The fear of another military escalation has not disappeared. On Wednesday evening, April 20, a rocket – the second this week – was fired from the Gaza Strip for the first time and fell into a field in the Israeli city of Sderot (south) without causing injuries. In doing so, the Israeli army carried out a series of attacks in the center of this micro-area of 2.3 million inhabitants, under the control of the Islamists of Hamas.
Israeli military jets targeted military positions and the entrance to a tunnel leading to an underground complex that stores chemicals used to power missiles.said the Israeli army.
Four more rockets fired at Israel
Shortly after these Israeli retaliatory attacks, four more rockets were fired at Israel, where they were intercepted by the Iron Dome missile defense system.† the military said as alarm sirens sounded in the middle of the night in Israeli towns on the Gaza Strip.
“The attacks on the Gaza Strip will increase the determination of our people and the resistance” † to defend our holy places in Jerusalem, regardless of the sacrifices”Hamas spokesman Hazem Qassem said in a statement.
These gunfights – the second this week and one of the most intense since the end of the 11-day war between Israel and Hamas in May 2021 — coming after clashes this weekend between Palestinian protesters and Israeli police on the esplanade of the mosques in Jerusalem, the third holiest site in Jerusalem. and Judaism’s first holy site under the name Temple Mount.
The presence of Jews – who can visit the esplanade under certain conditions and times, but cannot pray there under a tacit agreement – and of police officers on the scene during Ramadan is seen as a gesture by Palestinians and several countries in the region experiencing provocation.
Israeli police prevented hundreds of Jewish nationalist protesters from approaching the Muslim quarter of Jerusalem’s Old City, where the mosques’ esplanade is located, on Wednesday evening to avoid clashes. Nationalist organizations had called for this great march, a demonstration that, as a gesture of “provocation” from the government.
Jewish nationalist protesters blocked by police
More than a thousand protesters carrying Israeli flags gathered in the early evening in Tsahal Square, near City Hall, opposite the Old City. And hundreds of protesters tried to approach Damascus Gate, the main entrance to the city’s Muslim quarter. But police blocked protesters, including many supporters of far-right lawmaker Itamar Ben Gvir, who had been barred from the area earlier in the day by Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett.
“I will not allow Ben Gvir’s political provocation to endanger Israeli soldiers and police and further complicate their mission”said the prime minister.
“I say it clearly” †I will not bendreplied Agence France-Presse (AFP), Mr Ben Gvir. What law does not allow me to enter the Damascus Gate? †
United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres is “very concerned about the deterioration of the situation in Jerusalem”said his spokesman in New York on Wednesday. “He is in contact with all parties to reduce tensions, prevent incendiary actions and rhetoric”†
Clashes between Palestinian protesters and Israeli police left more than 170 injured on the mosque esplanade on Friday and Sunday, as the celebrations of the Muslim month of Ramadan and Passover coincided.
