New clashes in Jerusalem, protests in the occupied West Bank and rocket fire from the Gaza Strip: tension mounts between Palestinians and Israeli forces on Saturday in the wake of the biggest clashes in years in the Holy City.
Skirmishes broke out on Friday evening on the outskirts of the Old City of Jerusalem the day after a night of cross-demonstrations involving a group of far-right Jews chanting “Death to the Arabs”, Palestinians and law enforcement officials injured more than 120.
Police and young Palestinians played cat and mouse near Damascus Gate, after the last Friday prayer that gathered tens of thousands of worshipers at the Esplanade des Mosques, Islam’s third holiest site, during this period of the Muslim month of Ramadan.
Young Palestinians threw water bottles and stones at the police, deployed en masse, who used stun grenades in an attempt to disperse the crowd, and also led to a few arrests, including a muscular one, a. noted an AFP journalist on the spot. Other incidents also took place in various Palestinian neighborhoods in East Jerusalem.
Hundreds of Palestinians gathered on Friday evening at the Qalandiya crossing point, connecting Israel and the West Bank, where various objects were set on fire. Palestinians threw stones and Molotov cocktails at Rachel’s Tomb, a Jewish holy site in Bethlehem, in the occupied West Bank, police said, while a protest also took place in Ramallah, the seat of the Palestinian Authority.
Rockets
Later that night, 36 rockets were launched from the Gaza Strip, a Palestinian enclave geographically separated from the occupied West Bank and Jerusalem, into Israel, according to the IDF. Six rockets were intercepted by the Iron Dome missile shield and others fell in vacant lots.
In retaliation, tanks, fighter jets and military helicopters have targeted, according to the army, positions of Hamas, an armed Islamist movement which has controlled the Gaza Strip since 2007, and in recent years had acquiesced in a truce with the Hebrew state after three wars between the two camps (2008, 2012, 2014).
Following Thursday’s clashes near the Old City, the most violent in recent years in the Holy City, the armed wing of Hamas extended its support to the Palestinians in East Jerusalem, warning Israel: “The spark that you ignite today will be the fuse of the coming explosion in the face of the enemy.”
And Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas denounced the “incitement to hatred” of Israeli far-right groups and urged the international community to “protect” Palestinians in East Jerusalem.
The clashes of the last few days in Jerusalem began after police prevented people from sitting on the steps surrounding the Damascus Gate (bab al-Amoud, in Arabic), a place where Palestinians normally meet in the evening during the period of ramadan.
And when far-right Jews planned to demonstrate near this vast gateway to the Old City, many Palestinians saw it as a provocation and an attempt to take control of this symbolic site.
Neighboring country Jordan, which administers the Muslim holy sites of the Old City, condemned Saturday through Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi, Israeli “racist attacks” against Palestinians in East Jerusalem. He called for “international action to protect them,” warning Israel that Jerusalem was “a red line” and that to touch it was “to play with fire.” “