JERUSALEM — Ramadan prayers and Jewish Passover visits on the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound handed with out incident on Sunday, after days of stress on the flashpoint Jerusalem web site which led to cross-border exchanges of fireside.
Small teams of Jewish guests beneath heavy police guard walked by the mosque compound, recognized in Judaism as Temple Mount, as hundreds of worshippers gathered for the Passover vacation’s particular “Priestly Blessing” on the Western Wall under.
The Al-Aqsa compound—sacred to Muslims and Jews—has been on the middle of a safety disaster set off final week when Israeli police raided the mosque to dislodge what they mentioned had been youths barricaded inside armed with rocks and fireworks.
Footage of the raid, displaying police beating worshippers, triggered a livid response throughout the Arab world, sparking rocket assaults on Israel by Palestinian factions that had been met with Israeli strikes on websites in Gaza, south Lebanon and Syria.
There had been no studies of casualties.
Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, chief of Lebanon’s armed Shi’ite motion Hezbollah, met with Palestinian Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh in Lebanon, the group mentioned on Sunday, and mentioned the Al-Aqsa occasions.
Israeli safety consultants have mentioned that Iran-backed Hezbollah seemingly gave its permission to Islamist Hamas to fireside the rockets from Lebanon.
“Our enemies were wrong when they thought that Israel’s citizens were not united in support for the IDF [Israel Defense Forces],” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu—who’s dealing with unprecedented protests at dwelling in opposition to judicial adjustments—mentioned in a press release.
In Gaza, Hazem Qassem, a Hamas spokesperson urged “all fronts to unite and confront the escalation by the arrogant [Israeli] occupation.”
Holiday closure
The Israeli army mentioned that in mild of the safety scenario, it might prolong a closure on the West Bank and Gaza till April 13, when Passover ends.
On Friday, two Israeli sisters from a settlement within the occupied West Bank had been killed when their automobile got here beneath hearth by suspected Palestinian gunmen. Hours later, an Italian vacationer was killed when a automobile pushed by a person from an Arab metropolis in Israel plowed into a gaggle in a shoreline park in Tel Aviv.
The funeral of the 2 sisters, who had twin Israeli and British nationality, is because of be held afterward Sunday.
After a yr of escalating Israeli-Palestinian violence, tensions are operating particularly excessive as Ramadan and Passover coincide, with a give attention to the Al-Aqsa compound in Jerusalem’s walled Old City. Clashes there between police and worshippers helped spark a 10-day Israel-Gaza struggle in 2021.
As in earlier years, the federal government is predicted to ban entry to the compound to non-Muslims for the final 10 days of Ramadan, which is predicted to finish on April 20 or 21, although far-right Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir has referred to as for the ban to not be imposed this yr. — Reuters
Source: www.gmanetwork.com
