As Israel-Hamas hostilities rage, violence spreads on Israeli streets

Gaza City — 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. Arab and Jewish mobs are rampaging through the streets, savagely beating people and torching cars, and flights are being diverted from the country's main airport. 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. But this round of fighting which, like the intifada, began in Jerusalem, seems to be rippling far and wide, tearing apart the country at its seams.