Air raid sirens, explosion heard in Jerusalem amid tensions

Hamas militants within the Gaza Strip fired rockets towards Jerusalem on Monday, setting off air raid sirens all through the town, after tons of of Palestinians had been damage in clashes with Israeli police at a flashpoint spiritual website within the contested holy metropolis.
The early-evening assault drastically escalated what already are heightened tensions all through the area following weeks of clashes between Israeli police and Palestinian protesters in Jerusalem.

Shortly after the sirens sounded, explosions might be heard in Jerusalem. There had been no speedy reviews of accidents or injury. The Israeli Army mentioned there was an preliminary burst of seven rockets, one was intercepted, and rocket fireplace was persevering with.
Abu Obeida, spokesman for Hamas’ navy wing, mentioned the rocket assault was a response to what he known as Israeli “crimes and aggression” in Jerusalem. “This is a message the enemy has to understand well,” he mentioned.
He threatened extra assaults if Israel once more invades the sacred Al-Aqsa compound or carries out evictions of Palestinian households in a neighbourhood of east Jerusalem.
Earlier, Israeli police firing tear fuel, stun grenades and rubber bullets clashed with stone-throwing Palestinians on the iconic compound.
More than a dozen tear fuel canisters and stun grenades landed within the Al-Aqsa Mosque, one in all Islam’s holiest websites, as police and protesters confronted off contained in the walled compound that surrounds it, mentioned an Associated Press photographer on the scene. Smoke rose in entrance of the mosque and the enduring golden-domed shrine on the location, and rocks littered the close by plaza. Inside one space of the compound, sneakers and particles lay scattered over ornate carpets.
In an obvious try to keep away from additional confrontation, Israeli authorities modified the deliberate route of a march by ultranationalist Jews by the Muslim Quarter of the Old City. The marchers had been ordered to keep away from the realm and despatched on a unique route circumventing the Muslim Quarter on their technique to the Western Wall, the holiest website the place Jews can pray.
But tensions remained excessive.
More than 305 Palestinians had been damage, together with 228 who went to hospitals and clinics for remedy, based on the Palestinian Red Crescent. Seven of the injured had been in critical situation. Police mentioned 21 officers had been damage, together with three who had been hospitalized. Israeli paramedics mentioned seven Israeli civilians had been additionally damage.
The confrontation was the newest after weeks of mounting tensions between Palestinians and Israeli troops within the Old City of Jerusalem, the emotional centre of their battle. There have been nearly nightly clashes throughout the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, already a time of heightened spiritual sensitivities.
Most not too long ago, the tensions have been fueled by the deliberate eviction of dozens of Palestinians from the Sheikh Jarrah neighbourhood of east Jerusalem the place Israeli settlers have waged a prolonged authorized battle to take over properties. Monday was anticipated to be notably tense since Israelis mark it as Jerusalem Day to rejoice their seize of east Jerusalem within the 1967 Mideast struggle.
On Monday, two anti-Arab members of Israel’s parliament, surrounded by an entourage and police, pushed by a line of protesters within the Sheikh Jarrah neighbourhood. Several Arab members of parliament had been amongst these making an attempt to cease Betzalel Smotrich and Itamar Ben Gvir, amid shouting and jostling. Smotrich and Ben Gvir finally acquired to the opposite facet of a police barricade and entered a home already inhabited by settlers.
Over the previous few days, tons of of Palestinians and several other dozen cops have been damage in clashes in and across the Old City, together with the sacred compound, which is thought to Jews because the Temple Mount and to Muslims because the Noble Sanctuary. The compound which has been the set off for rounds of Israel-Palestinian violence prior to now, is Islam’s third-holiest website and thought of Judaism’s holiest.
An AP photographer on the scene mentioned that early Monday morning, protesters had barricaded gates to the walled compound with picket boards and scrap metallic. Sometime after 7. a.m., clashes erupted, with these inside throwing stones at police deployed outdoors. Police entered the compound, firing tear fuel, rubber-coated metal pellets and stun grenades.
At some level throughout the morning about 400 individuals, each younger protesters and older worshippers, had been contained in the carpeted Al-Aqsa Mosque. Police fired tear fuel and stun grenades into the mosque.
Police mentioned protesters hurled stones at officers and onto an adjoining roadway close to the Western Wall, the place 1000’s of Israeli Jews had gathered to hope.
The tensions in Jerusalem have threatened to reverberate all through the area.
Hamas, an Islamic militant group that seeks Israel’s destruction, has fought three wars with Israel because it seized energy in Gaza in 2007. The group possesses an enormous arsenal of missiles and rockets able to placing nearly anyplace in Israel.
In the 1967 struggle during which Israel captured east Jerusalem, it additionally took the West Bank and Gaza Strip. It later annexed east Jerusalem and considers the whole metropolis its capital. The Palestinians search all three areas for a future state, with east Jerusalem as their capital.
The latest spherical of violence started when Israel blocked off a preferred spot the place Muslims historically collect every night time throughout Ramadan on the finish of their daylong quick. Israel later eliminated the restrictions, however clashes rapidly resumed amid tensions over the deliberate eviction of Palestinians from Sheikh Jarrah.