The battle on the Temple Mount turned into an open confrontation with Gaza after Hamas’s ultimatum to Israel. At the end of the indicated time, 6 pm, more than 30 rockets departed from the Strip towards Jerusalem and the Israeli communities around the Palestinian enclave. “It was a response – claimed Hamas – to the aggression and crimes against the Holy City and the prevarications against our people in the Sheikh Jarrah district and in the al-Aqsa mosque”. Israel’s response was immediate, which struck in Gaza, killing 8 militiamen, according to the military spokesman. While the Hamas health ministry in Gaza spoke of 20 people killed in the north of the Strip, including 9 children. The Israeli army has not confirmed.
The situation in Jerusalem – hot for a few days already – began to deteriorate this morning when, according to the police, thousands of Palestinians barricaded on the esplanade began a thick stone throwing and throwing objects at the riot police. Shortly before, to try to calm the tensions, the Israeli authorities had decided to prevent the entry of the Jewish faithful – for whom it is the Temple Mount – on the occasion of Jerusalem Day which celebrates the reunification of the city after the war of the 1967. After about three hours of violent fighting, the toll has struck over 300 Palestinian protesters injured, of these more than 200 taken to hospital. The officers hit were 21. Beyond the Esplanade, the tension was palpable throughout the city. Videos on social media, confirmed by the police, showed the attempted lynching of an Israeli whose car had previously been stoned by Palestinian demonstrators at the foot of the Old City. The intervention of a policeman prevented the worst.
Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu – supported by the entire Israeli leadership – defended the intervention of the police in the fight “between tolerance and intolerance”: “Only Israeli sovereignty allows freedom of worship for all”, he argued, brandishing it as “false and distorted “the images of the world media. But Hamas responded by calling on Israel to “get its soldiers and settlers out of the Al Aqsa Mosque and Sheikh Jarrah ward. You have been warned.” The clash at that point seemed inevitable: Israel sent reinforcements to the Strip, stopped trains heading south, moved air routes north, and ordered people around Gaza to stay home. Then the ‘March of flags’, which celebrates the reunification of the city, was canceled by the Israeli nationalists and, at the first alarm sirens on the arrival of rockets – greeted by the exultation of Palestinians at the Damascus Gate – the Wall of the Weeping and also the Knesset, where the deputies were in session.
The outlook is bleak tonight: rocket launches from Gaza continue, while Israel is also hitting military targets in the Strip and the army said it “expects fighting in the next few days. Our reaction will be strong, it will last for days ». While for Netanyahu “Hamas has crossed a red line” by launching rockets on Jerusalem and “will pay a heavy price”. The escalation has alerted the whole world and aroused harsh condemnations from the Arab side. The UN secretary general, Antonio Guterres, said he was concerned “about the continuing violence in occupied East Jerusalem, as well as the possible evictions of Palestinian families from their homes in the neighborhoods of Sheikh Jarrah and Silwan”. Turkish President Erdogan – who spoke to Abu Mazen and Hamas leader Hanyeh – announced that “Turkey will do everything in its power to mobilize the whole world, and especially the Islamic world, to stop terrorism and the occupation of Israel ”. From Ramallah, the Palestinian Authority has branded the aggression of Israel as “criminal”.