Tag: Ground

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World News

Ukraine Claims Extra Floor in Northeast and South

Ukraine Claims More Ground in Northeast and South

More than 40 local elected officials across Russia signed a two-sentence petition Monday that ended with: “We demand Vladimir Putin’s resignation as President of the Russian Federation!”

The petition, pushed by opponents of the Ukraine invasion, had no practical effect and was flatly ignored in Russia’s state-controlled media. But it was remarkable in its very existence, showing that despite the Kremlin’s extraordinary crackdown on dissidents, the victories of Ukraine’s counteroffensive have given new heart to opponents of President Vladimir V Putin – and his supporters are looking for someone else to blame be able.

Pro-war advocates and politicians have referred to military leadership or high-ranking officials, saying they did not fight the war with sufficient determination and competence, or did not provide Mr Putin with all the facts. Longtime Kremlin critics have used this discord and Russia’s frontline backlash to risk speaking out against Mr Putin.

“There is now hope that Ukraine will end this war,” said Ksenia Torstrem, a member of the St. Petersburg City Council who helped organize the petition, calling Ukraine’s progress an “inspiring factor” for it. “We decided that we have to put pressure on from all sides.”

On Russian state television, where criticism of the Kremlin is rare, pro-war advocates are increasingly pointing fingers at what they describe as a disorganized and insufficiently concerted invasion; others bring up the idea of ​​asking for peace. Amid mounting anger over the embarrassing withdrawal of Russian troops from more than a thousand square miles of northeastern Ukraine, a senior lawmaker said in an interview that an “urgent adjustment” to the war effort was needed.

In a telephone interview Monday, that lawmaker, Konstantin F. Zatulin, a senior member of parliament in Putin’s United Russia party, detailed the deployment.

Mr Zatulin described the withdrawal of Russian troops as “very serious damage to the very idea of ​​this particular military operation”, using the term the Kremlin has chosen for the war. But he also warned that if criticism of the war effort spiraled out of control from across the political spectrum, there could be unforeseen consequences, citing the 1917 Russian Revolution and the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union.

“It must be stressed that this criticism should not be exaggerated,” he said. “Otherwise it could trigger an uncontrollable reaction.”

Recognition…Gavriil Grigorov/Sputnik, via Agence France-Presse – Getty Images

Mr Zatulin insisted that any optimism from people hoping Mr Putin would be ousted was “very premature”. Ukraine’s achievements, he said, could prompt the Kremlin to escalate its war effort to try and inflict a decisive defeat on Ukraine, although he added that he did not expect it to mean a “nuclear war”.

“What now appears to some as a success of the Ukrainian side could actually lead to the last drop that will lead to the start of a real war,” said Zatulin. “Given that Russia really has not used the full power of its capabilities, there is nothing left to do but demonstrate that power.”

There is no evidence that Putin’s position in power is weakening, and the Kremlin said Monday the invasion would “continue until initial objectives are met.”

Nevertheless, there were increasing signs that Russia’s elite was unsettled by the army’s withdrawal and unsure of how to proceed.

A member of the lower house of parliament, Mikhail Sheremet, told a Russian news agency that the military in Ukraine will not succeed “without full mobilization”. It was an implicit criticism of Putin’s refusal to go through with a nationwide draft, a move Russian advocates of escalating the war effort have long called for.

The leader of a pro-Putin party, Sergei Mironov, praised Sunday night’s strikes against Ukraine’s infrastructure targets, which left parts of the country without power, but lamented that they “should have been carried out two to three months ago”.

And grumbling continued on the Telegram social network, where Russian military bloggers pro-war have garnered a huge following. “Stop whining,” posted Yevgeny Poddubny, a war correspondent for Russian state television, referring to those worried about an escalating war.

But a senior Member of the House of Lords, Andrei Klimov, tried to buck the voices calling for all-out war, telling reporters he saw no “need” for mobilization or the imposition of martial law.

Recognition…Nanna Heitman for the New York Times

Opponents of Mr. Putin were heartened by the discord.

“Many hope that something will finally break,” said Ivan I. Kurilla, a historian at the European University in St. Petersburg and a critic of Putin, in a telephone interview. “We’re probably wrong, it’s probably not time yet, but since everyone has been waiting for something to crack for half a year, this hope is very strong.”

