Follow our live blog for more updates on the Israel-Palestine conflict as the hostilities enter the ninth day.

May 19, 2021 11:36 AM

With this we end the LIVE coverage of the violent conflict between Israel and Palestine for today. Do join us tomorrow for all the developments on the tensions between the two nations, until then stay safe and good night.

Stay tuned with live updates on Israel Palestine news here

May 19, 2021 1:12 AM

Israel-Palestine conflict LIVE updates: Israeli Prez speaks to kin of Indian caregiver killed in rocket attack from Gaza

Israeli President Reuven Rivlin on Wednesday spoke to the family of the Indian caregiver who was killed on May 11 in a rocket attack by Palestinian militants from Gaza, and conveyed his condolences. Soumya Santosh, 30, who hailed from Kerala's Idukki district, worked as a caregiver attending to an old woman at a house in the southern Israeli coastal city of Ashkelon. She was talking to her husband Santhosh over a video call in the evening on May 11 when a rocket fired from Gaza directly hit the house where she was working. The details of the conversation the Israeli President had with the family were not immeditaely available.

May 19, 2021 12:41 AM

Israel-Palestine conflict LIVE updates: Netanyahu says Hamas dealt 'unexpected blows'

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says Palestinian militants have been dealt unexpected blows in more than a week of Israeli bombardments in the Gaza Strip. Netanyahus office released a video of the prime minister speaking in front of an F-16 fighter jet at an air force base in southern Israel on Tuesday. I have no doubt that we set them back many years, Netanyahu said. I am sure that all our enemies around us see the price we have levied for the aggression against us, and I am sure they will learn the lesson. Scores of Palestinians and Lebanese protesting along the border with Israel threw rocks and climbed the cement wall snaking around the frontier, and drew tear gas from Israeli forces Tuesday.

May 19, 2021 12:17 AM

Israel-Palestine conflict LIVE updates: Democrats step up pressure on Biden on Israel-Hamas battles

Secretary of State Antony Blinken and his envoy reached out to Palestinian and regional Arab leaders Tuesday on a ninth day of Israeli airstrikes and Hamas rockets, while some House Democrats split on whether to step up pressure for a cease-fire and for more forceful U.S. diplomacy to end the fighting. Democrats on the House Foreign Affairs Committee weighed but on Tuesday shelved writing President Joe Biden to demand that he delay a pending $735 million sale of precision-guided missiles to Israel. Dozens of progressive and mainstream Democratic lawmakers have called for a cease-fire between Israel and Gaza's Hamas militants, and some Democrats are demanding Biden push harder for an end to fighting.

May 19, 2021 12:16 AM

Israel-Palestine conflict LIVE updates: EU - minus Hungary - calls for Israeli-Palestinian ceasefire

European Union foreign ministers called on Tuesday for a ceasefire between Israel and the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas and boosted humanitarian aid for Gaza, but failed to reach the unanimity that might give the EU leverage in peacemaking. Hungary, Israel's closest ally in the bloc, declined to join the other 26 foreign ministers in calling for a truce on their video call, convened by EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell. Nevertheless, the other ministers vowed that the EU would try to relaunch the peace process along with the United States, Russia and the United Nations. "As a minimum we can try to get a ceasefire, then provide humanitarian aid, and then see what can be done to restart the Middle East peace process to address the root causes of the violence," Maltese Foreign Minister Evarist Bartolo told Reuters.

May 18, 2021 10:41 PM

In pics | Israel-Palestine conflict: Hamas rockets from Gaza rain havoc in Israel

The Israeli military unleashed a wave of heavy airstrikes Monday on the Gaza Strip, saying it destroyed 15 kilometres (9 miles) of militant tunnels and the homes of nine Hamas commanders as…

May 18, 2021 9:54 PM

Israel-Palestine conflict LIVE updates: Pentagon chief supports de-escalation in Gaza conflict

US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin expressed his support for a de-escalation in fighting between Israel and Palestinian Islamist group Hamas in a call with his Israeli counterpart on Tuesday, the Pentagon said. "Austin reiterated the United States' unwavering support for Israel's right to defend itself and to protect Israeli civilians, and lamented the loss of innocent Israeli and Palestinian lives," Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said. "Austin expressed his support for de-escalation of the conflict and the restoration of calm," Kirby added.

