A missile from Israel’s Iron Dome air defense system lights up the sky in the central Gaza Strip on April 21, 2022. SAYS KHATIB / AFP
The fear of a new military escalation has not disappeared. On the evening of April 20, a rocket – the second this week – was fired from the Gaza Strip and crashed in a field in the Israeli city of Sderot (south) without causing any injuries. The Israeli army carried out a series of attacks in the center of this micro-territory of 2.3 million people under the control of Hamas Islamists.
“Israeli army fighter jets targeted military positions and the entrance to a tunnel leading to an underground complex storing chemicals used to propel rockets,” the Israeli army said.
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Four more rockets were fired at Israel
Shortly after the Israeli retaliatory strikes, four more rockets were launched into Israel, where they were intercepted by the Iron Dome missile shield, the military said, as alarm sirens sounded in Israeli towns near the Gaza Strip in the middle of the night.
“The strikes in Gaza will increase our people’s resolve and resistance (…) to defend our holy sites in Jerusalem, regardless of the casualties,” Hamas spokesman Hazem Qassem said in a statement.
The shooting – the second this week and one of the most intense since the end of the 11-day war between Israel and Hamas in May 2021 – comes after clashes over the weekend between Palestinian protesters and Israeli police on the Esplanade of the Mosques of Jerusalem, the third holiest site in Islam and the first holiest site in Judaism to go by its name Temple Mount.
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The presence of Jews – who visit the Esplanade under certain conditions and times, but cannot pray there due to a tacit agreement – and police officers on site during Ramadan was perceived by Palestinians and several countries in the region as a gesture of provocation.
Israeli police prevented hundreds of Jewish nationalist protesters from approaching the Muslim Quarter of Jerusalem’s Old City, where the Esplanade of Mosques is located, on Wednesday night to avoid clashes. Nationalist organizations had called for this big march, a demonstration that the government saw as a “provocation” gesture.
Jewish nationalist protesters blocked by police
Israeli security forces block nationalist activists from marching towards Jerusalem’s Old City, April 20, 2022. MAYA ALLERUZZO/AP
More than a thousand demonstrators with Israeli flags gathered in Tsahal Square near City Hall opposite the Old City early in the evening. And hundreds of protesters attempted to approach the Damascus Gate, the main entrance to the city’s Muslim Quarter. However, police blocked protesters, including many supporters of far-right lawmaker Itamar Ben Gvir, who was barred from the area by Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett earlier in the day.
“I will not allow Ben Gvir’s political provocation to endanger Israeli soldiers and police and further complicate their mission,” the prime minister said.
“I will say it clearly (…), I will not bow down,” Mr Ben Gvir replied to Agence France-Presse (AFP). Under what law am I not allowed to enter the Damascus Gate? »
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UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres was “deeply concerned by the deteriorating situation in Jerusalem,” his spokesman said in New York on Wednesday. “He is in contact with all parties to reduce tensions and prevent hate speech and rhetoric.”
On Friday and Sunday, clashes between Palestinian protesters and Israeli police injured more than 170 on the mosque esplanade, as celebrations of the Muslim month of Ramadan and Passover coincided.