A native mountaineering guide Kami Rita ascends the world’s highest peak for the second time in just a week.

A Nepalese Sherpa climber, Kami Rita, has scaled the Mount Everest for a 24th time, the second such feat in just a week after breaking his own record for the most successful ascents of the world’s highest peak.

The 49-year-old, who is a native of Thame village located in the shadow of Mount Everest, reached the 8,848-metre peak via the Southeast Ridge route on Tuesday, tourism department official Mira Acharya said.

Acharya said Rita, who goes by his first name Kami, said he wanted to climb the mountain one more time.

“I am still strong and want to climb Sagarmatha 25 times,” Kami had told Reuters news agency before leaving for his 23rd climb last week, referring to the Nepali name for the Everest.

‘Like a soldier’

Rita first scaled the Everest in 1994 and has been making the trip nearly every year since, one of many Sherpa guides whose expertise and skills are vital to the safety and success of the hundreds of climbers who head to Nepal each year seeking to stand on top of the world.

His father was among the first Sherpa guides employed to help climbers reach the summit and Rita followed in his footsteps and then some.

In addition to his nearly two dozen summits of Everest, Rita has scaled several other peaks that are among the world’s highest, including K-2, Cho-Oyu, Manaslu and Lhotse.

Rita was at Everest’s base camp in 2015 when an avalanche swept through, killing 19 people.

After that tragedy, he came under intense family pressure to quit mountaineering altogether, but in the end, decided against it.

The route was pioneered by New Zealander Sir Edmund Hillary and Sherpa Tenzing Norgay in 1953 and remains the most popular snow trail leading to the highest point on the Earth.

Nearly 5,000 climbers have scaled the peak since the pioneering ascent, many multiple times.

Two other climbers, both Sherpas, have scaled Everest 21 times each. They have both retired from mountaineering.

The climbing season ends in May and hundreds of climbers are currently on the Everest, trying to reach the top from both the Nepali and Tibetan sides of the mountain.

Tourism, which includes mountain climbing, is the main source of income for cash-strapped Nepal, home to eight of the world’s 14 highest mountains.

Agencies

The Imran Khan-led Pakistan government is actively considering appointing a National Security Advisor to revive backchannel diplomacy with India to iron out issues hindering the resumption of peace talks between the two nuclear-armed neighbours, official sources said on Sunday.

Since assuming the office in August last year, Prime Minister Imran Khan repeatedly reached out to India for the resumption of peace talks on all outstanding issues. 

But India has made it clear to Pakistan that terrorism and dialogue will not go hand-in-hand.

The likely appointment of the NSA is meant for reviving the backchannel diplomacy with India to sort out some of the pressing issues between the two nuclear-armed neighbours, the official sources privy to the development was quoted as saying by the Express Tribune.

A senior official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said that the government was likely to appoint a retired military official as the National Security Advisor (NSA). 

He said certain names were under consideration but no final decision has been taken yet.

The relationship between the two neighbouring nations currently is at all-time low after a Pakistan-based Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) suicide bomber attacked a CRPF convoy in Pulwama in Jammu and Kashmir on February 14 that killed 40 soldiers. 

Amid mounting outrage, the Indian Air Force (IAF) carried out a counter-terror operation, hitting what it said was a JeM training camp in Balakot, deep inside Pakistan on February 26.

The next day, the PAF retaliated and downed a MiG-21 in aerial combat and captured IAF Wing Commander Abhinandan Varthaman, who was later released and handed over to India on March 1. 

Now, with the almost two-month-long election exercise getting over, the Pakistan government is considering options on how to resume talks with India.

Pakistan believes that the new government in India after the general elections would be more receptive to Khan’s offer of peace talks.

When asked about the prospects of resumption of talks given the current hostilities, the official said Pakistan was optimistic. 

The reason for this optimism stems from the fact that new government, whether it is formed by the ruling BJP or the Congress, is unlikely to follow the pre-election rhetoric, he said.

One of the options includes the appointment of the NSA to revive the backchannel with India. 

In the past, the two countries often used backchannel through the NSAs to prepare ground for any talks.

In 2015, Pakistan’s NSA Lt General (retd) Naseer Khan Janjua and his Indian counterpart Ajit Doval were instrumental in breaking the ice. 

