OCCUPIED JERUSALEM — Israel carried out its
first air strike on the
Gaza Strip in months early Tuesday, in response to a
rocket fired from the Palestinian enclave after a weekend of violence around a
Jerusalem holy site.
اضافة اعلان
The Israeli military also said its forces had made
five arrests overnight in the occupied
West Bank, which has seen a string of
deadly Israeli raids since several recent fatal attacks.
The latest tensions have focused on the highly
contested Al-Aqsa Mosque complex, known to Jews as the Temple Mount, in
Jerusalem’s Israeli-annexed Old City.
Palestinian worshippers gathering there for
Ramadan prayers have been outraged by visits by religious Jewish under heavy Israeli
military protection — as well as restrictions on their own access.
The violence, coinciding with the Jewish Passover
festival as well as the Muslim holy month, has sparked fears of a repeat of
last year’s events, when similar circumstances sparked an 11-day war by Israel
on the Gaza Strip.
On Monday, warning sirens sounded after a rocket was
fired into southern Israel from the blockaded enclave, controlled by Hamas, in
the first such incident since early January.
The Israeli military said that the rocket had been
intercepted by the Iron Dome air defense system.
Hours later, the Israeli air force said it had hit a
Hamas weapons factory in retaliation.
Hamas claimed to have used its “anti-aircraft
defenses” to counter the raid, which caused no casualties, according to
witnesses and security sources in Gaza.
Deadly attacks
No faction in the crowded
enclave of 2.3 million inhabitants immediately claimed responsibility for the
rocket.
The rocket fire also followed a weekend of violence
in and around the Al-Aqsa Mosque complex that wounded more than 170 people,
mostly Palestinian demonstrators.
Diplomatic sources said the
UN Security Council was
to meet Tuesday to discuss the spike in violence.
Israeli police said they had refused to authorize a
march Jewish nationalists had planned around the walls of the Old City.
A similar parade last year, following a similar wave
of violence, was interrupted by rocket fire from Gaza which in turn triggered
the 11-day war.
This month has also seen violence in the West Bank.
The
Palestinian Red Crescent said Tuesday it had
treated 72 people following a demonstration in the village of Burqa, against a
march by Israeli settlers demanding the reestablishment of a nearby illegal
settlement evacuated in 2005.
The Red Crescent said four people had been directly
hit by tear gas canisters and seven had been hit by rubber-coated bullets.
Regional Arab disquiet
Incidents at the
Al-Aqsa Mosque Complex have triggered repeated rounds of violence over the past
century.
Jews are allowed to visit the site at certain times,
but they are prohibited from praying there.
The latest spike in violence has strained Israel’s
diplomatic relations with some Muslim countries and drawn wider international
concern.
On Tuesday, the UAE summoned Israel’s ambassador to
convey “strong protest and denunciation” of events at Al-Aqsa, particularly
“attacks on civilians” and “incursions” by Israeli occupation forces.
The UAE only established ties with Israel in 2020.
Jordan, custodian of east Jerusalem’s holy sites, had already summoned Israel’s
chargé d’affaires on Monday.
US Secretary of State
Antony Blinken called both
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Israeli Foreign Minister Yair Lapid on
Tuesday.
Blinken’s calls followed State Department spokesman
Ned Price announcing the previous day that the US had “urged all sides to
preserve the historic status quo” at the Al-Aqsa complex and avoid
“provocative” steps.
Abbas stressed his complete rejection of any changes
to the legal and historical status quo, the official Palestinian news agency
WAFA said.
Lapid meanwhile said he emphasized to Blinken
“Israel’s responsible and measured efforts in the face of riots by hundreds of
Islamic extremists.”
Hamas has vowed to defend Al-Aqsa’s status.
But analysts have said in recent weeks that the
movement does not want a war at present, partly because its military capacities
were degraded by the last one.
They say Hamas is also wary that a new conflict
could prompt Israel to cancel thousands of work permits lately issued to
residents of impoverished Gaza.
But Islamic Jihad, another Palestinian faction which
Israel says has thousands of fighters and rockets in the enclave, warned Monday
that it will not be forced “into silence” over events in Jerusalem.
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