After February’s invasion, Mr Putin spearheaded the most crackdown on dissidents since he came to power two decades ago, signing a censorship law that criticized the war effort — or even called it a war rather than a “special military operation.” – a potential crime. Thousands of journalists, activists and others fled the country, while nearly all prominent independent news media still operating in Russia were forced to shut down. Leading opposition figures who refused to flee were arrested.

When a group of local councilors from Putin’s hometown of St. Petersburg released a statement last week calling for the president’s impeachment on charges of treason, it was a shocking move in an environment where fears of imprisonment have driven almost all criticism Mr. Putin underground.

Some of those councilors now face fines for “discrediting” the military and government, but in Moscow, members of another local council followed suit, calling for Mr Putin’s resignation. And over the weekend, Ms. Torstrem, the representative of St. Petersburg, wrote in a Telegram chat group to other opposition local MPs: “I also want to do something.”

She is convinced to speak out, she said, both from colleagues who have already published anti-Putin statements and from the military advances of Ukrainian troops. She also noted the dissatisfaction in the pro-Putin camp, saying that this put the Kremlin in a particularly delicate position.

Recognition…Juan Barreto/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

Ms Torstrem, who is 38, helped draft the petition issued on Monday calling on Mr Putin to resign. She was careful not to mention the war, to avoid any of the signatories becoming vulnerable under laws criminalizing criticism of it. The petition only said that Mr Putin’s actions “damage the future of Russia and its citizens”.

The petition had 19 signatories from Moscow and St. Petersburg when it was posted to Twitter on Monday morning. By the end of the day, the number had grown to over 40, including community leaders from the remote Siberian city of Yakutsk and from Samara on the Volga.

She acknowledged that it was unclear how the petition could in practice help bring about Mr Putin’s resignation. But one signatory, Vasily Khoroshilov, a Moscow city MP, said the idea was to send a message to powerful opponents of Mr Putin that they had support in the Russian public.

“The radical patriots have also begun to doubt the rightness of the path they have taken,” said Mr. Khoroshilov, 38, in a telephone interview. “Some forces at the highest levels of power might act decisively if they see popular support.”

Mr Putin’s core supporters appear to be focused on the notion that any troubles in the war are not his fault but that he was misled by senior officials or the military leadership.

That was the message from Ramzan Kadyrov, the strong ruler of southern Russia’s Chechnya region. He posted a rambling voice message to his Telegram account over the weekend, warning that he would be forced to “speak to the Department of Defense leadership and the leadership of the country to explain to them if the military fails to finalize its strategy” today or tomorrow” would change the real situation on the ground.”

Recognition…Genghis Kondarov/Reuters

Mr Zatulin, the senior lawmaker, said many in Russia believed “Putin was misinformed and doesn’t know everything, he was deceived”.

“The president himself retains his authority and is the basis of stability at this moment,” said Mr. Zatulin.

But, he warned, “it’s clear that every system has its limitations.”

Alina Lobzina and Ivan Nechepurenko contributed to the coverage.

Categories
Politics

All in or All Out? Biden Noticed No Center Floor in Afghanistan

All in or All Out? Biden Saw No Middle Ground in Afghanistan

Mr Biden hired Jake Sullivan, his national security advisor, to conduct an inter-agency inquiry into Afghanistan policy, which resulted in 10 departmental meetings, three cabinet-level meetings, and four meetings in the camp room attended by the president.

The Biden team considered other options, including maintaining a small troop presence for counter-terrorism operations or in support of the Afghan security forces, but argued that this was just “magical thinking” and would require more troops than was bearable. They debated whether to renegotiate the Trump deal to make further concessions, but the Taliban made it clear they would not return to the negotiating table and considered the Trump deal binding.

Mr Biden’s advisors also considered extending the withdrawal period until winter, after the traditional fighting season was over, to make the transition less dangerous for the Afghan government. The Afghanistan Study Group, a bipartisan, Congressional chartered body led by General Joseph F. Dunford Jr., a retired chairman of the Joint Chiefs, and which included Ms. O’Sullivan, recommended the deadline for the February May 1st extend out and seek better conditions.

But Mr Biden was warned by security experts that the longer it took for a decision to be announced, the aides said, the more dangerous it would get, so he only extended it until August 31.

