The Israeli army carried out airstrikes in the center of the Gaza Strip overnight from Wednesday to Thursday, while several rockets launched from the Palestinian territory targeted Israel.
The fear of a new military escalation has not gone away. On Wednesday, April 20 evening, a rocket – the second this week – was first fired from the Gaza Strip to fall in a field in the Israeli town of Sderot (south) without causing any injuries. In the process, the Israeli army carried out a series of strikes in the center of this micro-territory of 2.3 million inhabitants, under the control of the Islamists of Hamas.
‘Israeli military jets targeted military positions and the entrance to a tunnel leading to an underground complex where chemicals used to propel rockets are stored’,” the Israeli military said.
Four more rockets were fired at Israel
Shortly after the Israeli retaliatory strikes, four more rockets were fired at Israel, where they were intercepted by the Iron Dome missile shield, the military said as alarm sirens sounded in the middle of the night in Israeli localities neighboring the Gaza Strip.
“The strikes on the Gaza Strip will increase the determination of our people and the resistance (…) to defend our holy places in Jerusalem, regardless of the sacrifices”,” the spokesperson said in a statement. of Hamas, Hazem Qassem.
The exchanges of fire – the second this week and among the most intense since the end of the eleven-day war between Israel and Hamas in May 2021 – come after clashes over the weekend between Palestinian protesters and Israeli police on the Esplanade of the Mosques of Jerusalem, the third holiest site in Islam and the first holiest site in Judaism under its name of Temple Mount.
Palestinians and several the region as a gesture of provocation.
Israeli police prevented hundreds of Jewish nationalist protesters from approaching the Muslim quarter of the Old City of Jerusalem, where the Esplanade of the Mosques is located, on Wednesday evening, in order to avoid clashes. Nationalist organizations had called for this big march, a demonstration considered a gesture of “provocation” on the part of the government.
Jewish nationalist protesters blocked by police
More than a thousand demonstrators carrying Israeli flags gathered in the early evening in Tsahal Square, near the town hall, opposite the Old City. And hundreds of demonstrators tried to approach Damascus Gate, the main entrance to the city’s Muslim quarter. But police blocked protesters, including many supporters of far-right lawmaker Itamar Ben Gvir, who had been barred from the area earlier in the day by Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett.
“I will not allow Ben Gvir’s political provocation to endanger Israeli soldiers and police, and further complicate their mission,” the prime minister said.
“I say it clearly (…), I will not bend,” retorted Agence France-Presse (AFP) Mr. Ben Gvir. “ Under what law am I not allowed to enter Damascus Gate? »
United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres is “deeply concerned about the deteriorating situation in Jerusalem,” his spokesman in New York said on Wednesday. “He is in contact with all parties in order to reduce tensions, prevent inflammatory actions and rhetoric”. “