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Adel Hana/AP
JERUSALEM — Palestinian militants fired a number of rockets into southern Israel from the Gaza Strip early Thursday and Israeli plane hit militant targets in Gaza, a part of an escalation that was eerily just like the run-up to final yr’s Israel-Gaza battle.
The cross-border strikes got here towards the backdrop of Israeli-Palestinian tensions which have been boiling in Jerusalem.
On Wednesday, tons of of flag-waving Israeli ultra-nationalists marched towards predominantly Palestinian areas round Jerusalem’s Outdated Metropolis, a demonstrative show of Israeli management over the disputed metropolis seen as a provocation by Palestinians.
Police closed the principle highway resulting in the Damascus Gate of the Outdated Metropolis, the epicenter of final yr’s unrest previous an 11-day battle between Israel and Hamas. After some pushing and shoving with police, the marchers rallied close to the barricades, waving flags, singing and chanting.
A hilltop shrine within the Outdated Metropolis is the emotional floor zero of the Israeli-Palestinian battle and a flashpoint for earlier rounds of violence. Identified to Muslims because the Al Aqsa Mosque compound, it’s the third holiest web site in Islam. It’s also the holiest web site in Judaism, revered by Jews because the Temple Mount, the location of their biblical temples.
For Palestinians, the mosque compound, administered by Muslim clerics, can also be a uncommon place in Israeli-annexed east Jerusalem the place they’ve a measure of management. Palestinians search east Jerusalem, captured by Israel within the 1967 Mideast battle, as a future capital.
Palestinian militant teams in Gaza — the ruling Hamas and the smaller Islamic Jihad — have positioned themselves as defenders of the Jerusalem holy web site. On Wednesday, Hamas stated Israel would bear “full duty for the repercussions” if it allowed the marchers “to method our holy websites.”
A number of rockets have been fired from Gaza in a single day. 4 rockets fired early Thursday have been intercepted by Israel, the army stated. There have been no rapid stories of casualties or harm, and nobody claimed the rocket strikes. Israel holds Hamas chargeable for all rocket fireplace.
Early Thursday, Israeli warplanes performed a collection of airstrikes within the central Gaza Strip, native media reported. Social media posts by activists confirmed smoke billowing within the air. The Israeli army stated the airstrikes have been aimed toward a militant web site and an entrance of a tunnel resulting in an underground advanced holding chemical compounds to make rockets.
The army later stated its planes attacked one other Hamas compound after an anti-aircraft missile was fired from Gaza in the course of the preliminary airstrikes. It stated the missile didn’t hit its goal and no accidents or harm have been reported.
Tensions have surged in current weeks after a collection of lethal assaults inside Israel, Israeli army operations within the occupied West Financial institution and repeated clashes between Israelis and Palestinians on the Al Aqsa compound.
Final Could, Palestinian militants in Gaza fired rockets towards Jerusalem as a a lot bigger group of 1000’s of Israelis held a flag march to the Outdated Metropolis following weeks of protests and clashes in and round Al-Aqsa. These occasions led to an 11-day battle between Israel and Hamas.
Israeli nationalists stage such marches to attempt to assert sovereignty over east Jerusalem, which Israel seized in 1967, together with the West Financial institution and Gaza, and annexed in a transfer not acknowledged internationally. The Palestinians search an impartial state in all three territories and think about east Jerusalem their capital.
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