Particularly influential on Mr Biden, aides said, were a series of intelligence assessments he had requested of Afghanistan’s neighbors and close neighbors, which revealed that Russia and China wanted the United States to remain stuck in Afghanistan.

At the end of the day, officials said that either option eventually led to one of the two ultimate alternatives – wholly out, as Mr. Trump had agreed, or preparing for a longer and more dangerous gun war with many other troops. Although not everyone in the room preferred Mr. Biden’s path, officials claimed everyone was heard.

“Biden faced basically the same problem as Trump,” said Vali Nasr, a senior adviser to Richard C. Holbrooke, Obama’s special envoy on Afghanistan and Pakistan, “and his answer was the same – we’re not going.” To get back in, you have to we out. “

Categories
Health

With Mass Vaccination Websites Winding Down, It’s All Concerning the ‘Floor Sport’

With Mass Vaccination Sites Winding Down, It’s All About the ‘Ground Game’

NEWARK — There were only six tiny vials of coronavirus vaccine in the refrigerator, one Air Force nurse on duty and a trickle of patients on Saturday morning at a federally run mass vaccination site here. A day before its doors shut for good, this once-frenetic operation was oddly quiet.

The post-vaccination waiting room, with 165 socially distanced chairs, was mostly empty. The nurse, Maj. Margaret Dodd, who ordinarily cares for premature babies at Brooke Army Medical Center at Fort Sam Houston in San Antonio, had already booked her flight home. So had the pharmacist, Heather Struempf, who was headed back to nursing school in Wyoming.

Across the country, one by one, mass vaccination sites are shutting down. The White House acknowledged for the first time on Tuesday that it would not reach President Biden’s goal of getting 70 percent of American adults at least partly vaccinated by July 4. The setback stems from hesitancy in certain groups, slow acceptance by young adults and a swirl of other complex factors.

The Newark site, which closed on Sunday, was the last of 39 federally operated mass vaccination centers that administered millions of shots over five months in 27 states — a major turning point in the effort Mr. Biden described last week as “one of the biggest and most complicated logistical challenges in American history.” Many state-run sites are also closed or soon will be.

The nation’s shift away from high-volume vaccination centers is an acknowledgment of the harder road ahead, as health officials pivot to the “ground game”: a highly targeted push, akin to a get-out-the-vote effort, to persuade the reluctant to get their shots.

Mr. Biden will travel to Raleigh, N.C., on Thursday to spotlight this time-consuming work. It will not be easy — as Dr. Anthony S. Fauci, the president’s coronavirus response coordinator, discovered last weekend, when he went door-knocking in Anacostia, a majority-Black neighborhood in Washington, with Mayor Muriel E. Bowser.

In an interview on Tuesday, Dr. Fauci said he and the mayor spent 90 minutes talking to people on their front porches. But even with a celebrity doctor at the door and the prospect of giveaways at the vaccination center in a high school a few blocks away, many remained hesitant. Dr. Fauci said he persuaded six to 10 people to get their shots, though he did encounter some flat refusals.

“We would say, ‘OK, come on, listen: Get out, walk down the street, a couple of blocks away. We have incentives, a $51 gift certificate, you can put yourself in a raffle, you could win a year’s supplies of groceries, you could win a Jeep,’” Dr. Fauci said. “And several of them said, ‘OK, I’m on my way and I’ll go.’”

But in Newark, where more than three-quarters of the population is Black or Latino, the numbers tell the story. In Essex County, N.J., which includes Newark, 70.2 percent of adults have been vaccinated. But Essex also includes wealthy suburbs; in Newark, the figure is 56 percent, Judith M. Persichilli, the state’s health commissioner, said in an interview.

The Newark vaccination site, in a converted athletic facility at the New Jersey Institute of Technology that is ordinarily home to the school’s tennis teams, was set up and run by the Federal Emergency Management Agency in conjunction with the Defense Department and other federal agencies. It opened on March 31; when it was operating at full tilt, its medical staff administered as many as 6,700 shots a day.

By Saturday, the daily tally was down to about 300. The long, corridorlike tents that had once shielded lines of patients from cold weather were empty. Of 18 registration desks, only four were in use, and most of the vaccination cubicles were unoccupied.

Most of the patients, including some teenagers brought by their parents, were there for their second dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine. Many — like Abdullah Heath, 19, who took a year off after high school and will attend Rutgers University in the fall — said they were hesitant. But Rutgers requires vaccination, so Mr. Heath had little choice.

