Good morning. For months, the question of whether Israel and Palestine are on the brink of a third intifada has loomed over every story to come out of the region, with fears that the conditions for a major escalation in bloodshed are inexorably being put in place. In the last week, those fears have appeared closer than ever to being realised.
After an IDF raid in the West Bank that killed nine and the massacre of seven Israelis by a Palestinian gunman in occupied East Jerusalem the next day, Benjamin Netanyahu’s hardline government has cracked down on the West Bank – and a series of copycat Palestinian attacks in response have only heightened tensions. Overnight on Thursday, Israel conducted air strikes on militant training centres in the central Gaza Strip, prompting a new round of rockets in response.
