Three rockets were fired from Gaza Strip to southern Israel, the Israeli army announced.
One of the rockets was intercepted by the Israeli “Iron Dome” missile system and the other two landed near the security fence between Israel and the Gaza Strip, the army said in a statement.
The rocket attacks came after violent clashes broke out Thursday night in Jerusalem between Israeli police and Palestinian protesters, in a march organized by the far-right Jewish movement Lahava, an organization openly hostile to the Palestinians. More than 120 were injured in the incidents.
Following these clashes, the most violent in recent years in the Holy City, the armed wing of Hamas, the Islamist movement that rules the Gaza Strip, expressed its support yesterday in a statement to the Palestinians in East Jerusalem, in the form of against Israel.
“Know that there is a strong resistance behind you that is ready (to fight),” Hamas’ armed wing, the Ezdin al-Qassam Brigades, said in a statement.
“The spark you lit today will be the wick of the forthcoming explosion in front of the enemy,” he added.
A pocket of two million people, the Gaza Strip has been under Israeli suffocation since Hamas came to power in 2007.
Hamas and Israel have clashed directly in wars three times between 2008 and 2014.
Since then, rockets and incendiary balloons from Gaza and Israeli counterattacks against Hamas or Islamic Jihad, the second-largest Islamic militant group in the Palestinian enclave, have been sporadic.
New conflicts in Jerusalem
New clashes in Jerusalem, protests in the occupied West Bank, rockets from the Gaza Strip to southern Israel: Tensions escalated again yesterday between Palestinians and Israeli forces after the most violent clashes that broke out in the West Bank last year. .
The atmosphere in Jerusalem For the second night in a row, tensions erupted after midnight between Palestinian protesters and a large police force on the outskirts of the Old City, a day after violent incidents followed by a far-right Jewish movement.
In Thursday night’s clashes, the Palestinian Red Crescent said at least 105 people were injured, about 20 of whom were taken to hospitals, and police said they counted 20 people injured in the clashes and arrested 44 people during the clashes.
The last large-scale clashes in Jerusalem date back to August 2019, when two religious festivals took place in the Old City at the same time – the Muslim Id al-Adha and the Jewish Tissa Bey. Clashes between Israeli police and Palestinians left about 60 people injured.
After a calm day on Friday, thousands of devout Muslims, leaving the Esplanade mosque after prayers, found themselves in a tense atmosphere with the presence of dozens of armed police, backed by cavalry, a French Agency reporter said.
Clashes broke out between worshipers and police, with water bottles being thrown at police who responded with flash grenades to disperse the crowd.
Hundreds of Palestinians also gathered last night at the Kalandiya checkpoint, a central crossing point for Palestinians seeking to cross from Ramallah to Jerusalem, police said, adding that law enforcement “will act decisively and decisively.” in any attempt to disrupt public order.
Palestinians threw stones and Molotov cocktails at Rachel’s grave, a Jewish shrine in Bethlehem in the occupied West Bank, police said.
The Palestinian Red Crescent reported that eight Palestinians were injured in clashes with police last night, two of whom were taken to hospital.
On Friday night, three rockets were fired from the Gaza Strip into southern Israel unharmed, hours after a warning from the armed wing of the ruling Islamist movement Hamas in the Palestinian enclave.
“Know that there is a strong resistance behind you that is ready (to fight),” Hamas’ armed wing, the Ezdin al-Qassam Brigades, said in a statement in support of the Palestinians in East Jerusalem.
Clashes erupted Thursday night after Israeli police mobilized to guard a march organized by the far-right Jewish movement Lahava, an organization openly hostile to the Palestinians, at the entrance to Jerusalem’s Old City.
The Lahava demonstration – some members of which chanted slogans such as “Death to the Arabs,” according to eyewitnesses, was seen as provocative and sparked clashes with Palestinians returning from Ramadan night prayers in Temen Square.
Palestinian youths staged a counter-demonstration to express their opposition to the march, and incidents broke out at the entrance to the Old City, on the east side of Jerusalem annexed by Israel, which lasted until nightfall.
“It was like a war zone,” a Palestinian eyewitness told AFP.
Pictures and videos posted on social media showed, among other things, a Jew being beaten by Palestinians around him.
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas condemned the “incitement to hatred” of Israeli far-right groups and urged the international community to “protect” the Palestinians in East Jerusalem.
The Lebanese Shiite militant group Hezbollah has expressed solidarity with the Palestinians, condemning the actions of the “occupation police” and “settler gangs”.
Washington has expressed “grave concern” over the “escalation of violence in Jerusalem”, condemning the “hate speech” rhetoric. “We call for calm and unity and urge the authorities to guarantee the security and rights of all in Jerusalem,” State Department spokesman Ned Price tweeted.
“Speeches by extremist protesters shouting violent slogans of hatred must be categorically rejected,” he said.
The UN special envoy for the Middle East, Thor Wensland, on Thursday condemned the clashes that have been raging in recent days between Israeli police, Israelis and Palestinians, calling for “de-escalation”.
Jordan condemned the “provocations by extremist Jewish groups”, calling on Israel to “end (…) the harassment” of Old Town residents and lift restrictions on access to the al-Aqsa mosque.
Riots broke out in Jerusalem on Wednesday. Videos posted on social media and broadcast by local media show Arabs working in shops in the city center and journalists being violently attacked by young Jews shouting “Death to the Arabs.”
Jerusalem Mayor Moses Lyon told Israeli television channel Kan that he would speak with Palestinian leaders in East Jerusalem in hopes of ending the “pointless violence” that comes a month before the first Palestinian parliamentary elections in 15 years.
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