movement in various parts of the West Bank, including an increase in the number of operations with the use of firearms, blade weapons, vehicles for ramming," Badran said.

The political bureau member also said that the movement was interested in continuing the resistance in the West Bank so that it covered all groups of the Palestinian people, using all forms of struggle, "which is the duty and right of [the Palestinian] people."

The current episode of the longstanding Israeli-Palestinian conflict broke out last week on the border of Israel and the Gaza Strip. The violence sparked demonstrations in support for both Israel and Palestine across the world, with protesters calling on the international community to take urgent action.

תקיפת עמדת שיגור רקטות ממנה בוצע הירי לבאר שבע לפני מספר שעות.
בסרטון ניתן לראות שיגור רקטה לעבר העיר ואת תקיפת העמדה מיד לאחריו: pic.twitter.com/nRjoMHJvkP

— צבא ההגנה לישראל (@idfonline) May 18, 2021

מטוסי קרב תקפו את דירתו המבצעית של וג'די צ'לאח בעיר עזה, מ"פ מגדוד אלפרקעין בחמאס, את דירתו המבצעית של מחמוד ג'מאל אלאעדא, מ"פ בגדוד צפון של החמאס, וכן את דירתו המבצעית של מוחמד שואף, מ"פ בגדוד נוחבה של חמאס, בהן תשתיות טרור המשמשות את ארגון הטרור חמאס לפעילות צבאית >>

— צבא ההגנה לישראל (@idfonline) May 18, 2021

UNITED NATIONS (Sputnik) - Palestinian Ambassador to the United Nations Riyad Mansour on Tuesday called on UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres to immediately issue emergency humanitarian assistance to Gaza.

“We want from the Secretary-General to issue immediately an emergency humanitarian assistance to the tragedy that exists in the Gaza Strip,” Mansour said during the UN Forum on the Question of Palestine.

Mansour said the assistance is urgent for more than 50,000 Palestinians who have already been displaced due to the ongoing violence

WASHINGTON (Sputnik) - US Senator Marco Rubio, alongside 17 fellow Senate Republicans, introduced a resolution that reaffirms the US’ support for the state of Israel amid escalating tensions in the region, Rubio’s office stated on Tuesday.

“U.S. Senator Marco Rubio joined [his Senate colleagues]… in introducing a resolution condemning the attacks against Israel by Hamas, an Iranian-backed and funded terrorist organization, and reaffirming the United States’ unwavering commitment to our ally Israel and its right to take whatever means are necessary to stop the murder of its citizens and foreign nationals residing in Israel,” Rubio’s office said.

The resolution is nonbinding; if passed, it would postulate that the Senate, on paper, opposes the escalating rocket attacks by Hamas against Israel and mourns the loss of innocent life caused by them, urges continued and steadfast support for Israel, and affirms its unwavering commitment to Israel and its right to defend itself.

WASHINGTON (Sputnik) - US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has discussed the ongoing escalation of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict with his Bahraini and Moroccan counterparts, State Department Spokesperson Ned Price said in two separate readouts on Tuesday.

“Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken spoke today with Bahraini Minister of Foreign Affairs, Dr. Abdullatif bin Rashid al-Zayani,” Price said. “The Secretary and Foreign Minister discussed their outreach to halt the conflict in Israel and the West Bank and Gaza.”

Price said in another press release that Blinken and Moroccan Foreign Minister Nasser Bourita discussed their concerns about the violence in Israel and the West Bank and Gaza.

“The Secretary highlighted the importance of the strong bilateral partnership and Morocco’s key role in fostering stability in the region,” he added.

The two kingdoms are part of the Arab states that normalized relations with Israel in last year's detente, alongside the United Arab Emirates and Sudan.

The Israel Defense Forces and the Palestinian militants in Gaza have exchanged fire for more than a week. The increase in violence, the worst in years, has killed 10 people in Israel and 220 in Gaza, almost a quarter of them children.

Just after Israel re-opened the Erez Crossing from Israel into Gaza to allow the entry of civilian aid, a mortar shell was fired at the crossing from Gaza, lightly injuring an IDF soldier.

Hamas prioritizes attacks on Israel over humanitarian aid for Gazans.

— Israel Defense Forces (@IDF) May 18, 2021

🚨 ROCKET ATTACK: Sirens sounding across southern Israel 🚨

— Israel Defense Forces (@IDF) May 18, 2021

החל מ-08:00 בבוקר, מטוסי קרב וכלי טיס של צה"ל זיהו ותקפו 9 עמדות שיגור רקטות תת קרקעיות ועל קרקעיות לאורך רצועת עזה

— צבא ההגנה לישראל (@idfonline) May 18, 2021

"The IDF has attacked 12 senior Hamas commanders' houses in the Gaza Strip in the past 24 hours", an official tweet from the military says.

After 6 hours of silence, sirens are sounding again in southern Israel.

— Israel Defense Forces (@IDF) May 18, 2021

"Early in the morning, a UAV that was approaching the border near the Springs Valley was identified and shot down. The UAV was monitored by air control units. The UAV fragments were collected by the security forces", a tweet from the military says.

Overnight, we struck terror targets in Gaza City:
🔺rocket launch sites aimed at Tel Aviv & across Israel
🔺~65 terror targets in the Hamas 'Metro' tunnel system
🔺a Hamas Anti-Tank Missile squad

Hamas proves again that it deliberately places military targets in civilian areas.

— Israel Defense Forces (@IDF) May 18, 2021

🚨 Sirens sounding in southern Israel 🚨

— Israel Defense Forces (@IDF) May 18, 2021