May 18, 2021 9:01 PM

Israel-Palestine conflict LIVE updates: In Gaza, UN classrooms become dormitories as Palestinians flee conflict

UN-run schools in Gaza look very little like places of learning these days in the midst of a conflict between Israel and Palestinian armed groups that is in its second week. Laundry is hung on makeshift washing lines, mothers scrub infants at bathroom sinks and classrooms have become dormitories with desks stacked up and blankets spread on the floor. For Palestinians crammed into this narrow strip of land, wedged between Israel, the Mediterranean and a small stretch of Egypt, there are few places to seek shelter from bombardment. So, many have fled to schools run by the U.N. refugee agency UNRWA, which estimates that 47,000 Palestinians are now camped out in the 58 education establishments it runs in the enclave. "We have quit without taking mattresses or anything. We left the house as it is, and we escaped," said Hassan Haboub, a father of nine whose family have made a temporary home in the four-storey complex of Gaza City's Beach elementary school.

May 18, 2021 9:00 PM

Israel-Palestine conflict LIVE updates: EU set to call for Israel-Palestinian peace talks with US, Russia

European Union foreign ministers are set on Tuesday to call for a ceasefire between Israel and Palestinian Islamist group Hamas, offer more humanitarian aid and try to relaunch peace talks, Malta's foreign minister said. EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell began an emergency call with member states' foreign ministers after criticism of the West's response to violence that flared last week, including from Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan. "I think I'm not being too optimistic (to say) that at a minimum, what will probably come out (of the EU meeting) is the call for a ceasefire, an offer of humanitarian aid, and then seeing how to restart the political process," Bartolo told Reuters via video link after the ministers' call began.

May 18, 2021 8:32 PM

Israel-Palestine conflict LIVE updates: US reaches out to Arab leaders on Israel, Gaza fighting

Secretary of State Antony Blinken and his envoy reached out to Palestinian and regional Arab leaders on Tuesday as attacks between Israel and Gaza's Hamas rulers raged on, maintaining what the Biden administration is calling its quiet diplomacy while still declining to press for an immediate cease-fire. Blinken, speaking during an unrelated trip focusing on Russia and Nordic countries, also defended the U.S. decision to block what would have been a unanimous U.N. Security Council statement on the fighting and its civilian toll, and the overall U.S. approach to the worst Israeli-Palestinian fighting since 2014. President Joe Biden, speaking to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday, expressed general support for a cease fire but stopped short of joining dozens of Democratic lawmakers in demanding one. "Our goal remains to bring the current cycle of violence to an end and then return to a process in which a lasting peace can be forged, the U.S. diplomat said.

May 18, 2021 7:10 PM

Israel-Palestine conflict LIVE updates: Israel gives US info about Gaza building strike

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken says Israel has given the United States information about its bombing of a Gaza building housing The Associated Press and other media outlets. Israel had claimed that Hamas had a military intelligence office in the Gaza building which it levelled in a weekend airstrike. But Israel has not publicly provided any evidence backing up that claim. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel would share any evidence of Hamas' presence in the targeted building through intelligence channels. Blinken said from Iceland on Tuesday that "we have received some further information through intelligence channels." He declined to characterize the material, saying "that's not something I can comment on. Press freedom groups condemned the attack, which levelled the building and marked a new chapter in the already rocky relationship between the Israeli military and the international media. AP President Gary Pruitt has called for an independent investigation into the attack.

May 18, 2021 7:06 PM

Israel-Palestine conflict LIVE updates: 52,000 displaced in Gaza, Amnesty wants war crimes investigation

More than 52,000 Palestinians have been displaced by Israeli air strikes that have destroyed or badly damaged nearly 450 buildings in the Gaza Strip, the U.N. aid agency said on Tuesday. In a separate statement on the conflict, rights group Amnesty International said Israel air strikes on residential buildings might amount to war crimes. Israel says it hits only legitimate military targets and that it does all it can to avoid civilian casualties. About 47,000 of the displaced people have sought shelter in 58 U.N.-run schools in Gaza, Jens Laerke, a spokesman for the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) in Geneva, told reporters. Laerke said 132 buildings had been destroyed and 316 had been severely damaged, including six hospitals and nine primary healthcare centres as well a desalination plant, affecting access to drinking water for about 250,000 people.

May 18, 2021 6:22 PM

Timeline: How Israel-Palestinian conflict escalated

The raging Israel-Palestinian conflict has killed hundreds and wounded thousands. Global powers have called for de-escalation. Here's a look at how the violence spiralled out of control over the past…

May 18, 2021 6:12 PM

Israel-Palestine conflict LIVE updates: 2 killed, 10 wounded in strike from Gaza, says Israeli medics

A strike launched from Gaza on Tuesday wounded 10 people in southern Israel, four of them seriously, Israeli medics reported, as Israel and Gaza's Hamas rulers continued to trade attacks. However, Israeli police said that the strike launched from Gaza killed two people in Israel. Two Thai workers inside a packaging plant in southern Israel, the police said, as Israel and Gaza's Hamas rulers continued to trade attacks throughout the day.

May 18, 2021 6:11 PM

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