Israel responded with fighter jets following the most sustained barrage of rockets launched at it since 2006, bombing Hamas sites in the Gaza Strip as the confluence of Ramadan, Passover and Easter raised fears of further clashes in and around Jerusalem holy sites.
(Bloomberg) — Israel responded with fighter jets following the most sustained barrage of rockets launched at it since 2006, bombing Hamas sites in the Gaza Strip as the confluence of Ramadan, Passover and Easter raised fears of further clashes in and around Jerusalem holy sites.
The tit-for-tat between Israel and Palestinian Islamist groups seemed to reach an uneasy halt by mid-morning Friday, with the army telling Israeli civilians in the south that they no longer needed to be near shelters. Still, Israel’s army has reinforced its presence along both northern and southern borders and called up air force and air defense reservists. The chief of police told all Israelis licensed to carry weapons to do so.
Moreover, a shooting attack on three Israeli women driving in the occupied West Bank killed two young adult sisters and left their mother critically injured. Hamas issued a statement in Gaza praising that attack as a “heroic operation.”
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who on Thursday night ordered hits on Hamas sites in Gaza and southern Lebanon after consultations with his security chiefs, was due to hold another meeting after those deaths. He’s under intense pressure from right-wing members of his coalition to respond forcefully, although the security establishment seems to be urging calm.
“I don’t think any of the sides wish to turn this into a major confrontation,” said Gadi Zohar, a former head of counter-terrorism for Israel’s military intelligence. “It will come later, at some point.”
The airstrikes on Gaza, which targeted underground tunnels and sites used for weapons production, were ordered following a late-night emergency meeting of Netanyahu’s security cabinet.
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His office said a series of decisions had been made “in response to the firing at the citizens of Israel in both the north and the south.” Netanyahu vowed to exact “a heavy price.”
The rockets injured two Israelis in the north and hit a house in the south. Israel’s retaliatory strikes on Gaza caused property damage, including to a children’s hospital, but no injuries, according to Hamas officials. Islamic Jihad, a smaller group, claimed responsibility for the rockets from Lebanon.
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The Israeli military has said repeatedly it isn’t seeking more confrontation. “Quiet will be answered with quiet,” military spokesman Lt. Col. Richard Hecht said at a briefing on Friday. “Nobody wants an escalation right now.”
The fighting broke out after confrontations that began at the Al Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem in the midst of the overlap between the holy Muslim month of Ramadan and the Jewish feast of Passover. Young men barricaded themselves into a prayer room at Al Aqsa with crude weapons, Israeli police reported on Wednesday night. The police went in to clear them out, triggering outrage from Hamas, which launched rockets.
Friday noon prayers at Al Aqsa, attended by tens of thousands, came and went without major incident. Israeli police presence around the holy site was heavy from early morning.
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The US expressed deep concern about the rising violence and called on all sides to de-escalate.
Hecht, the Israeli military spokesman, said there were numerous messages seeking calm being passed among a range of governments and organizations, including the Egyptians. A spokesman for Unifil, a UN force on the southern Lebanon border, said Israel gave the force a warning with details before striking. He added that he’s in touch with both Lebanese and Israeli forces and neither wants war.
Although the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas rules in Gaza, it also has a strong presence in Palestinian refugee camps in southern Lebanon, an area largely overseen by the group Hezbollah.
Hamas and Hezbollah are supported by Iran, Israel’s main enemy, and these battles appear part of an ongoing shadow war between them.
In Gaza on Friday, the third week of Ramadan, streets were mostly empty of traffic and pedestrians, with residents leaving home only for food, medicine or emergencies. The buzz of Israeli reconnaissance drones and fighter jets were heard round the clock along the coastal enclave ruled by Hamas since 2007.
–With assistance from Saud Abu Ramadan.
(Updates throughout with aftermath of West Bank shooting deaths.)
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