Tension remains unabated on all fronts of the war in the Gaza Strip, in northern Israel, in West Bank and in southern Lebanon, while at the same time the Israeli state apparatus is on high alert in anticipation of a possible attack by Iran and its regional allies. All this after the assassination in Tehran of the leader of the political branch of Hamas, Ismail Haniya, and the number two official of Hezbollah, Fouad Shukr, in Beirut.

According to the Reuters agency, at least 15 Palestinians were killed early today when Israel bombed a building complex in Gaza City, which used to be a school and, according to Palestinian sources, housed displaced civilians. The Israeli army in a statement says that the building was a hideout for armed men and served as a place to manufacture and store weapons for Hamas. At the same time, the Palestinian official news agency WAFA reports that, throughout the night, Israel bombarded three neighborhoods of Gaza City, killing five Palestinians and injuring dozens.

Street battles, but also missile attacks

In the West Bank, the Israeli air force hit two groups of armed Palestinians on the outskirts of the city of Tulkarem yesterday afternoon. Islamic Jihad and Hamas announced that during the two Israeli operations, their armed operatives were killed. Israeli security forces announced that it was two groups of armed Palestinians, consisting of a total of 15 people, who were heading to Israeli cities to carry out attacks. Throughout the night, there were isolated clashes and street fights between Palestinian youths and Israeli soldiers in many parts of the West Bank, as well as in the Shuafat neighborhood of East Jerusalem, without any casualties.

On the front of northern Israel the organization Hezbollah carried out a barrage of rocket launches, mainly against the Israeli city of Kiryat Shmona. The Israeli air force retaliated with bombings against the organization’s positions in South Lebanon.

This morning, a Palestinian youth from the West Bank attacked and killed two Israeli citizens with a knife, injuring two others, in the central Israeli city of Holon.

Restoration of communication channels

At the diplomatic level, following American pressure, the Mossad commander met yesterday afternoon in Cairo, David Barneaand the commander of the Homeland Security Agency, Ronen Barrwith the head of Egypt’s secret services, Abbas Kamal. The focus of the meeting, the first to be part of the ceasefire talks in Gaza after the assassination of Ismail Haniya, was the question of continuing or not the presence of the Israeli army on the border between Gaza and Egypt and at the Rafah outpost. The request of the Israeli side to maintain control of the Gaza-Egypt border is opposed by the Cairo government. As the state-run Israeli television broadcasts, citing government sources in Jerusalem, the meeting was fruitless. However, as political analysts in Israel and abroad comment, the renewal of the communication channel in the context of negotiations to reach a truce is a positive development, even though the American and Qatari mediators did not participate in yesterday’s meeting between Israelis and Egyptians in Cairo.

Finally, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Jordan, Ayman Safadi, will go to Tehran today, in order to reduce the tension in the region. This is an unusual initiative by Jordanian diplomacy, which is appreciated by the local media as a move to strengthen the efforts of the United States, France, Italy and Egypt to reduce the tension.