The two held meetings in Bangkok leading to the agreement between the two foreign ministers for the resumption of the composite dialogue.

The leadership of the two countries used their respective NSAs to communicate on important issues.

Talking to foreign journalists last month, Khan had said that there might be a better chance of peace talks with India if Modi returned to power.

“If the next Indian government is led by the opposition Congress party, it might be too scared to seek a settlement with Pakistan over Indian-occupied Kashmir (IoK), fearing a backlash from the right,” the prime minister told a small group of foreign journalists in an interview.

“Perhaps if the BJP a right-wing party wins, some kind of settlement on Kashmir could be reached.”

Khan’s statement stirred a heated debate both in Pakistan as well as in India, where Modi’s opponents mocked him as Pakistan’s ally.

In Pakistan, opposition parties criticised Khan for making an ‘undiplomatic statement’ and also supporting Modi despite his hostile policies. 

Agencies

As US military warships sailed near the disputed islands in the South China Sea, China hit back at the US asserting that it should “immediately stop provocative actions” as relations between the two nations continued to remain on the boil.

“We strongly urge the United States to immediately stop such provocative actions so as not to undermine Sino-US relations and regional peace and stability,” China’s foreign ministry spokesman said,adding,”China will continue to do what it needs to protect its national sovereignty and security and uphold the peace and stability of the South China Sea.” 

A US warship had sailed across the Scarborough Shoal claimed by Chinain the South China Sea on Sunday amid heightened tensions in the area. The US destroyer Preble had carried out the operation.

A fortnight ago the US military had sent two destroyers –  Preble and Chung Hoon – within 12 nautical miles of Gaven and Johnson Reefs in the Spratly Islands.

China claims all the islands in the South China Sea, however, it is also claimed by Vietnam, the Philippines, Brunei, Malaysia, Indonesia and Taiwan.

Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Lu Kang said the warship had entered waters near the shoal without China’s position and the Chinese navy had warned it to leave.

The United States is trying to disturb regional peace and stability by using the issue of freedom of navigation and flight, he added.

Earlier in the month, a US destroyer had conducted drills with a Japanese aircraft carrier along with two Indian naval ships and a Philippine patrol vessel in the waterways in the South China Sea.

Japan sent one of its two big aircraft carriers, the Izumo, while India deployed a destroyer, the INS Kolkata, and a tanker, the INS Shakti.

The US navy advocates freedom of navigation to freely move warships in the region, a move disputed by China. Beijing has built artificial islands and military installations in the South China Sea, including on the Spratlys.

Agencies

Indefinite curfew imposed in North Western Province where Muslim man was killed on Monday.3 hours ago

The Sri Lankan government has ordered nationwide curfew for a second night after anti-Muslim riots in the wake of the Easter bombings.

The curfew was earlier relaxed on Tuesday in all areas except the North Western Province (NWP) where a Muslim man was killed by a mob on Monday, police said, in a violent backlash against last month’s bombings.

The 45-year-old died of injuries sustained when a crowd stormed his carpentry workshop in the Puttalam district in the NWP and slashed him, official sources said.

Police chief Chandana Wickramaratne warned of stern action against rioters, and said that constables have been issued orders to use “maximum force”.

Elsewhere in the province, mobs torched dozens of Muslim-owned shops, vandalised homes and mosques in a day of rioting.

“The curfew in the NWP will be continued until further notice,” police spokesman Ruwan Gunasekera said.

Al Jazeera’s Minelle Fernandez, reporting from Colombo, said “an uneasy calm prevailed in the northwestern province”.

“There are complaints that some of the police and military stood helpless daunted by the sheer scale of the mobs that were going around burning properties. That is something of concern here,” she said.

Fernandez said that there are reports of 11 individuals arrested for their alleged involvement in the violence.

On Monday, police imposed the island-wide curfew from 9pm local time (15:30 GMT) to 4am, according to a police statement.

Sri Lankan Muslims fear for safety after Easter Sunday attacks (2:42)

Curfews were previously limited to specific areas where attacks had taken place, including Puttalam, Kurunegala and Gamphala districts near Colombo.

