The Times of Israel is liveblogging Wednesday’s events as they unfold. For a recap of Tuesday’s events, click here.
Residents of a number of communities adjacent to the Gaza Strip have been instructed to immediately lock themselves inside their homes due to an “irregular security incident,” local officials say.
Residents are additionally told to enter the secure areas of their homes.
It appears that security services fear terrorists may have infiltrated into Israeli territory from Gaza.
A similar incident occurred on Monday evening, but was later found to be a false alarm.
Egyptian mediators are working to mediate a ceasefire between Israel and the Gaza terror groups after nearly two days of escalating violence, Channel 12 news.
However, according to analysts at the outlet, Israel is not interested in ending the fighting until certain military goals are achieved.
According to the Gaza Health Ministry, 35 Palestinians have died since Monday night, and 233 have been wounded. Israel says many of those killed were terrorists.
A man and his daughter were killed overnight in a rocket strike outside Lod. Their deaths, and that of a woman in a rocket attack on Rishon Lezion earlier overnight, brought the Israeli death toll to five since the start of the hostilities. Dozens of Israelis have been wounded in the violence.
Iran’s state television reports that the country’s former firebrand president will run again for office in upcoming elections in June.
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad reportedly marched accompanied by supporters to a registration center at the Interior Ministry where he filled out registration forms.
Ahmadinejad in recent years has tried to polish his hardline image into a more centrist candidacy, criticizing the government for mismanagement.
The Holocaust-denying Ahmadinejad has previously been banned from running for the presidency by Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in 2017, although then, he registered anyway. A constitutional watchdog, the Guardian Council ultimately disqualified him then.
Khamenei says he will not oppose the nomination of any candidate, although the electoral council may still block Ahmadinejad’s candidacy. In either case, the populist’s return to the political scene may energize discontent among hardliners who seek a tougher stance against the West — particularly Israel and the US.
Iran opened registration on Tuesday, kicking off the race as uncertainty looms over Tehran’s tattered nuclear deal with world powers and tensions remain high with the West.
The Israel Defense Forces says it has just bombed the home of a top Hamas operative, Salah Dahman, who used the house to story weaponry for the terror group.
The military releases footage of the strike, showing the missile hitting the building in a densely populated neighborhood, causing a large blast, apparent from the munitions inside.
Residents of Gaza border communities are instructed to enter bomb shelters and protected areas in the wake of the strike.
Public Security Minister Amir Ohana calls for the release of a Jewish man who was arrested in connection with the deadly shooting of an Arab Israeli man during protests and riots in the central city of Lod on Monday night.
“The arrest of the shooter and his friends in Lod, who acted in self-defense, is terrible,” says Ohana, who is the minister responsible for policing.
“Law-abiding citizens carrying weapons are a force multiplier for the authorities for the immediate neutralization of threat and danger,” he says.
Ohana notes that detention is not under his purview, but “if that were the case, they would have been released.”
The man was shot and killed and two others were wounded during violence on Monday evening. Some reports said the victims were part of a mob throwing stones and firebombs at Jewish-owned homes and were shot by Jewish residents in what Jewish witnesses said was self-defense.
The statement comes after Ohana declares a state of emergency in Lod and police forces are bolstered on the streets of the city.
According to the Haaretz daily, police are expected to impose a lockdown on the city.
The newspaper says that anyone who violates any “reasonable instruction” from police faces a potential jail sentence.
Two days after suspending talks over the potential formation of a coalition amid the escalating violence, the head of the Islamist Ra’am party, Mansour Abbas, says that discussions will resume after the fighting ends.
“It is inevitable that we will return to political talks for the formation of the government after the fire subsides,” Abbas tells the Kan public broadcaster. “We have a real opportunity to play an important role in Israeli politics for the sake of our society.”
Ra’am announced Monday it had suspended coalition talks with the so-called “change bloc,” potentially dooming efforts by the parties to form a government that removes Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu from office.
The party made the announcement amid rising violence in Israel, alongside widescale rocket barrages fired from Gaza toward Israel and retaliatory strikes on the Strip.