Updated 

June 23, 2021, 12:01 a.m. ET

“I wanted to wait to see how other people were when they took the shot,” he said.

Alfredo Sahar, 36, a real estate agent originally from Argentina, said he had received his first dose on the spur of the moment, without an appointment, when he tagged along with his wife to the Newark site. The couple showed up for their second doses on Saturday with a young friend, Federico Cuadrado, 19, who was visiting from Argentina and received his first shot.

“Relax this arm,” Major Dodd said as Mr. Cuadrado rolled up his sleeve. But she will not be administering his second shot; with the site now closed, he will have to go elsewhere.

At the height of its vaccination drive, New Jersey had seven mass sites: six run by the state, plus the FEMA site in Newark. Two of the state sites have closed, another will shut down this week, and the last three are expected to do so in mid-July, said Ms. Persichilli, a nurse and former hospital official. She called the FEMA site, which vaccinated 221,130 people in all, “invaluable.”

Mr. Biden has said repeatedly that equity — making sure people of all races and incomes have the same access to care and vaccines — is crucial to his coronavirus response. FEMA determined the locations for its mass vaccination sites using the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s “social vulnerability index” to identify communities most in need, Deanne Criswell, the FEMA administrator, said in an interview.

It was a learning experience for the agency, she said, adding that 58 percent of the roughly six million shots administered at the mass vaccination sites were given to people of color.

“We didn’t have a playbook for this type of an operation,” Ms. Criswell said. (The agency now has one that is 44 pages long.)

In New Jersey, traffic at the mass vaccination sites started tapering off about six weeks ago, Ms. Persichilli said. At about that time, the state moved to a “hub and spoke” strategy, creating pop-up sites in churches, barbershops and storefronts surrounding existing vaccination centers that could store and supply the vaccines.

The state also has 2,000 canvassers — 1,200 paid, partly with federal taxpayer dollars, and 800 volunteers — who have knocked on 134,000 doors in areas with low vaccination rates to direct people to nearby clinics. And the Health Department is planning vaccine clinics at a rock music festival, a balloon festival and a rodeo in Atlantic City.

Overall, New Jersey is way ahead of most states: 78 percent of adults have had at least one dose of a vaccine. In four states — Mississippi, Alabama, Louisiana and Wyoming — the figure is lower than 50 percent.

“We’re running a marathon, and we’re in the last couple of miles, and we’re exhausted, and they’re going to be the most difficult ones,” Ms. Persichilli said. “But they are also going to be the most satisfying ones.”

Public health officials know that the last mile of any vaccination campaign is indeed the hardest. The eradication of smallpox, considered the greatest public health triumph of the 20th century, came after a highly targeted global campaign that lasted two decades. Polio has still not been eradicated in some countries, Dr. Fauci said, because of vaccine hesitancy, including among women who express unfounded fears of infertility.

“We should have eradicated polio a long time ago,” he said.

The federal effort has been enormous, involving more than 9,000 people from across the government, as well as 30,000 National Guard members supporting Covid-19 vaccination in 58 states and territories, according to Sonya Bernstein, a senior policy adviser for the White House.

With the large vaccination sites winding down, FEMA is also pivoting. The agency still supports more than 2,200 community vaccination centers and mobile vaccination units. Now FEMA is rolling out a new pilot program to offer shots at or near recovery centers that it sets up after hurricanes and other natural disasters. The first of these opened this week in St. Charles Parish, La., which has a large minority population and was devastated by Hurricane Laura last summer. Only 51 percent of the adult population in St. Charles Parish has had at least one shot, according to data from the C.D.C.

In Newark, the mood on Saturday was bittersweet. People like Major Dodd and Ms. Struempf, thrown together in a crisis, were exchanging phone numbers with newfound friends and colleagues as they planned to go their separate ways. After living in hotels for more than two months, they were both eager to depart and wistful about the prospect.

Michael Moriarty, the FEMA official in charge of vaccination operations in the New York-New Jersey region, surveyed the scene: the vacant cubicles and chairs, the boxes of unused latex gloves, the brown paper taped to the floor to cover the tennis courts. It would not take long to undo, he said, adding, “They’ll be playing tennis here at the end of the week.”

