The rockets were launched from Syria
Israeli censorship and killing in Jerusalem’s Old City: a Palestinian protest against Israel’s unfair treatment of Palestinians during the night of Ramadan
Hundreds of worshippers barricaded themselves into a mosque on a hilltop in Jerusalem’s Old City during the night to protest against what they consider to be an unfair treatment by Israel. Israeli police attempts toevict worshipers locked in a mosque overnight with weapons and materials spiraled into riots in the holy site earlier this week.
Police said they were working to clear men who had barricaded themselves inside the compound midweek, flinging fireworks and rocks, while social media videos of the incursions showed Israeli officers in riot gear chasing and using clubs to beat Palestinians inside the mosque. The Palestinians gathered there in the middle of the night, after a fringe fundamentalist Jewish group published a call to hold a Passover goat sacrifice.
In response to those shocking images of violence, dozens of missiles were fired from southern Lebanon and the Gaza Strip against Israeli targets, while Israeli retaliated with assaults on civilians in the occupied West Bank and Tel Aviv. 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.
On Saturday, it was announced that Palestinians would not be allowed to enter Israel from the West Bank and would have to go to Palestine for prayers and work.
The moves come at a time of heightened religious fervor – with Ramadan coinciding with Passover and Easter celebrations. Jerusalem’s Old City is home to key Jewish, Muslim and Christian holy sites and has been teeming with visitors from all over the world.
Israeli security forces killed two Palestinians and an Italian tourist in the occupied Golan Heights during the Six Day War, according to the Israeli Defense Forces
At a moment when political pressure on Benjamin Netanyahu is high, protesters are continuing with their weekly rally and are canceling the march they were planning on taking against the proposed legislation. One protest leader told NPR that it was an intensive time for national police forces, that’s why the decision was made.
Two sisters were shot to death in a car as they traveled through the West Bank. The mother was 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. Israeli police killed the driver because they said he reached for an object that looked like a gun, but later admitted it was not a gun. His family says that he did not intend to assault anyone.
Netanyahu’s government was calling up reserve forces for the paramilitary border force, in order to deal with what he termed terror attacks.
One landed in the southern Golan Heights, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said. The IDF said it did not need to intercept the rockets, according to a post on Twitter.
During the Six Day War in 1967, Israel seized the Golan Heights from Syria and in 1981 it was annexed. The Golan Heights are considered occupied territory under international law and UN Security Council resolutions.
The Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) killed a young Palestinian in the occupied West Bank on Saturday night, according to the Palestinian Authority Ministry of Health.
“Following routine activity, multiple suspects hurled an explosive device towards IDF soldiers at town of Azzun,” the IDF said in a statement. Soldiers responded “with live ammunition towards them” and a person was hit, the statement added. The statement said that no IDF soldiers were injured.
The victim, an Italian tourist, was named by Israeli and Italian authorities as Alessandro Parini. The media in Italy identified him as a 35-year-old lawyer. An Israeli authorities described the incident as a terror attack.
The Palestinian Authority in Damascus explains the attacks on a militant group and in a West Bank city of Nablus
The Israeli military said it attacked targets in Syria early on Sunday after six rockets were launched from the Syrian territory towards Israel.
According to a report from Lebanon’s Al-Mayadeen TV, a group in Damascus claimed responsibility for launching the missiles.
The report quoted Al-Quds Brigade, a militia different than the larger Palestinian Islamic Jihad’s armed wing with a similar name, as saying it fired the rockets to retaliate for the police raid on Al-Aqsa Mosque.
An adviser to President Bashar Assad described the rocket strikes as part of the previous, present and continuing response to the brutal enemy.
His death came at a time of unusually heightened violence in the West Bank. Over 90 Palestinians. And. A tally by The Associated Press shows that at least half of the people who have been killed by Israeli fire this year are affiliated with militant groups.
In a separate incident in the northern West Bank city of Nablus late Saturday, a leader of a local independent armed group known as the Lion’s Den claimed the group executed an alleged Israeli collaborator who had tipped off the Israeli military to the locations and movements of the group’s members. Israeli security forces have targeted and killed several of the group’s key members in recent months.
Thousands of Jews are expected to be at the Western Wall on Sunday for the Passover priestly blessing and police were predicted to deploy over 2,000 in Jerusalem. The Western Wall is the holiest place for Jews in the country and sits next to the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound where large crowds gather each day for prayers.
The police chief met with his commanders on Saturday to have a security assessment. He said the Hamas militant group was trying to cause bloodshed before the priestly blessing on Sunday by making false claims of Jews planning to storm the mosque.
“We will allow the freedom of worship and we will allow the arrival of Muslims to pray,” he said, adding that police “will act with determination and sensitivity” to ensure that all faiths can celebrate safely.