A Palestinian man tries to grab a gun from a soldier near the city of Jericho in the West Bank, the military says.
The Palestinian man is arrested with no Israeli injuries reported, the IDF says.
Police say the theft was thwarted when a passing cop saw the soldier struggling on the floor of a bus stop with the suspect.
The police officer stopped his vehicle and realized the soldier had been attacked with pepper spray in the course of the attack.
Police say the officer intervened in the scuffle and arrested the suspect, who was then taken for questioning.
Sirens are triggered in the Gaza border community of Kerem Shalom as terrorists continue to fire rockets and mortar shells into Israel.
There are no immediate reports of injuries or damage.
Police Commissioner Kobi Shabtai orders a “significant” bolstering of police presence in the city of Lod and a number of other locations after Public Security Minister Amir Ohana declared a state of emergency.
The order comes after intense Arab rioting broke out in Lod late Tuesday, with three synagogues and numerous shops reportedly set on fire, and dozens of cars set alight.
“We are witnessing a situation we have not seen before in mixed cities and this includes severe violence with a nationalist background, harm to religious symbols and also attempts to harm police officers and close major thoroughfares,” Shabtai says. “The Israel Police is currently facing a series of national missions and we will carry out our duties and restore order.”
According to the statement from police, the declaration of a state emergency gives them “greater freedom of action.”
Arab violence erupted in numerous other cities across Israel alongside reports of Jewish attacks, including in Lod, where a Muslim cemetery was set ablaze.
Attacks were reported on Jewish homes in Ramle, where cars were also stoned. In Acre, a restaurant and a hotel were set ablaze, seriously injuring one man.
The Israel Defense Forces says it has just intercepted a drone that was flown into Israeli airspace from the Gaza Strip.
The IDF says air defense soldiers shot down the small aircraft.
The IDF says the aircraft was not a small, quadcopter model like those used by civilians, but a larger unmanned aerial vehicle.
It is not immediately clear if it was armed, the military says.
There are nine people hospitalized around the country in serious condition as a result of rocket fire, according to a tally by the Kan public broadcaster.
Two people are receiving care at the Assaf Harofeh Medical Center in Be’er Yaakov, four people are hospitalized at Holon’s Wolfson Medical Center, one woman at Ashkelon’s Barzilai Medical Center and two people are being treated at the Sheba Medical Center at Tel HaShomer.
One of the patients at the Wolfson Medical Center is a five-year-old girl who was among the injured when a rocket fell next to a bus in the Tel Aviv suburb of Holon on Tuesday evening. She is in critical condition.
Iranian Foreign Minister Zarif is traveling to Damascus to “discuss developments in Israel and the Gaza Strip,” according to a Lebanese report cited by the Kan public broadcaster.
The Israeli outlet gives no further details.
The Israeli Air Force carried out a series of early morning airstrikes early today on the Gaza Strip, destroying dozens of police and security installations, witnesses say.
A wall of dark gray smoke rises over Gaza City and observers in Gaza say this is one of the heaviest Israeli strikes ever.
Hamas says its main police headquarters were also destroyed.
Rocket sirens warn of incoming fire toward the Gaza border communities of Ein HaShlosha, Nahal Oz and Alumim.
There are no immediate reports of injuries or damage.
The IDF says over 1,050 rockets and mortar shells have been fired from the Gaza Strip toward Israel since the outbreak of fighting on Monday evening, with 200 failing to clear the border and landing inside the enclave.
IDF Spokesperson Hidai Zilberman says the Iron Dome air defense system had an interception rate between 85 and 90 percent of rockets heading toward populated areas.
In response, the IDF launched strikes on upwards of 500 targets in the Gaza Strip, aimed at Hamas personnel, weaponry and infrastructure, Zilberman says.
WarSclerotic 
May 12, 2021 at 8:27 PM
As always, thanks for all of your updates! Four days ago on the 8th of May, I thought to myself that if targeted killings (of Hamas etc.) were to ensue that would probably be the start of war. Here we go…