conflict escalated in Jerusalem, Israel responds to Gaza rockets with airstrikes
Palestinians and Israeli security forces clashed early Thursday around the entrance to the Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem's Old City and Israel responded to rockets fired from Gaza with airstrikes, as the worst tensions in months continued to simmer.
Videos showed dozens of Israeli police on the compound
outside the mosque just after sunrise Thursday as Palestinians launched
fireworks toward them from inside the building. Other videos showed police
firing stun grenades.
Later, at around 7:30 a.m., a group of Jewish visitors
entered the compound, many of them in religious clothing, protected by Israeli
security forces.
The hilltop site is holy to both Muslims and Jews and has
been a flashpoint for decades. Jews call it the Temple Mount and revere it as
the place where the first and second temples stood. Muslims refer to it as the
Haram al-Sharif and believe it is the place from where the prophet Mohammed
ascended to heaven.
Since 1967, arrangements have been governed by a 'status
quo' understanding, which allows only Muslims to pray on the site, though
anyone is allowed to visit during certain hours. In an effort to reduce
tensions, and in line with similar Israeli government decisions in recent
years, from today there will be no further visits by Jewish groups until the
end of Ramadan - in about ten days' time.
"In common with recent days, this morning, at the end
of the dawn prayer, dozens of lawbreakers and masked men rioted and disturbed
the order on the Temple Mount, with severe violence," an Israeli police
statement said Thursday.
Police depicted the new tossing of firecrackers from inside
the mosque, something like one of which caused a little fire in a rug, as a
demonstration of defilement. Allegations that the Al-Aqsa mosque is being
dishonored are consistently flung between the different sides, with Palestinians
and others saying Israeli security powers contaminate the structure when they
set foot inside it.
Israel faults Hamas for prompting Palestinians over the
mosque, and accepts the assailant bunch is weighing up whether to heighten the
contention over Gaza too. On Thursday night, no less than five rockets were
terminated from the seaside territory towards Israel. The Israeli military said
most were blocked by the Iron Dome elevated guard framework.
Israeli warplanes did ensuing airstrikes on Hamas focused
in Gaza, the military said. One strike hit the entry to an underground office
associated with the assembling of rocket motors, it said. There are no reports
from Gaza of any wounds.
Prior, on Wednesday evening, strains in Jerusalem spiked
when Jewish patriots, driven by fanatic official Itamar Ben Gvir, endeavored to
walk towards the Damascus Gate, one of the fundamental passages to the Old City
utilized by Palestinians. Police wouldn't concede a license for the walk
and prevailed with regards to forestalling the fundamental gathering of for the
most part young fellows from getting to the Gate, however, later there were
minor conflicts on the Old City's restricted roads between Jewish patriots,
neighborhood Palestinians, and Israeli police.
In one video, a gathering of patriots breaks into a serenade
of "Death to Arabs" as they encompass Palestinian men at a food slow
down and begin pushing them around.
The city has been anxious for the last week with
intermittent conflicts breaking out close by the Al-Aqsa mosque compound.
Friday saw the most genuine distress when in excess of 150 Palestinians were
harmed, as per the Palestinian Red Crescent, alongside a few police. The wounds
were not really perilous, reports recommended.
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