Categories
World News

Israel Floor Forces Shell Gaza as Preventing Intensifies

Israel Ground Forces Shell Gaza as Fighting Intensifies

Die israelischen Bodentruppen führten am frühen Freitag Angriffe auf den Gazastreifen durch, um einen Konflikt mit palästinensischen Militanten zu eskalieren, der durch Luftangriffe aus Israel und Raketen aus dem Gazastreifen geführt worden war.

Es war nicht sofort klar, ob der Angriff der Auftakt zu einer Bodeninvasion gegen die Hamas war, die militante islamistische Gruppe, die Gaza kontrolliert.

Ein israelischer Militärsprecher, Oberstleutnant Jonathan Conricus, sagte zunächst, dass “Bodentruppen in Gaza angreifen”, stellte jedoch später klar, dass israelische Truppen nicht in Gaza eingedrungen waren, was auf die Möglichkeit eines Artilleriefeuers von außen hindeutete. Er gab keine weiteren Details an.

Der Anstieg der Kämpfe hat die beispiellose Position Israels unterstrichen – im Kampf gegen palästinensische Militante an seiner Südflanke, um die schlimmsten Unruhen seit Jahrzehnten zu bekämpfen.

Es folgte ein weiterer Tag der Zusammenstöße zwischen arabischen und jüdischen Mobs auf den Straßen israelischer Städte. Die Behörden riefen die Reserven der Armee auf und schickten Verstärkungen der bewaffneten Grenzpolizei in die Innenstadt von Lod, um zu versuchen, das abzuwenden, was die israelischen Führer gewarnt hatten ein Bürgerkrieg werden.

Zusammengenommen deuteten die beiden Schauplätze des Aufruhrs auf eine schrittweise Veränderung des jahrzehntelangen Konflikts zwischen Israel und den Palästinensern hin. Während gewalttätige Eskalationen oft einem vorhersehbaren Verlauf folgen, entwickelt sich dieser letzte Kampf, der schlimmste seit sieben Jahren, schnell zu einer neuen Art von Krieg – schneller, destruktiver und in der Lage, sich in unvorhersehbare neue Richtungen zu drehen.

In Gaza, einem verarmten Küstenstreifen, der 2014 der Schmelztiegel eines verheerenden siebenwöchigen Krieges war, feuerten palästinensische Militante überraschend große Sperrfeuer mit Raketen mit erhöhter Reichweite ab – etwa 1.800 in drei Tagen -, die weit nach Israel reichten.

Nach Angaben der Gesundheitsbehörden des Gazastreifens hat Israel am Donnerstag seine Kampagne für unerbittliche Luftangriffe gegen Hamas-Ziele intensiviert und Gebäude, Büros und Häuser in Streiks pulverisiert, bei denen 103 Menschen, darunter 27 Kinder, getötet wurden.

Sechs Zivilisten und ein Soldat wurden von Hamas-Raketen in Israel getötet.

Ägyptische Vermittler kamen am Donnerstag in Israel an, um den sich verschärfenden Konflikt zu stoppen.

Am alarmierendsten für Israel war jedoch die gewaltsame Gärung auf seinen eigenen Gehwegen und Straßen, wo Tage der Unruhen jüdischer Bürgerwehren und arabischer Mobs keine Anzeichen eines Nachlassens zeigten.

Die Unruhen in mehreren Städten gemischter ethnischer Zugehörigkeit, in denen wütende junge Männer Autos steinigten, Moscheen und Synagogen in Brand steckten und sich gegenseitig angriffen, signalisierten einen Zusammenbruch von Recht und Ordnung in Israel in einem Ausmaß, das seit Beginn des zweiten palästinensischen Aufstands nicht mehr zu beobachten war oder Intifada vor 21 Jahren.

Die Gewalt folgt auf einen Monat kochender Spannungen in Jerusalem, in dem die drohende Vertreibung palästinensischer Familien aus ihren Häusern mit einer Flut arabischer Angriffe gegen israelische Juden und einem Marsch von Rechtsextremisten durch die Stadt zusammenfiel, die „Tod den Arabern“ sangen.

