Rocket attacks on Israel escalated Thursday, with the north of the country targeted from Lebanon and the south from the Gaza Strip after Israeli fighter jets hit Hamas weapons-manufacturing and storage sites.
Tensions have been building with the week-long Jewish Passover holiday, overlapping with the holy Muslim month of Ramadan. Late Wednesday, renewed clashes broke out between Israeli police and Palestinians inside the Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem, a flashpoint.
A rocket fired into northern Israel from Lebanese territory was successfully intercepted, according to the Israeli army, while the state-run Lebanese news agency said Israel struck back. Sirens sounded in the towns of Shlomi and Moshav Betzet and in the Galilee region. Two people in Galilee were injured, including a man hit by shrapnel and a woman as she ran to a shelter, Israeli medical aid society Magen David Adom said.
Hezbollah, an ally of Iran, as well as Palestinian groups, have been behind past rocket attacks from Lebanon. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will assess the situation with security chiefs, his office said.
Earlier, seven surface-to-air rockets exploded in mid-air without being intercepted after being launched from Gaza toward southern Israel and the Gaza Strip Sea, the Israeli military said.
Israeli police used force to remove people at Al-Aqsa, which lies in a hillside spot sacred for both Muslims and Jews and has sparked conflict in the past, for the second time Wednesday. They said they intervened in the compound after mostly masked men tried to barricade themselves inside, throwing stones and fireworks.
The current spate of violence doesn’t look likely to lead to a war with Hamas such as the 11-day fighting that took place in May 2021 because the Palestinian group that controls Gaza is focused on more limited confrontation this time, said Nasser Khdour, an expert on Israeli-Palestinian issues.
“Hamas appears to increasingly favor a subtle yet effective approach, escalating violence in the West Bank gradually to both challenge Israel and undermine the Palestinian Authority,” he said in a commentary published by the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. “This tactic appears far more attractive than launching an all-out war via the Gaza front, whose costs might outweigh the potential benefits.”
Rockets Wednesday flew toward the Israeli city of Sderot and were shot down by Israel. Hamas denounced the Israeli police action at Al-Aqsa, having earlier urged Palestinians to go to the holy site and barricade themselves in to prevent Jews who might seek to enter as part of Passover observance. Two rockets were also fired from Gaza toward Israel in the evening, one that failed and the other that fell near the border fence, the Israeli military said.
The U.S. has urged restraint. “Violence has no place in a holy site and during a holy season,” the U.S. Office of Palestinian Affairs said in a statement Wednesday, adding it was “alarmed by the shocking scenes in Al Aqsa Mosque and rockets launched from Gaza toward Israel.”
The Palestinian authority, which runs the West Bank, also condemned Israel’s police action. The new right-wing Israeli government includes ministers who favor greater Jewish presence atop the holy site.
The fresh confrontation coincides with an escalation in Israel’s shadow war with its main regional enemy Iran, which supports militant groups committed to Israel’s destruction like Hezbollah in neighboring Lebanon and Islamic Jihad in the Palestinian territories.
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(With assistance from Fadwa Hodali and Dana Khraiche.)
