After violence in Jerusalem, rocket fire at Israel

After attacks in Israelmuscular operations in West Bank and violence this weekend in Jerusalema first rocket in months was fired on Monday evening April 18 towards Israeli territory, a sign that local tensions show no sign of easing.

On Monday evening, the alarm sirens sounded in southern Israel for this first rocket launch from the Gaza strip towards Israel since the beginning of January when a projectile was damaged in the sea off the Tel Aviv metropolis.

“A rocket was fired from the Gaza Strip into Israeli territory and was intercepted by the Iron Dome defense system”the Israeli army said in a statement.

This new rocket attack has not been claimed but comes after a series of attacks in Israel, two of which were carried out by Palestinians in Tel Aviv, “counter-terrorism” operations in the occupied West Bank, and a weekend of tension at the holy sites in Jerusalem.

These attacks had left 14 dead since March 22 in Israel. And 22 Palestinians, including assailants, were killed in Israeli incidents or operations in the West Bank, Palestinian territory occupied since 1967 by the Jewish state.

In Jerusalem, more than 150 Palestinians injured in clashes with Israeli forces Friday, April 15 at the Esplanade of the Mosques in Jerusalem, the third holiest site in Islam, also considered the first holiest site in Judaism under its name of Temple Mount.

Sunday, new skirmishes had broken out in and around this holy place that Jews had gone to visit, which was considered an affront by some Muslims. And young Palestinians were arrested the same day after throwing stones at Israeli civilian buses near the scene.

Remembering May 2021?

Last year, clashes in Jerusalem during the same period of the year led Hamas to launch salvoes of rockets from Gaza towards Israel, which responded by bombarding this Palestinian territory of 2.3 million inhabitants, giving rise to to a deadly 11-day war.

Israeli security sources and analysts have repeated in recent weeks that Hamas, which has welcomed recent attacks in Israel, does not want a war this year citing mainly two reasons.

First, the movement’s military capabilities had been affected by the May 2021 war.

And secondly because in the event of a conflict, the new Israeli government risks suspending the thousands of work permits granted in recent months to workers in Gaza, a territory under blockade weighed down by a local unemployment rate of around 50%.

On Monday, Islamic Jihad, the main Palestinian armed Islamist group after Hamas, but which unlike it does not administer the Gaza Strip, threatened a new military escalation.

“We can no longer remain silent about what is happening in Jerusalem and the occupied West Bank”said in a statement Ziad al-Nakhalé, the leader of Islamic Jihad, whose movement has according to Israeli intelligence thousands of fighters and rockets in Gaza.

Israel vs. Jordan?

The recent incidents at the esplanade of the Mosques also dampened relations between Israel and Jordan a little on Monday, which summoned the Israeli charge d’affaires in Amman to demand an end to the “illegal and provocative Israeli violations” at the esplanade of the Mosques.

Jordan, linked to Israel by a peace treaty since 1994, administers the esplanade of the Mosques, where the al-Aqsa mosque and the dome of the rock are located, but access to this place is controlled by Israel.

This summons “harms efforts to bring calm to Jerusalem”retorted the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs.