Jerusalem — Palestinian militants fired a rocket into southern Israel for the first time in months on Monday in one other escalation after clashes at a delicate holy website in Jerusalem, a sequence of lethal assaults inside Israel and navy raids throughout the occupied West Financial institution.
Israel stated it intercepted the rocket, and there have been no speedy stories of casualties or injury. Israel holds Gaza's militant Hamas rulers answerable for all such projectiles and often launches airstrikes of their wake. It was the primary such rocket hearth since New Yr's Eve.
Early Tuesday, Israeli fighter jets carried out a sequence of airstrikes in southern Gaza Strip, concentrating on a "weapons manufacturing website" for Hamas, the Israeli navy stated. There have been no stories of accidents.
Hours earlier, the chief of the Islamic Jihad militant group, which boasts an arsenal of rockets, had issued a quick, cryptic warning, condemning Israeli "violations" in Jerusalem.
Ziad al-Nakhala, who relies exterior the Palestinian territories, stated threats to tighten an Israeli-Egyptian blockade on Gaza imposed after Hamas seized energy 15 years in the past "cannot silence us from what's taking place in Jerusalem and the occupied West Financial institution."
Nonetheless, no Palestinian group claimed duty for the rocket hearth.
Palestinians and Israeli police clashed over the weekend in and across the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound in Jerusalem, which has lengthy been an epicenter of Israeli-Palestinian violence. It's the third holiest website in Islam and the holiest for Jews, who confer with it because the Temple Mount as a result of the mosque stands on a hilltop the place the Jewish temples have been positioned in antiquity.
Protests and clashes there this time final 12 months helped set off an 11-day Gaza struggle.
Police stated they have been responding to Palestinian stone-throwing and that they have been dedicated to making sure that Jews, Christians and Muslims - whose main holidays are converging this 12 months - may rejoice them safely within the Holy Land. Palestinians view the presence of Israeli police on the website as a provocation and stated they used extreme drive.
Prime Minister Naftali Bennett stated Monday, forward of the rocket hearth, that Israel has been the goal of a "Hamas-led incitement marketing campaign."
The newest tensions come throughout the uncommon confluence of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan and the week-long Jewish vacation of Passover. Christians are additionally celebrating their holy week main as much as Easter. Tens of hundreds of tourists have flocked to Jerusalem's Outdated Metropolis - house to main holy websites for all three faiths - for the primary time because the begin of the coronavirus pandemic.
Jordan and Egypt, which made peace with Israel many years in the past and coordinate with it on safety issues, have condemned its actions on the mosque. Jordan - which serves as custodian of the positioning - summoned Israel's cost d'affaires on Monday in protest.
Jordan's King Abdullah II mentioned the violence with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi, agreeing on "the necessity to cease all unlawful and provocative Israeli measures" there, in response to a press release. Jordan deliberate to convene a gathering of different Arab states on the difficulty.
Israel has been working to enhance relations with Jordan over the previous 12 months and has not too long ago normalized relations with different Arab states. However the newest tensions have introduced renewed consideration to the unresolved battle with the Palestinians, which Israel has sought to sideline lately.
The U.S. State Division urged all sides to "train restraint, to keep away from provocative actions and rhetoric, and protect the historic establishment" on the holy website. Spokesman Ned Value stated U.S. officers have been in contact with counterparts throughout the area to attempt to calm tensions.
U.N. Safety Council scheduled a closed-door assembly on the tensions for Tuesday.
In Israel, an Arab celebration that made historical past final 12 months by becoming a member of the governing coalition suspended its participation on Sunday - a largely symbolic act that however mirrored the sensitivity of the holy website, which is on the emotional coronary heart of the century-old battle.
Israel captured the West Financial institution, together with the Gaza Strip and east Jerusalem - which incorporates the Outdated Metropolis - within the 1967 Mideast struggle. The Palestinians search these territories for a future impartial state. Israel annexed east Jerusalem in a transfer not acknowledged internationally and is constructing and increasing Jewish settlements throughout the West Financial institution, which it views because the biblical and historic heartland of the Jewish individuals.
The final critical and substantive peace talks collapsed greater than a decade in the past.
The Palestinians have lengthy feared that Israel plans to take over or partition the mosque compound. In current weeks, calls by Jewish extremists to sacrifice animals there have circulated broadly amongst Palestinians on social media, sparking calls to defend the mosque.
Israeli authorities say they haven't any intention of adjusting the established order, and police are implementing a prohibition on animal sacrifices. Israel permits Jews to go to the positioning however to not pray there. In recent times massive numbers of nationalist and spiritual Jews have often visited underneath police escort, angering the Palestinians and Jordan.
Israel says police have been pressured to enter the compound early Friday after Palestinians stockpiled stones and hurled rocks on the gate by which Jewish guests sometimes enter. That gate additionally results in the Western Wall, the holiest website the place Jews can pray.
Latest weeks have seen a sequence of Palestinian assaults inside Israel that killed 14 individuals. Israel has launched near-daily arrest raids and different navy operations within the occupied West Financial institution that it says are aimed toward stopping extra.
The navy stated Monday it arrested 11 Palestinians in operations throughout the territory in a single day. In a raid close to town of Jenin, the military stated dozens of Palestinians hurled rocks and explosives towards troops.
Troopers "responded with dwell ammunition towards the suspects who hurled explosive units," the navy stated. The Palestinian Well being Ministry stated two males have been hospitalized after being critically wounded.
Two of the current attackers got here from in and round Jenin, which has lengthy been a bastion of armed wrestle towards Israeli rule.
Not less than 26 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces in current weeks, in response to an Related Press depend. Many had carried out assaults or have been concerned in clashes, however an unarmed girl and a lawyer who seems to have been a bystander have been additionally amongst these killed.