There is a reason the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is getting worse

The Israeli-Palestine Agreement and a Times of Indignation: CNN’s ‘Sorry for Israel’s Expansion’

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The images of violence caused by Israeli strikes against the Gaza Strip and southern Lebanon sparked missiles to be fired at Israeli targets, as well as attacks on civilians in the West Bank and Tel Aviv, which left two British-Israeli settlers dead. The militant group Hamas has not claimed responsibility for either Friday attack, but instead praised them as valid retaliation for the prior behavior of Israeli police.

The number of rockets fired from Lebanon was the highest since 2006, but there were no reported deaths from the strikes in either Gaza, Israel or Lebanon.

Raids by Israeli police on the Al-Aqsa Mosque, the most holy Muslim site in Jerusalem, have triggered a spike in violence that continued to spiral in recent days, drawing several regional actors into a deadly back-and-forth.

The police behavior around the Al-Aqsa Mosque was reminiscent of other incidents that have caused unrest in the region. In the eyes of many Palestinians, such raids symbolize Israel’s growing expansion and intensifying occupation of predominantly Palestinian areas, with a hardline Jewish nationalist now serving as Israel’s security minister.

The country is deeply divided in the wake of mass protests against a controversial judicial reform, which only peaked last week after a pause was announced.

The eastern sector of Jerusalem is home to the al- Aqsa mosque, which most of the international community considers to be occupied by Israel. Israel considers both East and West Jerusalem to be part of its eternal capital.

The Muslim and Christian holy sites are governed by an agreement between Israel and Jordan. Mairav Zonszein, a senior analyst on Israel-Palestine at the International Crisis Group, says the agreement’s specifics are constantly changing.

The UN Special Rapporteur on the occupied Palestinian Territories said that Israeli police have raided the area for many years with varying frequencies and intensity.

She says that this time, it takes place in a climate of record levels of violence between Israelis and Palestinians and inflammatory rhetoric towards Palestinians by some of the Israeli government’s far-right ministers.

Israeli restrictions to overnight Muslim prayer at the al-Aqsa mosque after the Israeli-Jerusalem violent riot on Wednesday

Calls for Muslims to stay in the mosque overnight increased after Jewish extremist groups had encouraged Jews to go up to the compound and sacrifice goats as part of ancient Passover ritual that is no longer practiced today.

Non-Muslims are not allowed to pray at the Temple Mount under the current status-quo agreement, which is why they were intended to create a violent riot. Some members of the current Israeli government have campaigned to allow Jewish prayer there.

Videos were shared on social media early on Wednesday showing Israeli police beating Muslim worshipers. Eyewitnesses told CNN the police also broke windows, smashed doors and fired stun grenades and rubber bullets.

While Israel’s jurisdiction over East Jerusalem isn’t recognized by international law, and Israeli entry into the al-Aqsa mosque is forbidden by the status quo agreement, it has repeatedly sought to prohibit overnight Muslim prayers there.

According to Zonszein, Israel claims they have an understanding with the Jordanian custodians on not staying overnight, but they haven’t been made public and Palestinians might not have agreed to them.

It has been used as a tool in conflict over the years. Israel restricted it when it found it to be a way for Palestinians to get in touch with Jewish Israelis.

While it is customary to mainly do so in the last ten days of Ramadan, itikaf can be practiced at any time of the year and is not restricted to the holy month, said Sheikh Ikrima Sabri, Imam of al-Aqsa mosque and former Grand Mufti of Jerusalem.

Following Wednesday’s violence, the Waqf – the Jordan-appointed body that manages Jerusalem’s Muslim holy sites – said that al-Aqsa mosque “did not and will not close its doors” to those performing itikaf prayers throughout Ramadan, at night or during the day. Sabri said that prayer timings are solely the prerogative of the Muslims authorities at the site.

Israel’s strikes on both Gaza and Lebanon are thus far seen to be relatively restrained compared to its response in 2021 and previous years, which saw much more aggressive rocket salvos targeting Jerusalem.

While security threats have traditionally unified Israelis and masked domestic divisions, some say too great an escalation could trigger the opposite effect for the Israeli government.

Chuck Freilich, a senior fellow at the Institute for National Security Studies (INSS) in Israel, said that when the flag phenomenon begins, there is always a supportive public.

Netanyahu has generally been known to be cautious in use of military force, but his response came amid domestic upheaval, strained relations with the US and Gulf allies, and he was also concerned about his use of military force.

“The hope is that (the government) can de-escalate it, but I am not sure they will succeed,” he said, adding that it may be in the interest of Hamas and Lebanon’s Hezbollah — both backed by Israel’s longtime foe Iran — to “take advantage of Israel’s disarray.”

On Saturday, Israel announced it would extend a closure on Palestinians entering Israel from the West Bank, and would also suspend special entry permits for Palestinians in Gaza to visit Israel for Ramadan prayers and for work.

At a moment of maximum political pressure on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who has faced weeks of unrelenting criticism for his coalition government’s plans to weaken the country’s judiciary, protesters are continuing their weekly rally but have agreed to cancel a march against the proposed legislation. One protest leader told NPR the decision had been taken because it was an ” intensive time” for national police forces.

Israeli security forces in Tel Aviv are calling for a ceasefire against terror attacks: The case of the Palestinian Israeli citizen rammed into a crowd

On Friday, two British-Israeli sisters were shot to death in a car as they travelled through the occupied West Bank. Their mother was severely wounded and was hospitalized.

Later in the day, a Palestinian Israeli citizen from a village close to Tel Aviv rammed his car into ranks of tourists walking along the city’s boardwalk, leaving several injured and an Italian man dead. The driver was shot and killed by the Israeli police after they said he reached for an object that looked like a gun. His family deny that he intended to carry out any kind of assault.

The government was calling up reserve forces to fight terror attacks, in order to fight them, Netanyahu said.