JERUSALEM (AP) – Palestinian militants on Monday fired a rocket at southern Israel for the first time in months, in a further escalation following clashes at a sensitive holy site in Jerusalem, a series of deadly attacks in Israel and military attacks in the occupied West Bank.
Israel said it intercepted the missile and there were no immediate reports of casualties or damage. Israel blames Gaza’s militant Hamas rulers for all of these projectiles, and usually launches airstrikes in their wake. It was the first such rocket fire since New Year’s Eve.
Israeli warplanes carried out a series of airstrikes in the southern Gaza Strip early Tuesday, targeting a Hamas “arms factory,” the Israeli military said. There were no reports of injuries.
Hours earlier, the leader of the Islamic Jihad militant group, which boasts a missile arsenal, issued a brief, cryptic warning condemning Israeli “violations” in Jerusalem.
Ziad al-Nakhala, stationed outside the Palestinian territories, said threats to tighten an Israeli-Egyptian blockade of Gaza, imposed after Hamas seized power 15 years ago, “cannot silence us what is happening in Jerusalem and the occupied West Bank.”
However, no Palestinian group claimed responsibility for the rocket fire.
Palestinians and Israeli police clashed over the weekend in and around the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound in Jerusalem, which has long been an epicenter of Israeli-Palestinian violence. It is the third holiest site in Islam and the holiest for Jews, who refer to it as the Temple Mount because the mosque stands on a hilltop where the ancient Jewish temples were located.
Protests and clashes there around this time last year helped spark an 11-day Gaza war.
Police said they were responding to Palestinian rock-throwing and campaigning to ensure Jews, Christians and Muslims – whose major holidays converge this year – could celebrate them safely in the Holy Land. The Palestinians view the presence of Israeli police at the scene as a provocation and say they used excessive force.
Prime Minister Naftali Bennett said Monday before the rocket fire that Israel had been the target of a “Hamas-led hate campaign.”
The latest tensions come during the rare coincidence of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan and the week-long Jewish holiday of Passover. Christians also celebrate their Holy Week before Easter. Tens of thousands of visitors have flocked to Jerusalem’s Old City — home to important holy sites for all three faiths — for the first time since the coronavirus pandemic began.
Jordan and Egypt, which made peace with Israel decades ago and coordinate with it on security issues, have condemned his actions at the mosque. Jordan – which acts as the site’s administrator – summoned the Israeli chargé d’affaires in protest on Monday.
Jordan’s King Abdullah II discussed the violence with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi and agreed to “stop all illegal and provocative Israeli actions,” a statement said. Jordan planned to convene a meeting with other Arab states on the subject.
Israel has worked to improve ties with Jordan over the past year and has recently normalized ties with other Arab states. But recent tensions have drawn renewed attention to the unresolved conflict with the Palestinians, which Israel has been trying to quash in recent years.
The US State Department urged all sides to “exercise restraint, avoid provocative action and rhetoric, and uphold the historical status quo at the holy site.” Spokesman Ned Price said US officials are in touch with colleagues across the region to try to ease tensions.
The UN Security Council has scheduled a closed-door meeting on Tuesday to discuss the tensions.
In Israel, an Arab party that made history by joining the ruling coalition last year suspended its participation on Sunday — a largely symbolic act that nonetheless reflects the sensitivity of the holy site that lies at the emotional heart of the centuries-old conflict.
In the 1967 Middle East War, Israel conquered the West Bank along with the Gaza Strip and East Jerusalem – which also includes the Old City. The Palestinians seek these areas for a future independent state. Israel annexed East Jerusalem in an internationally unrecognized move, and is building and expanding Jewish settlements throughout the West Bank, which it considers the biblical and historical heartland of the Jewish people.
The last serious and substantive peace talks collapsed more than a decade ago.
Palestinians have long feared Israel plans to take over or carve up the mosque site. In recent weeks, calls by Jewish extremists to sacrifice animals there have circulated widely among Palestinians on social media, prompting calls to defend the mosque.
Israeli authorities say they have no intention of changing the status quo, and police are enforcing a ban on animal sacrifices. Israel allows Jews to visit the site but not to pray there. In recent years, many nationalist and religious Jews have regularly visited under police escort, which has angered the Palestinians and Jordan.
Israel says police were forced to enter the compound early Friday after Palestinians stored rocks and hurled rocks at the gate through which Jewish visitors normally enter. This gate also leads to the Western Wall, the holiest place for Jews to pray.
In recent weeks there have been a series of Palestinian attacks in Israel that have killed 14 people. Israel has launched near-daily arrest raids and other military operations in the occupied West Bank that it says aim to prevent more.
The military said Monday it had detained 11 Palestinians overnight in operations across the territory. In a raid near the city of Jenin, the army said dozens of Palestinians hurled stones and explosives at troops.
Soldiers “responded with live ammunition to the suspects who hurled explosive devices,” the military said. The Palestinian Health Ministry said two men were hospitalized after suffering serious injuries.
Two of the latest attackers came from Jenin and the surrounding area, which has long been a bastion of armed struggle against Israeli rule.
According to an Associated Press count, at least 26 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces in recent weeks. Many had carried out attacks or been involved in clashes, but an unarmed woman and a lawyer who appeared to be a bystander were among those killed.
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Associated Press writers Ilan Ben Zion in Jerusalem; Omar Akour in Jordan; Fares Akram in Hamilton, Canada; Matthew Lee in Washington and Jennifer Peltz from the United Nations contributed to this report.