Israel launched lethal air strikes on Gaza Monday in response to a barrage of rockets fired by Hamas and different Palestinian militants, amid spiralling violence sparked by unrest at Jerusalem’s Al-Aqsa Mosque compound.
At least 20 individuals have been killed, together with 9 youngsters and a senior Hamas commander, and 65 others wounded, Gaza authorities mentioned.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned that Hamas had crossed a “crimson line” by directing missiles towards Jerusalem and that the Jewish state would “respond with force”.
“We is not going to tolerate assaults on our territory, our capital, our residents and our troopers. Those who assault us pays a heavy value,” said Netanyahu, who held meetings with the heads of the army and the Shin Bet security agency.
Israel’s army said 150 rockets had been launched from Gaza, dozens of which were intercepted by the Iron Dome Aerial Defense System, with no casualties reported.
“We have started, and I repeat started, to attack military targets in Gaza,” military spokesman Jonathan Conricus mentioned. “We have made preparations for varied situations, together with excessive depth ones… Hamas will get the message.”
The military said it had targeted “two rocket launchers, two military posts”, a tunnel and eight Hamas operatives in Gaza.
Hamas sources confirmed to AFP that one in all their commanders, Mohammed Fayyad, had been killed.
Tensions in Jerusalem have flared since Israeli riot police clashed with Palestinian worshippers on the final Friday of the Muslim holy fasting month of Ramadan within the metropolis’s worst disturbances since 2017.
Nightly unrest since then on the Al-Aqsa compound has left a whole bunch of Palestinians wounded, drawing worldwide requires de-escalation and sharp rebukes from throughout the Muslim world.
Diplomatic sources advised AFP that Egypt and Qatar, who’ve mediated previous Israeli-Hamas conflicts, have been trying to calm tensions.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken strongly condemned the rocket assaults by Hamas, saying they “must cease instantly”.
“All sides need to de-escalate, reduce tensions, take practical steps to calm things down,” he mentioned.
Adding to the sense of chaos, an enormous fireplace engulfed bushes within the compound that homes the mosque, Islam’s third holiest web site, as a whole bunch of Jewish Israelis watched from the Western Wall esplanade under.
Hamas, which controls the Gaza Strip, earlier Monday warned Israel to withdraw all its forces from the mosque compound and the east Jerusalem district of Sheikh Jarrah, the place looming evictions of Palestinian households have fuelled offended protests.
Sirens wailed throughout Jerusalem simply after the 1500 GMT deadline set by Hamas as individuals in Jerusalem, together with lawmakers within the Knesset legislature, fled to bunkers for the primary time since a 2014 Gaza battle.
A spokesman for Hamas’ armed wing the Qassam Brigades mentioned the rocket assaults have been in response to Israeli actions in Sheikh Jarrah and across the Al-Aqsa mosque.
“This is a message that the enemy should perceive nicely: in case you reply we’ll reply, and in case you escalate we’ll escalate.” A house in Beit Nekofa, about 10 kilometres (six miles) west of central Jerusalem, was also damaged by rocket fire, AFP TV reported.
The Israeli army said on Twitter that, separate to the rockets, “as a result of an anti-tank missile fired from Gaza, an Israeli civilian in a nearby vehicle was lightly injured” within the Gaza border space.
Fears of additional chaos within the Old City had quickly eased when Israeli organisers of a march to have fun the Jewish state’s 1967 seize of east Jerusalem cancelled the occasion.
But then got here the Hamas warning, adopted by the rockets, which additionally pressured the evacuation of the Western Wall and different websites.
Militants in Gaza have just lately additionally deployed incendiary balloons which have sparked dozens of fires in Israeli territory.
On Monday night, as throughout the earlier nights since Friday, Palestinians hurled rocks at Israeli officers in riot gear who fired rubber bullets, stun grenades and tear gasoline.
That got here after morning clashes which left the bottom plagued by rocks, stun grenade fragments and different particles as loud booms and offended screams echoed from the traditional stone partitions.
There have been dozens of newly wounded demonstrators. The Palestinian Red Crescent mentioned at the least 395 Palestinians have been wounded, together with greater than 200 who have been hospitalised, 5 of them in essential situation.
Siraj, 24, was wheeled into surgical procedure on the massive Makassed Hospital after struggling a spleen harm from being hit by a rubber bullet.(*20*) he mentioned. Makassed director-general Adnan Farhoud mentioned most of Monday’s accidents have been to the top, chest, and higher and decrease limbs.When “you imply to hurt somebody you shoot to the top”, he told AFP.
The Israeli police reported 32 injuries in their ranks. The violence since Friday has been fuelled by a long-running bid by Jewish settlers to evict several Palestinian families from their nearby Sheikh Jarrah neighbourhood.
A Supreme Court hearing on a Palestinian appeal in the case originally set for Monday was pushed back by the justice ministry due to the tensions.
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