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Armed teams in Lebanon fired a heavy barrage of rockets towards Israel on Thursday in an uncommon and main escalation that the Israeli army blamed on militias run by Palestinian exiles in Lebanon.
The assault seemed to be in response to an Israeli police raid on a mosque early Wednesday at a delicate holy website in Jerusalem. The raid prompted widespread anger amongst Palestinians and an earlier burst of rocket fireplace from the Gaza Strip.
The police motion and the rocket strike got here as Jews had been celebrating the vacation of Passover and Muslims had been in the course of the holy fasting month of Ramadan.
Army consultants mentioned the barrage on Thursday was the heaviest in northern Israel since 2006, when Israel and Hezbollah final fought a full-scale warfare. Israel didn’t retaliate instantly, however Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met with senior ministers and army leaders to debate learn how to reply.
Amid fears of a wider conflagration, municipal council leaders throughout Israel introduced that they had been opening public bomb shelters.
“Our enemies should not misjudge us,” Mr. Netanyahu mentioned in a video assertion earlier than holding an emergency cupboard assembly later within the evening. He mentioned, “We are going to strike our enemies and they’re going to pay a worth for each act of aggression.”
A minimum of 34 rockets had been fired within the assault, of which 25 had been intercepted by Israeli air-defense techniques and 6 landed in Israeli territory, in accordance with the Israeli army. A number of hours later, Lebanese media later reported a brief second burst over northeastern Israel.
A New Surge of Israeli-Palestinian Violence
A current spasm of violence in Israel and the West Financial institution has stoked fears that tensions could additional escalate.
A spokesman for the Israeli army mentioned it suspected that branches of Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad, the 2 essential militias in Gaza that even have a presence in Lebanon, had been concerned within the rocket fireplace from Lebanon. The Israeli army additionally mentioned it believed that the militias had acted with the information of Hezbollah, the militia and political motion that dominates southern Lebanon.
Not one of the teams — all that are backed by Iran — has claimed duty for the barrage. A spokesman for Hamas declined to remark, a spokesman for Islamic Jihad didn’t reply to a request for remark, whereas a media outlet run by Hezbollah mentioned the supply of the rockets was unknown.
The Lebanese prime minister, Najib Mikati, whose authorities has solely restricted affect over southern Lebanon, condemned the rocket fireplace.
Hamas’s chief, Ismail Haniyeh, visited Lebanon this week, including to hypothesis in regards to the group’s involvement within the rocket fireplace. After the assault Thursday, its spokesmen continued to sentence the Israeli raid on Wednesday on the Aqsa mosque compound, identified to Jews as Temple Mount.
The assault from Lebanon compounded an already unstable safety scenario within the area. It got here in opposition to a backdrop of rising tensions in Jerusalem, unusually excessive violence within the occupied West Financial institution, and divisions throughout the Israeli army over a contentious plan by the Israeli authorities to overtake the nation’s judiciary.
It additionally adopted weeks of escalation alongside the Israel-Lebanon border.
In an unusually brazen operation final month, a person who officers say was doubtless linked to Hezbollah crossed illegally from Lebanon to Israel and planted a bomb beside an Israeli freeway. The assault severely injured an Israeli citizen.
The barrage on Thursday took Israelis abruptly.
Israel has an extended historical past of battle with Lebanese teams, occupying southern Lebanon between 1982 and 2000, and briefly invading once more throughout the 2006 warfare. Since 2006, nonetheless, whereas armed teams have sometimes fired rockets from Lebanon into Israel, they’ve been in a lot smaller bursts and normally away from cities and cities.
Two of the rockets fired Thursday landed in built-up areas, sending up giant plumes of smoke. The reverberations and shrapnel shattered a number of home windows, and a rocket hit a warehouse. A number of folks inside Israel had been injured, together with one individual hit by shrapnel, in accordance with an emergency medical group, Magen David Adom.
A U.N. peacekeeping drive that operates alongside the border, the United Nations Interim Pressure In Lebanon, described the scenario as “extraordinarily critical” and mentioned it was in contact with the authorities in each international locations.
The Israeli army denied Lebanese stories that Israel had already responded with cross-border artillery fireplace.
Israel commonly strikes Hezbollah-linked targets in Syria, the place Hezbollah forces take part within the Syrian warfare. However confrontations on the Israeli-Lebanese border had been saved in relative test over the previous decade.
Fears of a bigger battle grew in current weeks after the roadside bombing.
Hezbollah’s chief, Hassan Nasrallah, lately mentioned that he believed Israel was on the breaking point, referring to the home political disaster over the proposed judicial overhaul that has exacerbated longstanding divisions inside Israeli society.
The judicial disaster led Mr. Netanyahu to fireside his protection minister, Yoav Gallant — at the very least nominally — after the minister known as for a halt to the overhaul due to the anger it had brought on inside elements of the armed forces, endangering Israel’s army readiness. However Mr. Netanyahu by no means despatched Mr. Gallant a letter formally confirming his dismissal, that means that he stays within the submit.
“As we’ve all the time predicted, nice Israel has fallen,” Mr. Nasrallah mentioned in a speech final month. “There is no such thing as a belief within the military, political leaders or army leaders.”
However Mr. Netanyahu mentioned on Thursday evening that Israelis remained united within the face of exterior enemies. “The inner argument inside Israel is not going to stop us from appearing in opposition to them in each place and at any required time,” he mentioned.
Folks near Hezbollah mentioned the group had additionally been angered by the Israeli raid on the Aqsa mosque, by which greater than 350 Palestinians had been arrested.
The Israeli police mentioned it was a vital operation to stop troublemakers from stopping Jewish guests from getting into the location. Muslims noticed it as an unjustifiable assault on Muslim worshipers throughout the holiest month in Islam.
“Aqsa is a purple line for all Muslims,” Kassem Kassir, a political analyst near Hezbollah, mentioned. “The rocket assault is a message to Israel that we gained’t be silent about all this escalation.” And he provided a warning: “If the escalation continues, the 20 rockets may change into 1,000 within the coming days.”
Israeli army consultants mentioned that it was unclear when, the place or how Israel may reply.
In 2006, warfare broke out after Hezbollah ambushed an Israeli border patrol, killing and capturing various troopers. However the incident on Thursday brought on no lack of life, that means that Israel won’t really feel it essential to retaliate on Thursday, mentioned Amos Yadlin, a former Israeli common who oversaw army intelligence throughout the 2006 warfare.
“No person was killed, no person was kidnapped, so that you don’t should react instantly,” Mr. Yadlin mentioned.
Israel may additionally select to retaliate in opposition to Hamas in Gaza as an alternative of Lebanon, Basic Yadlin mentioned.
Reporting was contributed by Hiba Yazbek in Jerusalem; Hwaida Saad in Beirut, Lebanon; Gabby Sobelman in Rehovot, Israel; and Farnaz Fassihi in New York.
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