In an address to the nation on Monday night, Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe said a countrywide curfew was declared to prevent unidentified groups orchestrating communal violence.

Wickremesinghe said the unrest would hinder investigations into the April 21 attacks that targeted three churches and three luxury hotels, killing 257 people and wounding nearly 500.

Sri Lanka also temporarily banned some social media networks and messaging apps, including Facebook and WhatsApp, after a posting sparked anti-Muslim riots across several towns.

A Facebook post has sparked anti-Muslim riots in Sri Lanka, with Christian and Muslim community leaders calling for calm.9669:49 PM – May 13, 2019947 people are talking about thisTwitter Ads info and privacy

The attacks came during the Muslim holy fasting month of Ramadan.

Residents in NWP said crowds attacked mosques and damaged Muslim-owned businesses for a second day on Monday.

“There are hundreds of rioters, police and army are just watching. They have burnt our mosques and smashed many shops owned by Muslims,” a resident, who asked not to be identified, told the Reuters news agency. “When we try to come out of our house, police tell us to stay inside.”

Glass was strewn across the Abrar mosque in the town of Kiniyama that was attacked overnight. All the windows and doors of the soft-pink building were smashed and copies of the Quran were thrown onto the floor.

‘Several shops attacked’

“Over the last 24 hours there were localised police curfews to contain tensions between Christians and Muslims in these particular areas,” Al Jazeera’s Fernandez said. “The authorities are trying very hard to clamp down on this.”

The latest wave of unrest started when a mob targeted Muslim-owned shops in the town of Chilaw, 70 kilometres north of Colombo, on Sunday in anger at a Facebook post by a shopkeeper.

“Don’t laugh more, 1 day u will cry,” was posted as a comment on Facebook by a Muslim shopkeeper, and local Christians took it to be a warning of an impending attack.

Mobs smashed the man’s shop and vandalised a nearby mosque prompting security forces to fire in the air to disperse the crowd.

Authorities said they arrested the author of the post.

Muslims make up around 10 percent of Buddhist-majority Sri Lanka’s 21 million population and Christians about 7.6 percent.

‘Worrying trend’

Rights group Amnesty International said there was “a worrying trend of attacks against the Muslim community coming out of Sri Lanka” following the Easter Sunday bombings. 

The country’s main body of Islamic scholars, the All Ceylon Jamiyyathul Ulama (ACJU), said there was increased suspicion of Muslims. 

“We call upon the members of the Muslim communities to be more patient and guard your actions and avoid unnecessary postings or hosting on social media,” the ACJU said.

On Twitter, Sri Lanka’s leading mobile phone operator Dialog said it had also received instructions to block Viber, IMO, Snapchat, Instagram and Youtube until further notice.

The latest unrest came as Catholic churches resumed their public Sunday masses for the first time since the bombings.

Sri Lanka has been under a state of emergency since the attacks. Security forces and police have been given sweeping powers to arrest and detain suspects for long periods.

Aljazeera

The Sri Lankan authorities on Monday reimposed the curfew, few hours after it was lifted on four towns in the northwestern region following communal violence in the area.

“Curfew was lifted at 6 am this morning from Kuliyapitiya, Hettipola, Bingiriya and Dummalasuriya towns,” a police official said.

“However, following a communal clash in the afternoon at Hettipola, the curfew was re-imposed with immediate effect till 4 am tomorrow on the area and its neighbouring towns of Kuliyapitiya, Bingiriya and Dummalasuriya,” the official added.

Earlier today, the Lankan government temporarily blocked some social media network and instant messaging apps after violent incidents marred the country in the fallout of Easter suicide bombings

Several dozen people threw stones at mosques and Muslim-owned stores and a man was beaten in the town of Chilaw on the west coast on Sunday in a dispute that started on Facebook, news agency Reuters reported.

Some temporarily blocked apps include Facebook Messenger and Whatsapp.

Agencies

Saudi Arabia’s energy minister says two Saudi oil tankers hit in ‘sabotage attack’ off UAE have ‘significant damage’.4 hours ago

Saudi Arabia says two of its oil tankers were sabotaged off the coast of the United Arab Emirates(UAE) in attacks that caused “significant damage” to the vessels.

One of the ships was en route to pick up Saudi oil to take to the United States, Saudi Energy MinisterKhalid al-Falih said on Monday.

