Israeli navy retaliates after rockets fired from Syria

Israeli police escort Jewish friends marking the holiday pf Passover to the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound, acknowledged to Muslims as a result of the Noble Sanctuary and to Jews as a result of the Temple Mount, throughout the Old City of Jerusalem in the middle of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, Sunday, April 9, 2023. (AP Photo)

By Associated Press: The Israeli navy acknowledged its forces attacked targets in Syria early Sunday after six rockets have been launched from Syrian territory in two batches in the direction of Israel in a unusual assault from Israel’s northeastern neighbor.

After the second barrage of three rockets, Israel initially acknowledged it responded with artillery fire into the realm in Syria from the place the rockets have been fired. Later, the navy acknowledged Israeli fighter jets attacked Syrian army web sites, along with a compound of Syria’s 4th Division and radar and artillery posts.

The rocket firings acquired right here after days of escalating violence on plenty of fronts over stress in Jerusalem and an Israeli police raid in town’s most delicate holy website.

In the second barrage, which was launched early Sunday, two of the rockets crossed the border into Israel, with one being intercepted and the second landing in an open house, the Israeli navy acknowledged. In the first assault, on Saturday, one rocket landed in a topic throughout the Israeli-annexed Golan Heights. Fragments of 1 different destroyed missile fell into Jordanian territory near the Syrian border, Jordan’s navy reported.

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There have been no experiences of casualties.

A Damascus-based Palestinian group loyal to the Syrian regime claimed accountability for launching the three missiles Saturday, reported Beirut-based Al-Mayadeen TV.

The report quoted Al-Quds Brigade, a militia fully completely different than the larger Palestinian Islamic Jihad’s armed wing with a similar establish, as saying it fired the rockets to retaliate for the police raid on Al-Aqsa Mosque.

In Syria, an adviser to President Bashar Assad described the rocket strikes as “part of the previous, present and continuing response to the brutal enemy.”

Israel, which has vowed to stop Iranian entrenchment in Syria, has carried out a complete bunch of strikes in government-controlled elements of that nation in current occasions, though it not typically acknowleges them. Before the newest strikes, Syrian officers had attributed 10 assaults to Israel this yr, a number of of which put the Damascus and Aleppo airports temporarly out of service and killed civilians along with Syrian troopers and Iranian navy advisers.

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In the occupied West Bank, Israeli security forces fatally shot a 20-year-old Palestinian throughout the metropolis of Azzun, Palestinian effectively being officers acknowledged, stirring protests throughout the house. The Israeli navy acknowledged troops fired at Palestinians hurling stones and explosive devices. The Palestinian Health Ministry acknowledged the Palestinian killed as Ayed Salim.

His dying acquired right here at a time of unusually heightened violence throughout the West Bank. Over 90 Palestinians and have been killed by Israeli fire so far this yr, not lower than half of them affiliated with militant groups, in response to a tally by The Associated Press.

Palestinian assaults on Israelis have killed 19 people in that time — along with on Friday two British-Israelis shot to dying near a settlement throughout the Jordan Valley and an Italian vacationer killed by a suspected car-ramming in Tel Aviv. All nevertheless one have been civilians.

The rocket fire from Syria comes in the direction of the backdrop of hovering Israeli-Palestinian tensions touched off by an Israeli police raid on Jerusalem’s most delicate website, the sacred compound residence to the Al-Aqsa mosque. That outraged Palestinians marking the holy fasting month of Ramadan and prompted militants in Lebanon — along with Palestinian militants throughout the Gaza Strip — to fireplace a heavy barrage of rockets into Israel.

READ | Israeli missile strikes residential developing in Syria’s Damascus, kills 15

In retaliation, Israeli warplanes struck web sites allegedly linked to the Palestinian militant group Hamas in Gaza and southern Lebanon.

Late Saturday, tensions ran extreme in Jerusalem as a few hundred Palestinian worshippers barricaded themselves throughout the mosque, which sits on a hilltop throughout the coronary coronary heart of Jerusalem’s Old City sacred to every Muslims and Jews. Israeli police efforts to evict the worshippers locked throughout the mosque in a single day with stockpiled firecrackers and stones spiraled into unrest throughout the holy website earlier this week.

The latest escalations prompted Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant to extend a closure barring entrance to Israel for Palestinians from the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip all by way of the Jewish trip of Passover, whereas police beefed up forces in Jerusalem on the eve of delicate spiritual celebrations.

In a separate incident throughout the northern West Bank metropolis of Nablus late Saturday, a pacesetter of an space unbiased armed group typically generally known as the Lion’s Den claimed the group executed an alleged Israeli collaborator who had tipped off the Israeli navy to the locations and actions of the group’s members. Israeli security forces have centered and killed plenty of of the group’s key members in newest months.

The accused man’s killing could not be immediately confirmed, nevertheless motion pictures in Palestinian media confirmed medics and residents gathered spherical his bloodied physique throughout the Old City, the place the Lion’s Den holds sway. “Traitors have neither a country nor a people,” Lion’s Den commander Oday Azizi acknowledged in a press launch.

READ | Syria says Israel hits Homs outposts, sources say air bases bombed

The strikes come at a time of heightened spiritual fervor – with Ramadan coinciding with Passover and Easter celebrations. Jerusalem’s Old City, residence to key Jewish, Muslim and Christian holy web sites, has been teeming with friends and religious pilgrims from world vast.

Gallant acknowledged {{that a}} closure imposed closing Wednesday, on the eve of Passover, would keep in impression until the holiday ends on Wednesday night time time. The order prevents Palestinians from moving into Israel for work or to hope in Jerusalem this week, though mass prayers have been permitted on the Al-Aqsa Mosque on Friday. Gallant moreover ordered the Israeli navy to be prepared to assist Israeli police. The army later launched that it was deploying additional troops spherical Jerusalem and throughout the West Bank.

Over 2,000 police have been anticipated to be deployed in Jerusalem on Sunday – when tens of lots of of Jews are anticipated to gather on the Western Wall for the actual Passover priestly blessing. The Western Wall is the holiest website the place Jews can pray and sits subsequent to the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound, the place huge crowds acquire day by day for prayers all through Ramadan.

Jerusalem police chief Doron Turgeman met alongside along with his commanders on Saturday for a security analysis. He accused the Hamas militant group, which tips the Gaza Strip, of trying to incite violence ahead of Sunday’s priestly blessing with false claims that Jews consider to storm the mosque.

“We will allow the freedom of worship and we will allow the arrival of Muslims to pray,” he acknowledged, together with that police “will act with determination and sensitivity” to guarantee that all faiths can have enjoyable safely.

The current spherical of violence erupted earlier throughout the week after Israeli police raided the mosque, firing tear gas and stun grenades to disperse a complete bunch of Palestinians who had barricaded themselves inside. Violent scenes from the raid sparked unrest throughout the contested capital and outrage all through the Arab world.

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Published On:

Apr 9, 2023