JERUSALEM //Israel's military and fighters in the Gaza Strip traded fire for a third-straight day yesterday, in an escalation that prompted the Palestinian territory's Hamas rulers to drop its informal truce with Israel.
The situation spurred the Arab League to announce a special meeting today, which the Cairo-based organisation's deputy secretary-general, Ahmad Bin Helli, said would discuss "the dangerous consequences of the Israeli assault on Gaza".
Israeli air strikes in Gaza reportedly killed at least 15 people and wounded 40 others during fighting on Thursday and Friday, but no immediate figures were available from the barrages that continued through yesterday.
Israel's military said it struck multiple targets overnight Friday and early yesterday, part of its retaliation for a brazen attack by militants on Thursday that killed eight people and wounded as many as 40 near the southern city of Eilat.
"Aircraft targeted two terror tunnels and a weapons storage facility in the southern Gaza Strip, as well as a terror activity site in the northern Gaza Strip," Israel's military said in a statement.
"The terror tunnel was intended for the infiltration of terrorists into Israeli territory and for executing terror attacks against Israeli civilians and soldiers."
Hamas has not claimed responsibility for the Eilat attack or the retaliatory strikes.
But the Islamist group's military wing, the Izzedine Al Qassam brigades, announced on a Hamas-run radio station that it was calling off its de facto truce with Israel, saying there "is no truce with the Israeli occupation under the continuation of committing massacres against the Palestinian people without justification".
"We call for groups to join in calling against the crimes of the Israeli occupation."
The Islamist group introduced the truce as informal policy following Israel's three-week war on Gaza, Operation Cast Lead, which began in December 2008.
The Israeli daily Haaretz reported 30 projectiles fired into Israel on Friday. The military cited another 12 yesterday morning, striking various locations across the southern part of the country.
Many of the rockets and mortars appear to have struck mostly uninhabited areas in Israel, though more than a half-dozen Israelis have been treated for shock while a mortar damaged a building in Sha'ar Hanegev Regional Council. Rockets fired on the Israeli city of Ashdod reportedly injured three illegal Palestinian workers.
"One rocket hit a house, causing damage but no casualties," said Luba Samri, an Israeli police spokesperson. "The second fell on open ground, among sand dunes, where it wounded three people, Palestinians staying in Israel illegally, injuring two seriously and one moderately."
Mahmoud Abbas, president of the Palestinian Authority (PA), has instructed his United Nations emissary to call for an urgent Security Council session to halt the escalating attacks, the official Palestinian news agency Wafa reported yesterday. Officials in the West Bank's governing authority have vowed the violence would not dissuade them from approaching the United Nations in September to win recognition for a Palestinian state.
Israel's military said it holds Hamas responsible for Thursday's attack. But it and other Gaza-based groups have denied involvement, including the Popular Resistance Committees, a militant group of both Islamist and secular-leaning fighters that Israel identified on Thursday as the culprit.
Islamic Tawhid wal Jihad, which carried out attacks in Egypt's Sinai region in 2004 and 2006, issued a statement praising Gaza's retaliation. While not claiming responsibility for the recent attack, the group - one of a number of splinter militant groups in Gaza at odds with Hamas - called the rocket fire a message to Israel and Egypt, the US-based SITE intelligence group, said.
"They sent them [Israel] and the guards of their borders in the Egyptian army, a clear message saying that the land of Egypt and the mountains of Sinai have entered a new phase... of conflict with the enemies of Allah, the Jews and their henchmen," SITE quoted the statement as saying.
hnaylor@thenational.ae
* Additional reporting by Reuters and Agence France-Presse
Company Profile:
Name: The Protein Bakeshop
Date of start: 2013
Founders: Rashi Chowdhary and Saad Umerani
Based: Dubai
Size, number of employees: 12
Funding/investors: $400,000 (2018)
Who are the Sacklers?
The Sackler family is a transatlantic dynasty that owns Purdue Pharma, which manufactures and markets OxyContin, one of the drugs at the centre of America's opioids crisis. The family is well known for their generous philanthropy towards the world's top cultural institutions, including Guggenheim Museum, the National Portrait Gallery, Tate in Britain, Yale University and the Serpentine Gallery, to name a few. Two branches of the family control Purdue Pharma.
Isaac Sackler and Sophie Greenberg were Jewish immigrants who arrived in New York before the First World War. They had three sons. The first, Arthur, died before OxyContin was invented. The second, Mortimer, who died aged 93 in 2010, was a former chief executive of Purdue Pharma. The third, Raymond, died aged 97 in 2017 and was also a former chief executive of Purdue Pharma.
It was Arthur, a psychiatrist and pharmaceutical marketeer, who started the family business dynasty. He and his brothers bought a small company called Purdue Frederick; among their first products were laxatives and prescription earwax remover.
Arthur's branch of the family has not been involved in Purdue for many years and his daughter, Elizabeth, has spoken out against it, saying the company's role in America's drugs crisis is "morally abhorrent".
The lawsuits that were brought by the attorneys general of New York and Massachussetts named eight Sacklers. This includes Kathe, Mortimer, Richard, Jonathan and Ilene Sackler Lefcourt, who are all the children of either Mortimer or Raymond. Then there's Theresa Sackler, who is Mortimer senior's widow; Beverly, Raymond's widow; and David Sackler, Raymond's grandson.