Die erschütternde Gewalt in dieser Woche veranlasste die israelischen Führer, angeführt von Präsident Reuven Rivlin, das Gespenst eines Bürgerkriegs hervorzurufen – eine einst undenkbare Idee. “Wir müssen unsere Probleme lösen, ohne einen Bürgerkrieg auszulösen, der eine Gefahr für unsere Existenz darstellen kann”, sagte Rivlin. “Die stille Mehrheit sagt nichts, weil es absolut fassungslos ist.”

Ministerpräsident Benjamin Netanjahu besuchte Lod, eine Arbeiterstadt mit einer gemischten arabisch-israelischen Bevölkerung, die sich zum Zentrum des Umbruchs entwickelt hat. Haufen ausgebrannter Autos lagen auf den Straßen, wo einige Nächte zuvor arabische Jugendliche Synagogen und Autos verbrannten, Steine ​​warfen und sporadische Schüsse abfeuerten, bevor Banden jüdischer Bürgerwehrleute konterten und ihre eigenen Feuer entfachten.

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Am Donnerstag wurde ein jüdischer Mann erstochen, als er dort zu einer Synagoge ging, aber überlebte.

“Es gibt jetzt keine größere Bedrohung als diese Unruhen”, sagte Netanjahu, der sich geschworen hatte, die israelischen Verteidigungskräfte einzusetzen, um den Frieden in Lod aufrechtzuerhalten. Einen Tag zuvor beschrieb er die Gewalt als “Anarchie” und sagte: “Nichts rechtfertigt das Lynchen von Juden durch Araber, und nichts rechtfertigt das Lynchen von Arabern durch Juden.”

Um Lod zu sichern, holte die Regierung Tausende bewaffneter Grenzpolizisten aus dem besetzten Westjordanland und verhängte eine Ausgangssperre um 20 Uhr, jedoch mit geringem Erfolg.

Arabische Einwohner, auf die etwa 30 Prozent der 80.000 Einwohner der Stadt entfallen, setzten eine Kampagne des Steinwurfs, des Vandalismus und der Brandstiftung fort, während jüdische Extremisten von außerhalb von Lod ankamen und arabische Autos und Eigentum verbrannten. Arabische Demonstranten errichteten brennende Straßensperren.

Als die Nacht hereinbrach, gab es Anzeichen dafür, dass die Gewalt eskalieren könnte, wenn ein großer Konvoi bewaffneter Juden in weißen Lieferwagen in die Stadt zog.

Palästinensische Führer sagten jedoch, die Rede von jüdischen Führern über einen Bürgerkrieg sei eine Ablenkung von dem, was sie als die wahre Ursache der Unruhen in Lod bezeichneten – Polizeibrutalität gegen palästinensische Demonstranten und provokative Aktionen von rechtsgerichteten israelischen Siedlergruppen.

Der israelisch-palästinensische Konflikt

Aktualisiert

13. Mai 2021, 17:47 Uhr ET

“Die Polizei hat einen arabischen Demonstranten in Lod erschossen”, sagte Ahmad Tibi, Vorsitzender der Ta’al-Partei und Mitglied des israelischen Parlaments. „Wir wollen kein Blutvergießen. Wir wollen protestieren. “

Herr Tibi sagte, dass Herr Netanjahu, der sich häufig mit rechtsextremen und nationalistischen Parteien zusammengetan hat, um an der Macht zu bleiben, nur sich selbst für die politische Zunderbüchse verantwortlich gemacht hat, die in ganz Israel mit solcher Wildheit explodiert ist.

Am Donnerstagabend forderte das Außenministerium die amerikanischen Bürger auf, die Reise nach Israel zu überdenken, und warnte davor, in das besetzte Westjordanland oder in den Gazastreifen zu gehen. In einem Gutachten stellte das Ministerium Raketenangriffe fest, die Jerusalem erreichen könnten, Proteste und Gewalt in ganz Israel sowie ein „gefährliches und volatiles“ Sicherheitsumfeld im Gazastreifen und an seinen Grenzen.

Die Probleme begannen am Montag, als eine schwere Polizeirazzia in der Al-Aqsa-Moschee in Jerusalem – der drittheiligsten Stätte im Islam, die sich auf einer Stätte befindet, die auch von Juden verehrt wird – eine sofortige Gegenreaktion auslöste.

Abgesehen von den Bildern von Polizisten, die Betäubungsgranaten schleuderten und Gummigeschosse in die Moschee feuerten, wurde die palästinensische Empörung auch durch viel größere, jahrzehntealte Frustrationen angeheizt.

