Jerusalem, April 10. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced today that he will keep Defense Minister Yoav Gallant in his post after several days of sharp escalating tensions in the region, including attacks in the West Bank and Tel Aviv and gunfire with militias in the Gaza Strip, Lebanon and Syria.
“Gallant will stay in his post and continue to work to protect Israeli citizens,” Netanyahu said, reversing the decision to sack the minister, which was announced on Sunday March 26 and postponed days later after massive protests .
The decision was announced today by the President during a press conference, in which he indicated that Israel was facing a “terrorist attack” and warned that his army was ready to take action “on all fronts” against anyone who would harm it.
The comments come in the context of rising tensions in the region after several days of violence unleashed by clashes between Israeli police and Palestinian worshipers at Jerusalem’s Al-Aqsa Mosque on Wednesday.
Since then, Palestinian or pro-Palestinian militias from Gaza, southern Lebanon and Syria have fired rockets at Israel, prompting the Israeli army to respond with retaliatory bombings.
Because of this escalation, an Egyptian delegation traveled to the area yesterday to meet Israeli and Palestinian leaders and try to restore calm.
As reported to EFE by Palestinian sources, the delegation met with Israeli representatives in Tel Aviv and was due to arrive in Gaza on Monday evening to meet with the leadership of the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas, which rules de facto in the enclave.
Permanent Representative of Palestine to the Arab League, Diab Al Louh, stressed today that the Palestinian government is “fully prepared” to sit down and negotiate with Israel to end growing tensions.
“We have stretched out our hand for peace and are fully willing to sit around a table under the auspices of the International Quartet (of the Middle East), and we are not the ones who refuse to sit at the negotiating table,” he said Al Louh EFE. , also Palestinian Ambassador in Cairo.
However, the diplomat declined to comment on the state of mediation by the Egyptian delegation, who, along with the United Nations, are usually the ones working to stop the escalation of tensions between Israelis and Palestinians.
Violence in the area has also spread to the occupied West Bank in recent days, where a shooting attack by Palestinians this Friday caused the instant deaths of two sisters, aged 15 and 20 respectively, while their mother He died today from his injuries.
Also this Monday, a 15-year-old Palestinian teenager was shot dead by Israeli forces in clashes sparked by a military attack on a West Bank refugee camp.
Shortly thereafter, more than 30 Palestinians were injured in clashes with Israeli security forces during a protest against a massive march by Jewish settlers in the West Bank.
The Israeli-Palestinian conflict has become particularly bloody in the past year, with an increase in Israeli army raids on West Bank territory and an increase in attacks by Palestinians and attacks by Israeli settlers.
The first few months of this year have been the most violent of the conflict since 2000. Since the beginning of 2023, 96 Palestinians and Arab Israelis have died in violent incidents with Israel, and 19 people have been victims of attacks on the Israeli side. EFE
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