JERUSALEM — Militants in Gaza fired a rocket into Israeli airspace on Monday night time that was intercepted by an Israeli air protection system, as tensions continued to rise after current clashes between Palestinians and the Israeli police at a holy website in Jerusalem.
No group instantly claimed duty for the rocket assault, however it adopted a number of current hints by Islamic Jihad, a militant group in Gaza, that it could reply to the clashes on the Aqsa Mosque compound, identified to Jews as Temple Mount. It was believed to be the primary rocket strike since January from Gaza, the place tensions have been comparatively low for the reason that finish of an 11-day warfare between Gaza militants and Israel final Might.
Hamas, the militant group that runs Gaza, has condemned Israeli interventions on the mosque, but additionally indicated it’s cautious of escalating tensions so quickly after final yr’s warfare. Khaled Meshaal, a senior Hamas official, mentioned Saturday that each Hamas and Israel had instructed Qatari mediators that they didn’t search a brand new spherical of combating.
Gazan authorities are nonetheless rebuilding infrastructure that was broken or destroyed in final Might’s combating; militants are nonetheless rebuilding their arsenal; and Hamas is taken into account leery of dropping a number of financial concessions Israel lately made to Gaza, together with an increase within the variety of Israeli work permits assigned to Gazan residents.
However the rocket strike on Monday was a reminder of how rapidly such issues can change, significantly at a unstable time in Jerusalem. Final yr’s warfare was partly set off by comparable tensions on the Aqsa Mosque, and a few have feared a repeat within the coming weeks, significantly throughout a uncommon overlap between Ramadan and Passover.
The Jerusalem tensions have additionally strained relations with the Jordanian authorities, which oversees the Islamic belief that administers the mosque. Jordan on Monday summoned a senior Israeli diplomat to complain concerning the current police interventions on the mosque.
Inside Israel, the clashes have prompted Raam, a small Islamist get together, to freeze its participation within the governing coalition. If Raam makes its determination everlasting by the point the Israeli Parliament ends its recess on Might 8, the opposition will achieve a parliamentary majority, elevating the chance of a fifth common election in three years.
Monday’s rocket launch adopted clashes on Friday and Sunday in and across the Aqsa Mosque compound, which is taken into account each the third-most sacred website in Islam, in addition to the location of an historic Jewish temple that’s the holiest place in Judaism.
Israeli police fired rubber-tipped bullets and sound grenades at stone-throwing Palestinian youths on Friday, and later entered the primary mosque on the location to arrest dozens of Palestinians who had barricaded themselves inside. On Sunday, law enforcement officials blocked Muslim entry to the location for a lot of the morning to permit vacationers and Jews to hope on the compound, resulting in extra clashes in and across the space. A bunch of Arab males attacked three non secular Jews whereas others stoned passing buses.
Palestinians view any police presence on the website because the unwelcome consequence of Israeli occupation. Israel captured East Jerusalem, together with the mosque compound, in 1967, later turning all the metropolis into its capital. However the United Nations Safety Council has dominated it’s occupied territory, and Palestinians contemplate the police facilitation of Jewish prayer there as a part of an escalating effort to entrench Israeli management over a sacred Muslim sanctuary.
The Israeli authorities says the police have been compelled to intervene on the mosque to include violence instigated by Palestinian rioters, and to make sure freedom of worship for each Muslims and Jews in every single place on Israeli soil.
“Right here’s the reality,” the prime minister, Naftali Bennett, mentioned in a press release on Monday night. “Israel is doing all the things so that each one peoples, as all the time, can rejoice the vacations safely — Jews, Muslims and Christians.”
He added: “The state of Israel will proceed to maintain our capital, Jerusalem, open to all.”
The Palestinian Authority, which manages components of the occupied West Financial institution, condemned Israel in a press release following the primary spherical of clashes on Friday.
“The expulsion of the worshipers by power, repression and batons in preparation for the incursions of the Jewish extremists will ignite the hearth of the non secular warfare for which the Palestinians alone won’t pay the value,” the authority’s international ministry mentioned.
Gabby Sobelman contributed reporting from Rehovot, Israel, and Iyad Abuheweila from Gaza Metropolis.