The announcement by al-Falih came as the UAE’s regional allies condemned the reported sabotage on Sunday of four ships off the coast of the port city of Fujairah.

On Sunday, Iranian and Lebanese media outlets aired reports of explosions at the city’s port but UAE authorities said the reports were inaccurate.

Emirati officials have declined to elaborate on the nature of the sabotage to the ships or say who might have been responsible.

The reports come as the US warned ships that “Iran or its proxies” could be targeting maritime traffic in the region, and as the US is deploying an aircraft carrier and B-52 bombers to the Gulf to counter what it called “threats from Tehran”.

UAE says four ships subjected to ‘sabotage’ off east coast

Shortly after the Saudi announcement, Iran’s Foreign Ministry called for further clarification about what exactly happened with the Saudi tankers.

The ministry spokesman, Abbas Mousavi, was quoted by the official IRNA news agency as saying there should be more information about the incident.

Mousavi also warned against any “conspiracy orchestrated by ill-wishers” and “adventurism by foreigners” to undermine the maritime region’s stability and security.

Tensions have risen in the year since President Donald Trump withdrew the US from the 2015 nuclear deal between Iran and world powers, restoring US sanctions that have pushed Iran’s economy into crisis.

Last week, Iran warned it would begin enriching uranium at higher levels in 60 days if world powers failed to negotiate new terms for the deal.

In his statement, al-Falih said the attacks on the two tankers happened at 6am on Sunday.

“One of the two vessels was on its way to be loaded with Saudi crude oil from the port of Ras Tanura, to be delivered to Saudi Aramco’s customers in the United States,” al-Falih said.

“Fortunately, the attack didn’t lead to any casualties or oil spill; however, it caused significant damage to the structures of the two vessels.”

Saudi Arabia did not identify the vessels involved, nor did it say whom it suspected of carrying out the alleged sabotage.

Underlining the regional risk, the general-secretary of the six-nation Gulf Cooperation Council described the alleged sabotage as a “serious escalation” in an overnight statement.

“Such irresponsible acts will increase tension and conflicts in the region and expose its peoples to great danger,” Abdullatif bin Rashid al-Zayani said.

Bahrain, Egypt and Yemen’s internationally recognised government similarly condemned the alleged sabotage.

A statement on Sunday from the UAE’s Foreign Ministry put the ships near the country’s territorial waters in the Gulf of Oman, east of the port of Fujairah.

It said it was investigating “in cooperation with local and international bodies.”

Earlier on Sunday, Lebanon’s pro-Iran satellite channel Al-Mayadeen, quoting “Gulf sources”, reported that a series of explosions had struck Fujairah’s port.

State and semi-official media in Iran picked up the report from Al-Mayadeen, which later published the names of vessels it claimed were involved.

AP news agency, after speaking to Emirati officials and local witnesses, found the report about explosions at the port to be unsubstantiated.

Fujairah’s port is about 140km south of the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow mouth of the Gulf through which a third of all oil at sea is traded.

The facility handles oil for bunkering and shipping, as well as general and bulk cargo.

It is seen as strategically located, serving shipping routes in the Gulf, Indian subcontinent and Africa.

Sunday’s incident comes after the US Maritime Administration, a division of the US Transportation Department, warned on Thursday that Iran could target commercial sea traffic.

“Since early May, there is an increased possibility that Iran and/or its regional proxies could take action against US and partner interests, including oil production infrastructure, after recently threatening to close the Strait of Hormuz,” the warning read.READ MORE

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“Iran or its proxies could respond by targeting commercial vessels, including oil tankers, or US military vessels in the Red Sea, Bab-el-Mandeb Strait or the Persian Gulf.” 

Early on Sunday, the agency issued a new warning to sailors about the alleged sabotage, while stressing “the incident has not been confirmed”.

It urged shippers to exercise caution in the area for the next week.

It remains unclear if the previous warning from the US Maritime Administration is the same perceived threat that prompted the White House to order the USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier strike group and B-52 bombers to the region on May 4.

Agencies

Sweden will reopen a preliminary investigation into a rape allegation against WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange.

