By Isabel Debre and Sam McNeil | Related Press
JERUSALEM — Militants in Lebanon fired a heavy barrage of rockets at Israel on Thursday, the Israeli army mentioned, forcing folks throughout Israel’s northern frontier into bomb shelters, wounding at the very least two folks and ratcheting up regional tensions a day after Israeli police raided Jerusalem’s most delicate holy website.
Israel’s army mentioned 34 rockets had been fired throughout the border, and that 25 have been shot down by its Iron Dome aerial protection system. One other 5 rockets struck Israeli territory and the remainder of the strikes have been being investigated, safety forces added. The military’s response would come after “a situational evaluation” and assembly by Israel’s Safety Cupboard later Thursday, it mentioned.
The unusually massive salvo of rockets raised fears of a wider conflagration, as Israel’s bitter enemy, the Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah, holds sway over a lot of southern Lebanon. Over the previous two days, tensions have skyrocketed on the sacred compound house to the Al-Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem and alongside Israel’s tense border with Gaza.
In a briefing with reporters, Lt. Col. Richard Hecht, an Israeli army spokesman, mentioned the military drew a transparent connection between the rocket hearth and the latest unrest in Jerusalem.
“It’s a Palestinian-oriented occasion,” he mentioned, including that both the Hamas or Islamic Jihad militant teams could possibly be concerned. However he mentioned the military believed that Hezbollah and the Lebanese authorities have been conscious of what occurred and likewise held accountability. He declined to say how Israel would possibly reply, saying there have been “all kinds of eventualities.”
Earlier on Thursday and late Wednesday evening, Palestinian militants within the Gaza Strip fired a number of rockets towards Israel in protest over the Israeli police storming into the Al-Aqsa Mosque within the coronary heart of Jerusalem’s Outdated Metropolis with tear gasoline and stun grenades. On Thursday, Hezbollah condemned Israel’s storming of Al-Aqsa, calling it “a flagrant violation”. The shrine — the third-holiest website in Islam — stands on a hilltop revered by Jews because the Temple Mount, the holiest website in Judaism.
No faction in Lebanon claimed accountability for the salvo of rockets, which set off air raid sirens throughout the nation’s north. A Lebanese safety official, who spoke on the situation of anonymity as a result of he was not licensed to talk to media, mentioned the nation’s safety forces believed the rockets have been launched by a Lebanon-based Palestinian militant group, not by Hezbollah militants. The official mentioned there have been no casualties on the Lebanese facet.
A spokesperson for Hezbollah didn't reply to a request for remark. Each Israel and Hezbollah have prevented an all-out battle since their 34-day conflict in 2006 ended with a draw.
Tensions have simmered alongside the Lebanese border as Israel seems to have ratcheted up its shadow conflict towards Iranian-linked targets in Syria, one other shut ally of Iran, Israel’s archenemy within the area. Suspected Israeli airstrikes in Syria in latest weeks have killed two Iranian army advisers and quickly put the nation’s two largest airports out of service. Hecht mentioned Thursday’s rocket hearth was not believed to be linked to occasions in Syria.
In Washington, Principal Deputy State Division spokesman Vedant Patel mentioned “Israel has respectable safety issues and has each proper to defend themselves. ”
However he additionally urged calm in Jerusalem. “We emphasize the significance of upholding the historic establishment on the holy websites in Jerusalem and any unilateral motion that jeopardizes the established order to us is unacceptable,” he mentioned.
In Israel, Thursday’s rocket hearth from Lebanon despatched shrapnel flying that wounded at the very least two folks, in line with the Galilee Medical Middle. They included a 19-year-old man who was struck whereas driving within the Arab village of Fassouta and a 26-year-old hit whereas using a bike. Israeli police mentioned a bomb squad eliminated numerous fragments from areas within the north.
Movies on social media confirmed large plumes of darkish smoke billowing from Israel’s northern hills and streaks by way of the sky left by the Iron Dome system. Extensively circulated photographs confirmed shrapnel that punched a gap in a road within the northern Israeli city of Shlomi and at the very least one constructing with its home windows blown out.
Lebanon’s state-run Nationwide Information Company, together with Lebanese officers, reported that Israeli tanks alongside the border fired shells towards southern Lebanese cities close to the Rashidiyeh Palestinian refugee camp in response to the rocket hearth. Hecht, the military spokesman, denied the declare and mentioned there had been no Israeli hearth.
The Lebanese military mentioned in an announcement that it discovered missile launchers and “numerous rockets meant for launch” within the neighborhood of the cities of Zibqin and Qalila in south Lebanon and was working to dismantle them.
The Palestinian militant group Islamic Jihad hailed the rockets as “a heroic operation towards the Israeli crimes within the Al-Aqsa Mosque.” The chief of the Palestinian Hamas group that guidelines Gaza, Ismail Haniyeh, had arrived in Beirut on Wednesday, Lebanese state media reported.
In Jerusalem, tensions ran excessive after two nights of unrest. Conflicting claims over the sacred compound house to the Al-Aqsa Mosque have spiraled into violence previously, together with a bloody 11-day conflict in 2021 between Israel and Hamas.
For the previous two nights — a unstable time throughout which the Muslim holy month of Ramadan and the Jewish vacation of Passover overlap — Palestinians have barricaded themselves within the mosque with stones and firecrackers. Worshippers have been demanding the proper to wish in a single day contained in the mosque — which authorities usually solely allow over the last 10 days of the monthlong vacation. Additionally they have stayed within the mosque in protest over threats by spiritual Jews to hold out a ritual animal slaughter on the sacred website for Passover.
Israel bars ritual slaughter on the positioning, however calls by Jewish extremists to revive the apply, together with affords of money rewards to anybody who even makes an attempt to deliver an animal into the compound, have amplified fears amongst Muslims that Israel is plotting to take over the positioning.
On Wednesday evening, Israeli police raided the mosque, firing stun grenades and rubber bullets to evict worshippers who had locked the doorways of the constructing. Palestinians hurled stones at officers. After just a few hours of scuffles that left a path of injury, police managed to pull everybody out of the compound. On Tuesday evening, the identical tensions ended with police fiercely beating Palestinians and arresting over 400 folks. Israeli authorities management entry to the realm however the compound is run by Islamic and Jordanian officers.
The violence on the website has resonated throughout the area, with condemnations pouring in from Muslim leaders.
Related Press writers Abby Sewell and Bassem Mroue in Beirut, Lebanon, and Ellen Knickmeyer in Washington, contributed to this report.