Israel mounted airstrikes within the Gaza Strip on Wednesday — the primary because the finish of 11 days of cross-border preventing final month — in response to incendiary balloons launched from the Palestinian territory.
The Israeli army stated its plane attacked Hamas armed compounds in Gaza Metropolis and the southern city of Khan Younis and it was “prepared for all eventualities, together with renewed preventing within the face of continued terrorist acts emanating from Gaza.”
The flare-up, a take a look at for Israel’s fragile new authorities, adopted a march in East Jerusalem on Tuesday by Israeli nationalists that had drawn threats of motion by Hamas, the ruling militant group in Gaza.
The strikes, the army stated, got here in response to the launching of the incendiary balloons, which the Israeli fireplace brigade reported prompted 20 blazes in open fields in communities close to the Gaza border.
The assaults had been the primary launched by Israel and Gaza militants since an Egyptian-brokered ceasefire took impact.
A Hamas spokesperson, confirming the Israeli assaults, stated Palestinians would proceed to pursue their “courageous resistance and defend their rights and sacred websites” in Jerusalem.
Hours earlier, 1000’s of flag-waving Israelis congregated across the Damascus Gate of Jerusalem’s Outdated Metropolis earlier than heading to Judaism’s holy Western Wall, drawing Palestinian anger and condemnation.
Israel captured East Jerusalem in a 1967 warfare and later annexed it in a transfer that’s not acknowledged internationally. Israel regards the whole metropolis as its capital; Palestinians need East Jerusalem to be the capital of a future state that would come with the West Financial institution and Gaza.
Previous to Tuesday’s march, Israel beefed up its deployment of the Iron Dome anti-missile system in anticipation of doable rocket assaults from Gaza. However because the marchers started to disperse after dusk in Jerusalem, there was no signal of rocket fireplace from the enclave.
The procession was initially scheduled for Could 10 as a part of “Jerusalem Day” festivities that commemorate Israel’s seize of East Jerusalem.
On the final minute, that march was diverted away from the Damascus Gate and the Outdated Metropolis’s Muslim Quarter, however the transfer was not sufficient to dissuade Hamas from firing rockets towards Jerusalem, assaults that set off final month’s spherical of preventing.
Tuesday’s crowd, whereas boisterous, seemed to be a lot smaller than throughout final month’s parade. From the Damascus Gate, they proceeded across the Outdated Metropolis to the Western Wall, the holiest place the place Jews can pray.
Forward of the march, Israeli police cleared the realm in entrance of Damascus Gate, shut down roads to site visitors, ordered retailers to shut and despatched away younger Palestinian protesters. Police stated that officers arrested 17 folks suspected of involvement in violence, a few of whom threw rocks and attacked police, and that two cops wanted medical remedy. Palestinians stated 5 folks had been harm in clashes with police.