Julian Assange is to be investigated in Sweden over a rape case dating from August 2010, prosecutors announced on Monday.

The WikiLeaks founder, currently held in Belmarsh prison in London, now faces possible extradition from Britain.

“My assessment is there is still probably cause [to investigate] rape and a lesser offence,” Eva-Marie Persson, Sweden’s deputy director of public prosecutions, said.

Sweden had first issued an arrest warrant and declared Assange an “internationally wanted suspect” in November 2010.

But after Assange skipped bail in the UK and went into hiding at the Ecuadorian embassy in London, the extradition order was impossible to enforce.

In November 2016, Assange was interviewed by Ecuadorian prosecutors after an agreement was reached between Sweden and Ecuador to cooperate in criminal investigations.

Julian Assange sentenced to 50 weeks for skipping UK bail

“Mr Assange was recently sentenced to 50 weeks in prison [in the UK],” Persson said. “He will serve 25 weeks before he is eligible for release.

“My intention is to submit to the district court today to appoint a public defender. It is also my intention in the near future [to ask] that the district court order Mr Assange remanded in absentia.

“I will proceed to issue a European arrest warrant providing for him to be extradited to Sweden after serving his sentence in the UK,” she said, at a press conference in Stockholm.

The US also wants to extradite Assange over his publishing of leaked military videos showing the killing of civilians in Iraq, as well as thousands of other documents. Persson said she expected the US to submit a formal extradition request to the UK no later than June 14, 2019. A decision on which extradition request would be given greater priority “will be left entirely to the British authorities”.

“If he’s extradited to Sweden, he must not be extradited to a third country without the consent of the British authorities,” she said.

“A future Brexit will not, according to available information, impact on the case.”

Julian Assange’s Swedish lawyer said he was “very surprised” by the decision and said his client was innocent.

“I do not understand the Swedish prosecutor’s… reasoning for reopening a 10-year old case,” Per E Samuelsen told Swedish broadcaster SVT.

Swedish prosecutors had filed preliminary charges in 2010 after two women said they were victims of sex crimes committed by Assange when he visited the country.READ MORE

Julian Assange to fight extradition to US

Seven years later, a case of alleged sexual misconduct was dropped when the statute of limitations expired.

That left a rape allegation, and the case was closed as it could not be pursued while Assange was living at the embassy and there was no prospect of bringing him to Sweden.

The statute of limitations on that case does not expire until August 17, 2020.

“The reason the previous investigation was closed was not through lack of evidence, but because Julian Assange was in the Ecuadorian embassy,” said Al Jazeera’s Paul Brennan.

Swedish prosecutors could interview Assange in prison via videolink, they said. “While Mr Assange is serving his sentence in the UK, I intend to further the investigation as much as possible,” Persson said. 

“I would like to make the following very clear: My decision to re-open the preliminary investigation is not an indication of whether to file an indictment with the court,” Persson added.

In a statement, WikiLeaks said there had been “considerable political pressure” on Swedish prosecutors to reopen their investigation. “Its reopening will give Julian a chance to clear his name,” Kristinn Hrafnsson, WikiLeaks’ editor-in-chief, said in a statement.

Assange has denied the allegations against him, asserting that they were politically motivated and that the sex with the two women who have accused him was consensual.

The 47-year-old Australian met the women in connection with a lecture in August 2010 in Stockholm. One was involved in organising an event for Sweden’s centre-left Social Democratic Party and offered to host Assange at her apartment. The other was in the audience.

Assange left Sweden for Britain in September 2010. In November that year, a Stockholm court approved a request to detain Assange for questioning. 

He was arrested by British police on April 11 after a change in leadership in Ecuador revoked his political asylum. A letter signed by more than 70 MPs, across the political divide, urged Home Secretary Sajid Javid to prioritise any extradition request to Sweden over any from the United States.

“There are a couple of factors Sajid Javid has to consider,” added Al Jazeera’s Paul Brennan. “There is the relative seriousness of the offences – for the American case, that’s about official secrets and treason – and in the Swedish case, an allegation of rape – and it’s up to the home secretary to compare those and decide which is of greater seriousness.