Members of the Sackler family are rarely seen in public.
TEACHERS' PAY - WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW
Pay varies significantly depending on the school, its rating and the curriculum. Here's a rough guide as of January 2021:
- top end schools tend to pay Dh16,000-17,000 a month - plus a monthly housing allowance of up to Dh6,000. These tend to be British curriculum schools rated 'outstanding' or 'very good', followed by American schools
- average salary across curriculums and skill levels is about Dh10,000, recruiters say
- it is becoming more common for schools to provide accommodation, sometimes in an apartment block with other teachers, rather than hand teachers a cash housing allowance
- some strong performing schools have cut back on salaries since the pandemic began, sometimes offering Dh16,000 including the housing allowance, which reflects the slump in rental costs, and sheer demand for jobs
- maths and science teachers are most in demand and some schools will pay up to Dh3,000 more than other teachers in recognition of their technical skills
- at the other end of the market, teachers in some Indian schools, where fees are lower and competition among applicants is intense, can be paid as low as Dh3,000 per month
- in Indian schools, it has also become common for teachers to share residential accommodation, living in a block with colleagues
Guide to intelligent investing
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A list of the animal rescue organisations in the UAE
Polarised public
31% in UK say BBC is biased to left-wing views
19% in UK say BBC is biased to right-wing views
19% in UK say BBC is not biased at all
Source: YouGov
COMPANY%20PROFILE
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TRAP
Starring: Josh Hartnett, Saleka Shyamalan, Ariel Donaghue
Director: M Night Shyamalan
Rating: 3/5
Our family matters legal consultant
Name: Hassan Mohsen Elhais
Position: legal consultant with Al Rowaad Advocates and Legal Consultants.
ANALYSTS’ TOP PICKS OF SAUDI BANKS IN 2019
Analyst: Aqib Mehboob of Saudi Fransi Capital
Top pick: National Commercial Bank
Reason: It will be at the forefront of project financing for government-led projects
Analyst: Shabbir Malik of EFG-Hermes
Top pick: Al Rajhi Bank
Reason: Defensive balance sheet, well positioned in retail segment and positively geared for rising rates
Analyst: Chiradeep Ghosh of Sico Bank
Top pick: Arab National Bank
Reason: Attractive valuation and good growth potential in terms of both balance sheet and dividends
SQUADS
South Africa:
Faf du Plessis (capt), Hashim Amla, Temba Bavuma, Farhaan Behardien, Quinton de Kock (wkt), AB de Villiers, JP Duminy, Imran Tahir, David Miller, Wayne Parnell, Dane Paterson, Andile Phehlukwayo, Dwaine Pretorius, Kagiso Rabada
Coach: Ottis Gibson
Bangladesh:
Mashrafe Mortaza (capt), Imrul Kayes, Liton Das (wkt), Mahmudullah, Mehidy Hasan, Mohammad Saifuddin, Mominul Haque, Mushfiqur Rahim (wkt), Mustafizur Rahman, Nasir Hossain, Rubel Hossain, Sabbir Rahman, Shakib Al Hasan, Soumya Sarkar, Tamim Iqbal, Taskin Ahmed.
Coach: Chandika Hathurusingha
GAC GS8 Specs
Engine: 2.0-litre 4cyl turbo
Power: 248hp at 5,200rpm
Torque: 400Nm at 1,750-4,000rpm
Transmission: 8-speed auto
Fuel consumption: 9.1L/100km
On sale: Now
Price: From Dh149,900
Yahya Al Ghassani's bio
Date of birth: April 18, 1998
Playing position: Winger
Clubs: 2015-2017 – Al Ahli Dubai; March-June 2018 – Paris FC; August – Al Wahda
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
Super Saturday results
4pm: Mahab Al Shimaal Group 3 | US$350,000 | (Dirt) | 1,200m
Winner: Drafted, Pat Dobbs (jockey), Doug Watson (trainer).
4.35pm: Al Bastakiya Listed | $300,000 | (D) | 1,900m
Winner: Divine Image, Brett Doyle, Charlie Appleby.
5.10pm: Nad Al Sheba Turf Group 3 | $350,000 | (Turf) | 1,200m
Winner: Blue Point, William Buick, Charlie Appleby.
5.45pm: Burj Nahaar Group 3 | $350,000 | (D) | 1,600m
Winner: Muntazah, Jim Crowley, Doug Watson.
6.20pm: Dubai City of Gold Group 2 | $300,000 | (T) | 2,410m
Winner: Old Persian, William Buick, Charlie Appleby.
6.55pm: Al Maktoum Challenge Round 3 Group 1 | $600,000 | (D) | 2,000m
Winner: Capezzano, Mickael Barzalona, Salem bin Ghadayer.
7.30pm: Jebel Hatta Group 1 | $400,000 | (T) | 1,800m
Winner: Dream Castle, Christophe Soumillon, Saeed bin Suroor.
Sri Lanka-India Test series schedule
1st Test July 26-30 in Galle
2nd Test August 3-7 in Colombo
3rd Test August 12-16 in Pallekele
