Earlier, Israel carried out airstrikes on Gaza for months in response to a rocket fired. (File)
Jerusalem:
Palestinian militants in Gaza fired a rocket at Israel on Wednesday, the military said, as tensions mounted with police in Jerusalem blocking Jewish ultra-nationalist protesters from approaching the Muslim quarter of the Old City.
While the Gaza missile has not caused any injuries – a fragment fell into the yard of a house in the southern Israeli city of Sderot, police said – it is raising tensions after nearly a month of deadly violence in Israel and the Palestinian Territories.
It is the second rocket fired from Gaza this week and the first to hit Israel in months.
Hours earlier, Israeli police blocked crowds of Jewish ultra-nationalist protesters from approaching the Muslim quarter in East Jerusalem’s Old City, trying to prevent more Israeli-Palestinian violence after weeks of bloodshed.
Last year, the Islamist Hamas movement — rulers of the Palestinian enclave of Gaza — launched a barrage of rockets into Israel when a similar ultra-nationalist march was set to begin in the Old City, sparking an 11-day war.
More than a thousand ultra-nationalist protesters waving Israeli flags gathered in the early evening, but police blocked the crowd from reaching Damascus Gate, the main entrance to the Muslim quarter.
Among the protesters were supporters of far-right lawmaker Itamar Ben Gvir, a controversial opposition politician. Some in the crowd shouted “death to the Arabs”.
“We want to go to all of Jerusalem and our government won’t let us,” said Pnina, a 62-year-old civil servant.
Ben Gvir himself had been barred from the Damascus Gate area earlier in the day by Prime Minister Naftali Bennett.
“I’ll say it clearly, I’m not going to blink, I’m not going to fold,” said Ben Gvir. ‘I am not allowed to enter the gate of Damascus. Based on what law?’
– ‘Provocation’ –
Tensions are high with the Jewish Passover festival coinciding with the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.
On Tuesday, Israel carried out its first airstrike in months on the Gaza Strip in response to a rocket fired from the Palestinian enclave late Monday after a weekend of violence around a holy site in Jerusalem.
“Some Jews do not surrender to Hamas,” Ben Gvir added.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said he was “deeply concerned about the deteriorating situation in Jerusalem”, and was in contact with parties to pressure them “to do everything possible to reduce tensions, incendiary actions and rhetoric.” to avoid,” a statement said. by his spokesperson in New York.
Bennett had previously said in a statement that he had blocked Ben Gvir’s rally for security reasons.
“I have no intention of allowing petty politics to endanger human lives,” Bennett said in a statement.
“I will not allow any political provocation by Ben Gvir to endanger IDF (Israeli Army) soldiers and Israeli police officers and make their already arduous task even more difficult.”
Ben Gvir responded on Twitter saying that “Bennett, coalition security is not state security”.
Bennett, himself a right-wing and a key figure in the Israeli settlement movement, heads an ideologically divided coalition government.
Earlier this month, his coalition lost its one-seat majority in the 120-seat Knesset after a member left in a dispute over the use of leavened bread products in hospitals during Passover.
On Sunday, the Raam party, which hails from the country’s Arab-Israeli minority, suspended its support for the coalition after violence in and around the Al-Aqsa Mosque, known to Jews as the Temple Mount.
Clashes there between Palestinian protesters and Israeli troops left about 170 injured on Friday and Sunday.
Before that, Palestinians and Israeli Arabs launched four deadly attacks in the Jewish state in late March and early this month, killing 14, mostly civilians.
A total of 23 Palestinians have been killed in the violence since March 22, according to an AFP count, including attackers targeting Israelis.
Right-wing lawmakers are under pressure to leave the Israeli government, which some on the right see as too favorable to the Palestinians and Israel’s Arab minority.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by DailyExpertNews staff and has been published from a syndicated feed.)
