JERUSALEM (AP) – Israel unleashed a rare airstrike in Lebanon, bombing the Gaza Strip on Friday. The escalation sparked fears of a wider conflict after days of violence around Jerusalem’s most sensitive holy sites.
There were signs later in the day that both sides were trying to contain hostilities. Fighting on Israel’s northern and southern borders subsided after sunrise, and midday prayers at Jerusalem’s Al-Aqsa Mosque were peaceful. But hours later, a Palestinian shooting in the Israeli-occupied West Bank killed two of her women near an Israeli settlement.
The early morning Israeli offensive followed an unusually large barrage of rockets fired at Israel from southern Lebanon – the worst since Israel’s war with Lebanese Hezbollah fighters in 2006, analysts say. referred to as transnational violence. Riots erupted after Israeli police raided Jerusalem’s al-Aqsa mosque earlier in the week, sparking unrest in the contested capital and outrage across the Arab world.
A flock of sheep was killed when an Israeli missile hit a field near the Palestinian refugee camp in Rashidie, according to an Associated Press photographer. Other airstrikes hit bridges and transformers in the nearby town of Maaliya, damaging the irrigation system that supplies water to the orchards.
In the Gaza Strip, Israeli forces have allegedly bombed weapons factories and underground tunnels of Hamas, the militant group that controls the Palestinian enclave. According to the Palestinian Ministry of Health, local residents inspected the damage caused by the Israeli attack, including a children’s hospital in Gaza City. Police did not comment on earlier beatings but said security forces entered the sacred compound after prayers in response to a “masked suspect” who threw stones at officers at one of the gates.Israel Authorities control access to the area, but the site is controlled by Islamic and Jordanian authorities.
The unrest comes at a sensitive time for Jerusalem’s Old City, which was flooded with pilgrims from all over the world on Friday. Celebrating the week-long Passover, Muslims prayed and fasted for Ramadan.
The current wave of violence began Wednesday after Israeli police raided the Al-Aqsa Mosque for his second time. This led to a significant and unusual escalation, with rocket fire from Gaza on Thursday and a barrage from southern Lebanon and Israeli retaliation.
Lebanon’s foreign ministry said on Friday it had directed the country’s mandate to the United Nations in New York to lodge a complaint with the UN Security Council over “deliberate bombing and aggression by Israel” in the south.
Even as the tense calm along the Lebanese-Gaza border subsided, the West Bank remained volatile. Palestinian health officials have reported the deadliest number of deaths for Palestinians in 20 years at the beginning of 2023, with violence reaching new heights in recent months.
Since the beginning of the year, nearly 90 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli artillery fire in the West Bank, according to an Associated Press tally. Meanwhile, Palestinian attacks on Israelis killed him 16 people, one of whom was a civilian. Israel says most of the Palestinian victims were militants. But young people who threw stones in protest at the police crackdown and people who were not involved in the clashes were also killed.
