Israel’s border violence in Jerusalem threatens to bring a new phase of peace: A report from the UN High-Redshift Observatory
The majority of the 34 rockets came from Lebanon, though five of them were able to land in Israel.
The country closed its northern airspace in the wake of the barrage. No deaths were reported as of Thursday afternoon, and it is not yet known which group in Lebanon launched the rockets.
The army of Lebanon told CNN that it wasn’t ready to release information to the public, while Hezbollah told CNN that it wasn’t ready to talk at the moment. On Wednesday, the leader of Hamas arrived in Lebanon for meetings with Hezbollah officials.
Tensions are sky-high in the region after Israeli police stormed the al-Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem on two separate occasions Wednesday, as Palestinian worshipers offered prayers during the holy month of Ramadan.
Israeli officers beat Palestinians with batons and rifle-butts in the mosque while arresting hundreds of them. Israeli police said they entered the mosque after “hundreds of rioters” tried to barricade themselves inside.
Analysts describe the most serious border violence since the Israeli war with Lebanon’s Hezbollah group in 2006 as threatening to push the conflict into a new phase after the bloodshed of Jerusalem’s holiest sites.
Although the Israeli military emphasized that it was only hitting sites belonging to Palestinian militant groups, the bombardment risked drawing in Hezbollah, which controls much of southern Lebanon, and has in the past portrayed itself as a defender of the Palestinians. The Israeli military said that it held Lebanon accountable for the attacks originating from its territory.
The official from the Israeli Embassy in Lebanon denied that Israeli shelling of south Lebanon was related to the rockets.
Israel strikes lebanon-and-gaza following militant rocket-fire: a Palestinian refugee camp victim’s house and his citrus orchard
The IDF hosted a high-level seminar in the spring of 2022 to brief journalists and policy makers about the situation on the Lebanon border, which they had been concerned about for a long time.
A photographer from the Associated Press says Israeli missiles struck an open field near a Palestinian refugee camp. A power transformer and a flock of sheep are on the outskirts of Qalili, which is close to the Palestinian camp. Several sheep were killed and residents of the town, including Syrian refugees, reported minor injuries.
‘”I was sleeping and suddenly I couldn’t feel anything except the impact,” said Qalili resident Majid Abdelsattar. The strikes, he said, damaged his parents’ house and the family’s citrus orchard. The Lebanese military said it found another rocket launcher Friday after dismantling several the day before.
Police did not comment on the earlier beatings, but said security forces entered the holy compound after prayers in response to “masked suspects” who threw rocks toward officers at one of the gates.
Source: https://www.npr.org/2023/04/07/1168579149/israel-strikes-lebanon-and-gaza-following-militant-rocket-fire
Israel’s response in Gaza and beyond: “All our eyes are now on Jerusalem,” said Hecht, a spokesman for the Israeli military
Both sides wanted to avoid large-scale conflict, the Israeli military said. “Quiet will be answered with silence,” said Richard Hecht, a spokesman for the Israeli military. But, he added, “All our eyes are now on Jerusalem.”
The Israeli military said it pounded Gaza with more airstrikes on Friday, hitting 10 targets that it described as tunnel infrastructure, along with weapons production and development sites belonging largely to the Hamas militant group. There were no immediate reports of casualties in Gaza, but the Palestinian Health Ministry said that one of the strikes caused some damage to a children’s hospital in Gaza City.
“This is not the first time health facilities have been targeted, and it is unacceptable,” the ministry said of the damage to the hospital.
“Israel’s response, tonight and beyond, will extract a heavy price from our enemies,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said after his Security Cabinet meeting late Thursday.
Tensions have simmered along the Lebanese border in recent weeks as Israel appears to have ratcheted up its shadow war against Iranian-linked targets in Syria, another close ally of Iran, Israel’s archenemy in the region.
Suspected Israeli airstrikes in Syria in recent weeks have killed two Iranian military advisers and temporarily put the country’s two largest airports out of service. Hecht said the rocket fire wasn’t connected to the events in Syria.
Tension was still present in Jerusalem after a few hours of calm returned to Al-Aqsa.