GAZA – Weary Palestinians on Thursday prepared for a somber feast marking the end of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, as Gaza braced for more Israeli airstrikes and communal violence raged across Israel after weeks of protests and violence in Jerusalem.
The latest outburst of Mideast violence has reached deeper into Israel than any since the 2000 Palestinian intifada, or uprising, with Arab and Jewish mobs rampaging through the streets, savagely beating people and torching cars.
The last three wars between Israel and Gaza's militant Hamas rulers were largely confined to the impoverished and blockaded Palestinian territory and Israeli communities on the frontier.