Israel shelled infrastructure belonging to the Palestinian Hamas movement in the Gaza Strip on Thursday, in the latest episode of a growing escalation of violence despite multiple calls for restraint and calm.
The intervention of the Israeli police on Wednesday morning in the Al Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem, a sacred place for Islam, shook the hornet’s nest of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, coinciding with the Muslim Ramadan and Jewish Passover holidays.
On Thursday, the Israeli army reported the launch of 34 rockets from Lebanon, in the largest escalation since 2006 on the border between these two countries, which are technically still at war after several conflicts.
“We will hit our enemies and we will make them pay the price for each aggression,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said after this attack.
Shortly after, AFP journalists heard explosions in the Gaza Strip, a territory controlled by Hamas and under a strict Israeli blockade since 2007.
The Israeli army stated in a statement that it had bombarded two tunnels and “two weapons production sites” belonging to this group “in response to Hamas security breaches in recent days.”
In another statement, Hamas warned that Israel was “responsible for this aggression and its consequences” and called on all Palestinian groups to unite against “the occupation.”
The Israeli military command explained that the anti-aircraft defenses had intercepted 25 of the rockets launched from Lebanon and that at least five fell on its territory.
His spokesman, Lt. Col. Richard Hecht, attributed the action to Palestinian groups.
“We know for sure that it is Palestinian fire,” he told reporters. “It could be Hamas, it could be Islamic Jihad. We are still trying to come to a final conclusion,” he said.
“We assume that Hezbollah knew about this and Lebanon also bears some responsibility. We are also investigating whether Iran is involved,” he added.
– Lebanon denies escalation –
Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati condemned the attack and denied “any escalation from his territory.”
The last rocket fire from Lebanon into Israel dated back to April 2022, but Thursday’s incident marks the biggest escalation since the 2006 war against the powerful pro-Iranian Lebanese movement Hezbollah.
The United Nations Interim Force (UNIFIL), which guards the border between the two countries to guarantee the ceasefire, warned that the situation is “extremely serious” and called for “containment to avoid further escalation.”
Emergency services reported a man slightly injured by shrapnel and a woman injured as she ran to a shelter in the attack.
“I heard the siren, I heard the ‘boom’. I was at home, it was very scary,” Shlomi Naaman, a 46-year-old resident of the northern Israeli town of Shlomi, told AFP.
Lebanon’s National Information Agency noted that Israeli artillery fired “several shells from their positions on the border” at two towns in southern Lebanon.
Although the agency did not report casualties, it specified that the bombings occurred in response to the launch of “several Katyusha-type rockets” against Israel.
An Israeli Army spokesman denied these actions.
– Hamas calls for ‘join ranks’ –
These episodes occur after the violent eviction of Palestinian worshipers at the Al Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem, which left 350 detainees, according to the police, and 37 injured, according to the Red Crescent.
The temple is located in the Esplanade of the Mosques, the third holy place of Islam and located in turn in East Jerusalem, the Palestinian sector of the city occupied and annexed by Israel since 1967.
The complex is erected on top of the Temple Mount, considered the holiest place in Judaism.
Israel received numerous international condemnations, including from the UN, whose Secretary General António Guterres once again called on “all actors” for “maximum restraint”.
The United States on Thursday condemned the rocket fire and said Israel had the “legitimate right” to defend itself, according to State Department spokesman Vedant Patel.
The Iranian-backed Lebanese armed movement Hezbollah had said on Thursday it would back “all measures” the groups take against Israel.
A sworn enemy of Israel, Hezbollah has good relations with Hamas and Islamic Jihad.
Hamas leader Ismail Haniya, who arrived in Lebanon yesterday for a visit, said the Palestinians “will not sit idly by” in the face of Israeli “aggressions.”
He also called on “all Palestinian organizations to join ranks and intensify their resistance against the occupation” by Israel.