Human Rights Watch beschuldigte Israel kürzlich, eine Form der Apartheid begangen zu haben, das rassistische Rechtssystem, das einst Südafrika regierte, und verwies auf eine Reihe von Gesetzen und Vorschriften, die angeblich die Palästinenser systematisch diskriminieren. Israel lehnte diese Anklage vehement ab. Aber seine Sicherheitskräfte sind jetzt mit einer wachsenden Welle der Wut der arabisch-israelischen Minderheit des Landes konfrontiert, die sich darüber beschwert, als Bürger zweiter Klasse behandelt zu werden.

“‘Koexistenz’ bedeutet, dass beide Seiten existieren”, sagte Tamer Nafar, ein berühmter Rapper aus Lod. “Aber bisher gibt es nur eine Seite – die jüdische Seite.”

Die Raketenangriffe aus dem Gazastreifen unterscheiden sich auch quantitativ und qualitativ vom letzten Krieg im Jahr 2014. Die mehr als 1.800 Raketen, die die Hamas und ihre Verbündeten seit Montag auf Israel abgefeuert haben, machen bereits ein Drittel der Gesamtzahl der während des siebenwöchigen Krieges 2014 abgefeuerten Raketen aus.

Der israelische Geheimdienst hat geschätzt, dass die Hamas, der Islamische Dschihad und andere militante palästinensische Gruppen etwa 30.000 Raketen und Mörsergeschosse im Gazastreifen versteckt haben, was darauf hinweist, dass es den Militanten trotz der israelisch-ägyptischen Blockade des Küstengebiets gelungen ist, ein riesiges Arsenal anzuhäufen.

Die Raketen haben auch eine größere Reichweite gezeigt als die in früheren Konflikten abgefeuerten und reichen bis nach Tel Aviv und Jerusalem.

Sie haben sich auch als wirksamer erwiesen. Im Krieg 2014 haben sie insgesamt sechs Zivilisten in Israel getötet, die gleiche Anzahl, die in den letzten drei Tagen getötet wurde.

Diese Verluste schienen das Ergebnis der neuen Taktik der Hamas zu sein, mehr als 100 Raketen gleichzeitig abzufeuern und das von den USA finanzierte Raketenabwehrsystem Iron Dome zu vereiteln, das laut israelischen Beamten zu 90 Prozent Raketen abfangen kann, bevor sie in Israel landen.

Die Bewohner des Gazastreifens haben keinen solchen Schutz vor israelischen Luftangriffen, die drei mehrstöckige Gebäude im Streifen zerstörten, nachdem die Bewohner zur Evakuierung gewarnt worden waren. Israelische Beamte sagten, dass in den Gebäuden Hamas-Operationen untergebracht waren und dass sie sich bemühten, die Opfer unter der Zivilbevölkerung zu begrenzen, aber viele Bewohner des Gazastreifens betrachteten die israelischen Angriffe als eine Form der kollektiven Bestrafung.

Der Donnerstag sollte ein Festtag für die Palästinenser sein, da sie das Ende des heiligen Monats Ramadan markierten, an dem sich Muslime normalerweise versammeln, um zu beten, neue Kleidung zu tragen und ein Familienessen zu teilen. In Jerusalem versammelten sich Zehntausende von Gläubigen im Morgengrauen vor der Aqsa-Moschee, einige schwenkten palästinensische Flaggen und ein Banner mit einem Bild von Ismail Haniyeh, dem Führer der Hamas.

In Gaza war es jedoch ein düsterer Tag voller Beerdigungen, Angst und Raketenangriffe. Einige Familien begruben ihre Toten, andere legten Gebetsmatten neben Gebäuden aus, die kürzlich bei israelischen Luftangriffen zerstört wurden, und wieder andere wurden von über ihnen schwebenden israelischen Drohnen angegriffen.

“Rette mich”, plädierte Maysoun al-Hatu, 58, nachdem sie laut einem Zeugen bei einem Raketenangriff vor dem Haus ihrer Tochter in Gaza verwundet worden war. Augenblicke später kam ein Krankenwagen, aber es war zu spät. Frau al-Hatu war tot.

