Israel, Palestinians launch rockets amid tensions

JERUSALEM (AP) — Palestinian groups fired several rockets into southern Israel from the Gaza Strip early Thursday, and Israeli aircraft bombed extremist sites in Gaza shortly after a previous rocket attack that was the second of its kind this week. The cross-border violence in Gaza is an extension of tensions between Israelis and Palestinians that have been escalating in Jerusalem.The Israeli military said four rockets were fired from Gaza early Thursday, and intercepted by air defenses. On Wednesday night, a rocket was fired from Gaza, sparking Israeli airstrikes. Read more: Is Covid-19 coming back? China announces 8 new coronavirus deaths in ShanghaiThere were no immediate reports of casualties or damage, and no one claimed responsibility for the rocket attacks. Israel considers the extremist group Hamas, which rules Gaza, to be responsible for all rocket fire, and the Israeli government usually responds with shelling within hours. Early Thursday, Israeli fighter jets carried out a series of airstrikes on a Hamas military site in the central Gaza Strip, local media reported. Activist posts on social media showed smoke rising. The Israeli military said the airstrikes targeted a military site and the entrance to a tunnel leading to an underground compound where “raw chemicals” are stored to make rockets. Hamas had previously issued vague threats over a march by Israeli ultra-nationalists in Jerusalem. But Israeli police blocked roads and prevented protesters from reaching mainly Palestinian-inhabited neighborhoods in and around the Old City, after a similar event nearly a year ago helped trigger a war between Israel and Gaza.La police used trucks and barricades outside the Old City walls to close the main road leading to damascus Gate. the epicenter of last year’s unrest. After some clashes with the police, protesters gathered near the barricades, waving flags, chanting and shouting slogans. Israeli police were deployed in large numbers in the historic Old City, which houses important religious shrines for Jews, Christians and Muslims, fearing that the clashes could further aggravate an already tense situation during the Jewish holiday of Passover and the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. Tensions have risen in recent weeks following a series of deadly attacks inside Israel, followed by military operations in the West Bank. Palestinian extremists fired a rocket Monday from the Gaza Strip into Israel for the first time in months, and the Israeli government responded with shelling. That rocket was intercepted and no casualties were reported from the skirmish. The scuffle came after days of clashes between Israeli police and Palestinians on the esplanade of the Al Aqsa Mosque, which for Jews is the Temple Mount.The shrine located in Jerusalem’s Old City is Islam’s third holiest site, while for Jews it is its holiest site. where two temples were built in ancient times. It is a flashpoint of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and previous rounds of violence. Earlier on Wednesday, a small group of Palestinian protesters threw stones at police as hundreds of Jewish visitors entered the holy site. Video footage appeared to show police using sponge-tipped plastic projectiles designed to be non-lethal as protesters barricaded themselves in the mosque. Police said an incendiary bomb dropped by one of the protesters set fire to a carpet outside the mosque, but it was quickly extinguished. No injuries were reported. Read more: Arturo Zaldivar, president of the SCJN, denies ‘cheating’ in vote for failed electricity reformHamas said Wednesday before the march that Israel would be “fully responsible for the repercussions” if it allowed protesters to “approach our holy places,” without elaborating.



Original source in Spanish