“Then there’s also the issue of chronology – which extradition request came first. And it also seems in the Extradition Act that there is a distinction between European and non-European requests – the suggestion seems to be that a European arrest warrant request would get precendence over a non-European one, but given the close relationship between Britain and the United States, it’s entirely up to the home secretary to make a decision at his discretion.”

Aljazeera

The US military has stepped up its campaign of air raids in Somalia since President Donald Trump took office.

The US military has killed 13 ISIL fighters in Somalia’s semi-autonomous Puntland region in an air attack, it said, days after another raid killed three.

The US military has stepped up its campaign of air raids in Somalia since President Donald Trump took office, saying it has killed more than 800 fighters in two years.

The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL, also known as ISIS) has gathered recruits in Puntland, although experts say the scale of its force is unclear and it remains a small player compared with the al-Qaeda-linked al-Shabab group that once controlled much of Somalia.

What you need to know about Africa’s refugees

US Africa Command (AFRICOM) said late on Thursday that the latest raid on Wednesday targeted an ISIL-Somalia camp in the Golis Mountains.

“At this time, it is assessed the air strike on May 8 killed 13 terrorists,” it said.

In April, AFRICOM had said it killed Abdulhakim Dhuqub, identifying him as ISIL’s deputy leader in Somalia.

Last month, AFRICOM also said it has resumed air raids against the al-Shabab group in Somalia after a brief pause that followed a critical report condemning the “shroud of secrecy around civilian deaths” caused by the US military.

The aerial bombardment was believed to be the first since Amnesty International said in a March 18 report that 14 civilians had been killed and seven wounded in the course of five air raids between April 2017 and December 2018, all attributed to the US military.

Initially, AFRICOM denied its operations had resulted in any civilian deaths, but later acknowledged that a woman and a child had been killed in an April 2018 raid. 

Somalia has been mired in a civil war and armed rebellion since 1991 when clan warlords overthrew a dictator and then turned on each other.

Al-Shabab was pushed out of the capital Mogadishu in 2011, but retains a strong presence in parts of southern and central Somalia and has often clashed with the ISIL.

Aljazeera

Sri Lankan authorities Monday extended by 48 hours the deadline for the public to surrender swords, daggers, sharp weapons and clothing similar to that of military uniforms as part of a crackdown on suspects following the Easter Sunday bombings which killed over 250 people.

On Saturday, the Sri Lankan police asked the public to hand over swords and large knives to the nearest police station after a large haul of weapons, including swords, and camouflaged materials were recovered during searches of mosques and houses.

“The time period granted to hand in swords, daggers, sharp weapons and clothing similar to that of military uniforms has been extended by 48 hours. The time period set to hand in such objects was to expire at midnight today (Monday),” News 1st channel reported.

The police Head Office has taken all necessary steps to inform the police stations across the country about the extension, police media spokesperson SP Ruwan Gunasekara said.

According to the police, several people including politicians were arrested for possessing sharp-edged weapons like swords since the crackdown began to arrest the suspects and their network, following the April 21 blasts which killed 253 people and injured over 500 others.

The Islamic State terror group claimed the attacks, but the government blamed local Islamist extremist group National Thowheeth Jamaath (NTJ).

Sri Lanka banned the NTJ and arrested over 100 people in connection with the blasts.

Sri Lanka has imposed a state of emergency since the attacks and given sweeping powers to soldiers and police to arrest and detain suspects for long periods.

House-to-house searches are being carried out across the country looking for explosives and propaganda material of Islamic extremists. 

Agencies

Rockets and missiles from Gaza killed four civilians in Israel, while Israeli strikes killed 19 Palestinians, more than half of them civilians, in surging cross-border fighting on Sunday, according to Gazan officials and the Israeli military.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he ordered the military to continue “massive strikes” against Gaza’s ruling Hamas group and Islamic Jihad in the most serious border clashes since a spate of fighting in November.

Israel’s military said that more than 600 rockets and other projectiles – over 150 of them intercepted by its Iron Dome anti-missile system – had been fired at southern Israeli cities and villages since Friday.

It said it attacked more than 260 targets belonging to Gaza militant groups. Gaza officials said Israeli air strikes and artillery fire killed 27 people, including 14 civilians, since Friday.

A rocket that hit a house in Ashkelon on Sunday killed a 58-year-old man, police said. He was the first such Israeli civilian fatality since the seven-week Gaza war in 2014.