Amerikanische und ägyptische Diplomaten gingen nach Israel, um Deeskalationsgespräche zu beginnen. Die ägyptischen Vermittler spielten eine Schlüsselrolle bei der Beendigung des Gaza-Krieges 2014, aber diesmal gibt es wenig Optimismus, dass sie ein schnelles Ergebnis erzielen können.

Israelische Militärbeamte haben erklärt, ihre Mission sei es, die Raketen aus Gaza zu stoppen, und das Militär hat am Donnerstag Panzer und Truppen entlang der Grenze zu Gaza an Ort und Stelle gebracht, um sich auf eine mögliche Bodeninvasion vorzubereiten.

Die Entscheidung, die Kampagne zu verlängern, ist letztendlich politisch. Analysten sagten, dass eine Bodenoperation wahrscheinlich hohe Verluste verursachen würde, und es war unklar, ob der Truppeneinsatz mehr als eine Bedrohung war.

Die politische Berechnung wurde jedoch am Donnerstag nach dem Zusammenbruch der Verhandlungen zwischen Oppositionsparteien, die eine neue Regierung bilden wollten, komplizierter.

Naftali Bennett, ein ultranationalistischer ehemaliger Siedlerführer, der sich der palästinensischen Staatlichkeit widersetzt, zog sich aus den Gesprächen zurück und verwies auf den Ausnahmezustand in mehreren israelischen Städten.

Sein Rückzug erhöht die Wahrscheinlichkeit, dass Israel später in diesem Sommer Parlamentswahlen abhält – in etwas mehr als zwei Jahren zum fünften Mal. Und der Zusammenbruch der Gespräche scheint Herrn Netanjahu zu nützen, was es Oppositionsparteien unmöglich macht, ein Bündnis zu bilden, das groß genug ist, um ihn aus dem Amt zu verdrängen.

Herr Netanyahu, der wegen Korruptionsvorwürfen vor Gericht steht, fungiert als Ministerpräsident, bis eine neue Regierung gebildet werden kann.

Auf palästinensischer Seite hat die unbestimmte Verschiebung der Wahlen durch den palästinensischen Präsidenten Mahmoud Abbas im letzten Monat ein Vakuum geschaffen, das die Hamas mehr als bereit ist zu füllen.

Isabel Kershner berichtete aus Lod, Israel; Iyad Abuheweila aus Gaza-Stadt; Patrick Kingsley, Irit Pazner Garshowitz und Myra Noveck aus Jerusalem; Gabby Sobelman aus Rehovot, Israel; Mona el-Naggar und Vivian Yee aus Kairo; Megan Specia aus London; Steven Erlanger aus Brüssel; und Lara Jakes aus Washington.

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They Have been on Equal Footing. Then the Floor Shifted.

They Were on Equal Footing. Then the Ground Shifted.

“All you have to do is scratch it and take it out,” he said. “We’re really struggling to get through.”

In Ms. Arnone’s other area, home valuation, her friends and colleagues are benefiting from the booming real estate market, where sales in January rose 23.7 percent year over year, according to the National Association of Realtors. The extremely low mortgage rates have created a wave of refinances that require a revaluation.

“I don’t have much to complain about,” said Traci Warner, a friend of Mrs. Arnone’s and a reviewer in Waldorf, Md., South of Washington. After her husband was fired from his sales job in April, Ms. Warner’s job filled the gap.

It’s not that things are perfect, but unlike Mr. Gallagher, she doesn’t feel like she is barely holding on to them.

This contrast is reflected in the larger economy. Weekly unemployment claims of newly laid-off workers remain at historically high levels, even as stock indices hit record highs.

Vaccines have arrived, but because of their slow adoption, it will be months before restaurants, hotels, gyms, airports, shopping malls, and other businesses that rely on bringing people together can resume something similar to normal activity.

“It’s very uneven,” said Gregory Daco, chief US economist at Oxford Economics, a forecasting and research group. “It will take years for the most vulnerable populations to recover.” He found that not only have wages and salaries declined for the hardest-hit segments of the workforce, but so has total employment and participation.

At the top, the profits were staggering. In eight months after the U.S. pandemic, the nation’s roughly 650 billionaires grew by $ 1 trillion, according to a November study by the Institute for Policy Studies and other progressive groups. That included a $ 70 billion markup for just one of those magnates: Amazon founder Jeff Bezos.