Palestinian Terrorists Resume Firing at Israel; Israel Continues Airstrikes

Palestinian terrorists resumed firing at Israel after an eight-hour lull on Thursday morning, after a night in which the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) pounded Hamas and Islamic Jihad positions in Gaza.

The IDF noted that the lull had ended:

🚨After over 8 hours of quiet, sirens are sounding in southern Israel once again.

— Israel Defense Forces (@IDF) May 20, 2021

The lull had encouraged hope for a ceasefire — though a poll showed that 72% of Israelis wanted the fighting to continue, because they want to be rid of Hamas entirely.

In nearly twelve days of fighting, which started with Palestinian riots in Jerusalem that were escalated by massive rocket barrages at Israel’s cities, Israel has destroyed much of the Hamas infrastructure in Gaza, while also protecting its own citizens using the Iron Dome missile defense system.

There have been a dozen Israeli deaths, and hundreds of Palestinian deaths, though Israel says most of the latter were terrorists, and that Palestinians killed many of their own civilians in errant rocket fire.

The U.S. began the conflict by criticizing Israel, but held off a United Nations Security Council vote on a ceasefire resolution.

Thus far, there have been no major civilian casualty events caused by Israeli fire, and no Arab nation that made peace with Israel in recent months under the Abraham Accords has yet withdrawn its new relationship with the Jewish state. Riots in Israel, however, largely aimed at Jewish residents by Arab neighbors (and vice versa, to a lesser extent), remain a domestic concern.

Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of the new e-book, The Zionist Conspiracy (and how to join it). His recent book, RED NOVEMBER, tells the story of the 2020 Democratic presidential primary from a conservative perspective. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.