Another rocket strike killed a factory worker, a hospital official said. The military said a civilian was killed near the border by an anti-tank missile fired at his car from Gaza and a fourth died when a rocket struck the city of Ashdod.

In Gaza, militant groups identified eight fighters killed in Israeli strikes, while medical officials said that nine civilians also died, including a couple and their baby daughter.

In what it said was a separate, targeted attack, Israel’s military killed Hamed Ahmed Al-Khodary, a Hamas commander. The military said he was responsible for transferring funds from Iran to armed factions in Gaza. Hamas confirmed Khodary had been killed.

The attack on his car was the first such killing by Israel of a top militant since the war five years ago. Israel had suspended what Palestinians call an assassination policy in an attempt to lower tensions.

Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh issued a statement late on Sunday saying his group was not seeking a broader conflict and held out the possibility of a ceasefire, although sirens warning of rocket fire continued to sound in Israeli cities into the night.

President Donald Trump expressed full US support for Israel and called for an end to the rocket attacks, saying Gazans would only face more hardship and that it was time to seek peace.

“Once again, Israel faces a barrage of deadly rocket attacks by terrorist groups Hamas and Islamic Jihad. We support Israel 100% in its defence of its citizens… To the Gazan people — these terrorist acts against Israel will bring you nothing but more misery. END the violence and work towards peace – it can happen!,” Trump said in a message on Twitter.

Sirens and explosions

The sounds of sirens and explosions reverberated on both sides of the frontier on Sunday, fraying nerves and keeping schools closed.

Israel halted supplies from its main natural gas field. The Tamar field’s offshore production platform is in range of Palestinian rockets. Israel also stopped fuel imports into Gaza through the main Kerem Shalom crossing.

The latest round of violence began two days ago when an Islamic Jihad sniper fired at Israeli troops, wounding two soldiers, according to the Israeli military.

Islamic Jihad accused Israel of delaying implementation of previous understandings brokered by Egypt in an effort to end violence and ease blockaded Gaza’s economic hardship.

This time, Israeli strategic affairs analysts said, both Islamic Jihad and Hamas militants appeared to believe they had some leverage to press for concessions from Israel, where independence day celebrations begin on Wednesday.

In two weeks, Israel is also hosting the Eurovision Song Contest in Tel Aviv, the target of a Gaza rocket attack in March. That attack caused no damage. On Sunday, sirens sounded in the city of Rehovot, 17 km (11 miles) southeast of Tel Aviv.

Netanyahu, who doubles as defence minister, convened his security Cabinet, which issued a statement saying it had ordered the military “to continue its strikes and to prepare for the next stages”.

Ramadan approaching

For residents in Gaza, the escalation comes a day before the Muslim holy month of Ramadan begins in the territory on Monday. It is traditionally a time for prayer, family feasts to break daylight fast and shopping.

Among the 14 Gazan civilians killed since Friday was a 14-month-old child and the child’s aunt, according to the health ministry. Israel’s military said the intelligence information showed they were killed by a misfired Palestinian rocket.

In Gaza, two Palestinian human rights groups described the cause of their deaths as an explosion with an as yet undetermined source.

U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres condemned the firing of rockets into Israel and urged all parties to “exercise maximum restraint”. A U.N. envoy said it was working with Egypt to try to end the fighting.

Israeli bombings in Gaza destroyed four multi-storey structures. Witnesses said the Israeli military had warned people inside to evacuate the buildings, which it alleged housed Hamas security facilities before they were hit.

Saeed Al-Nakhala, an owner of a clothing store in one of the buildings, said he had no time to save his merchandise.

“I was together with my son in the shop, there was a big noise and then another and people started to run. We left everything behind and escaped,” said Nakhala.

Some 2 million Palestinians live in Gaza, the economy of which has suffered years of Israeli and Egyptian blockades as well as recent foreign aid cuts and sanctions by the Palestinian Authority, Hamas’ West Bank-based rival.

Israel says its blockade is necessary to stop weapons reaching Hamas, with which it has fought three wars since the group seized control of Gaza in 2007, two years after Israel withdrew its settlers and troops from the area.

Agencies