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CNN: Hundreds of rockets fired at Israel amid deadly IDF airstrikes in Gaza

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CNN: Hundreds of rockets fired at Israel amid deadly IDF airstrikes in Gaza

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Israel's army and Palestinian militants exchanged heavy cross-border fire on Wednesday, with hundreds of rockets launched from Gaza towards Israel after the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) carried out deadly strikes on what it says are Islamic Jihad organization targets along the strip.

The latest violence came after Israeli military airstrikes earlier in the week killed three leaders of the Palestinian militant group and 10 other Palestinian men, women and children in Gaza and led to threats of retaliation.

In a new update early Thursday, the IDF said it had targeted another Islamic Jihad commander who was a "central figure" in the Palestinian militant group.

"We just targeted Ali Ghali, the commander of Islamic Jihad's Rocket Launching Force, as well as two other Islamic Jihad operatives in Gaza," the IDF said in a tweet, adding that Ghali was "responsible for the recent rocket barrages launched against Israel."

Islamic Jihad confirmed Ghali was killed early Thursday, saying he was in charge of the al Quds Brigades missile unit.

The Ministry of Health in Gaza said 25 people have been killed and 76 injured since airstrikes started on Tuesday. Among the casualties, 15 died Tuesday, seven Wednesday and three Thursday, according to the ministry.

Israel has been bombarding Islamic Jihad's operatives and infrastructure, using unmanned drones for surveillance as it monitors militant preparations to propel rockets, IDF chief spokesman Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari said Wednesday.

Hamas, the Palestinian militant movement that runs Gaza, issued a statement Wednesday strongly suggesting that its forces were releasing rockets toward Israel, shortly after the IDF said firmly it believed Hamas was not doing so.

"The Palestinian resistance with all its factions, led by the Nasser Salah al-Din Brigades, is participating now in a unified manner by teaching the enemy a lesson that it will not forget and confirming that Palestinian blood is not cheap," said the statement, issued by Muhammad al-Buraim, an official in the joint resistance committees in Palestine.

The statement appeared designed to reject an assertion by IDF chief spokesman Hagari that the IDF saw only Islamic Jihad, not Hamas, firing rockets.

More than 500 rockets were fired from Gaza toward Israel in the recent barrage, according to the IDF, as of 6 a.m. local time Thursday. Of those, 154 were intercepted by Israeli missile defenses and 110 fell short, landing in Gaza.

In total, the IDF said 158 Islamic Jihad sites had been struck.

Civilians in Israel have been asked to act according to the special instructions posted on the National Emergency Portal.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other top officials Wednesday downplayed the idea that a ceasefire with Islamic Jihad was imminent, with Netanyahu saying: "The campaign is not over yet."

National Security Council chair Tzachi Hanegbi said that rumors of a ceasefire were "premature," while Defense Minister Yoav Gallant struck a slightly more optimistic note, saying: "I hope we'll bring it to an end soon, but we're ready for the option that it will be prolonged."

Over half a million Israelis were in or near shelters, the IDF spokesman Hagari said just after 2 p.m. local time (7 a.m. ET) on Wednesday.

Calls for restraint

International leaders have condemned the hostilities. The United Nations Secretary-General urged all parties to exercise "maximum restraint" over the escalation of violence in Gaza, a statement by Farhan Haq, deputy spokesperson for the Secretary-General, said on Wednesday.

"The Secretary-General condemns the civilian loss of life, including that of children and women, which he views as unacceptable and must stop immediately," the statement said.

"Israel must abide by its obligations under international humanitarian law, including the proportional use of force and taking all feasible precautions to spare civilians and civilian objects in the conduct of military operations. "

The statement added the Secretary-General also condemns the "indiscriminate launch" of rockets from Gaza into Israel, adding it "violates international humanitarian law and puts at risk both Palestinian and Israeli civilians."

Qatar has been engaged in "intensive and continuous calls" to stop Israel's "brutal aggression" on the Gaza Strip to avoid "more losses," the spokesperson for Qatar's Ministry of Foreign Affairs Majed Al-Ansari said in a statement on Wednesday.

Meanwhile, Egyptian state-affiliated XtraNews said there are "intensive efforts" to reach a ceasefire in Gaza, citing Egyptian sources, without clarifying which parties have been communicated with. The news was carried on Egyptian state newspaper's Al Ahram's website.

Hamas said in a statement that the head of its political bureau, Ismail Haniya, spoke with officials from Egypt, Qatar and the UN.

The Ministry of Health in Gaza said one person was killed in Wednesday's attack. It named him as Muhammad Yusuf Saleh Abu Ta'ima, 25, and said he was killed in the bombing east of Khan Younis, in the southern Gaza Strip.

A CNN producer in Gaza reported explosions in Khan Younis, Rafah and northern Gaza.

Shortly after, he saw at least six rockets fired from Gaza towards Israel. Sirens warning of incoming rockets sounded in the southern Israeli cities of Sderot and Ashkelon and the Lachish area, all near the Gaza Strip, the IDF said. Sirens later sounded in Tel Aviv, Israel's main city on the Mediterranean coast, warning of potential incoming rocket fire.

Several locations in Israel suffered direct hits by rockets from Gaza, authorities said, but there were no immediate reports of casualties. A rocket landed near buildings and caused extensive damage in Ashkelon, pictures distributed by Israel Fire and Rescue Authority showed. A building in Kibbutz Nir Am also was hit, and a rocket landed in the garden of a house in Sderot.

One of the three Islamic Jihad commanders killed on Tuesday was working on capabilities to launch rockets from the West Bank toward Israel, IDF chief spokesman Hagari said at the time.

Rockets have never been fired from the West Bank into Israel.

Islamic Jihad confirmed three of its commanders were killed in the overnight operation along with their wives and children.

The commanders killed were Jihad Shaker Al-Ghannam, secretary of the Military Council in the al Quds Brigades; Khalil Salah al Bahtini, commander of the Northern Region in the al Quds Brigades; and Ezzedine, one of the leaders of the military wing of the al Quds Brigades in the West Bank, the group said.

Hagari said the operation had been planned since last Tuesday, when Islamic Jihad fired more than 100 rockets toward Israel following the death of its former spokesman while on hunger strike in an Israeli prison.

But, the IDF did not have the "operational conditions" until overnight Tuesday.

The IDF launched a further strike on Tuesday, saying its air force targeted "a terrorist squad" belonging to Islamic Jihad in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip.

The Palestinian ministry of health in Gaza said two people were killed and two others injured in that attack east of Khan Younis, although they have yet to identify them, bringing the death toll in Gaza to 15 on Tuesday.

Gaza is one of the most densely packed places in the world, an isolated coastal enclave of almost 2 million people crammed into 140 square miles.

Governed by Hamas, the territory is largely cut off from the rest of the world by an Israeli blockade of Gaza's land, air and sea dating back to 2007. Egypt controls Gaza's southern border crossing, Rafah.

Israel has placed heavy restrictions on the freedom of civilian movement and controls the importation of basic goods into the narrow coastal strip.

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international relations and national security

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Hundreds of rockets fired at Israel amid deadly IDF airstrikes in Gaza | CNN

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Israel's army and Palestinian militants exchanged heavy cross-border fire on Wednesday, with hundreds of rockets launched from Gaza towards Israel after the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) carried out deadly strikes on what it says are Islamic Jihad organization targets along the strip.

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Al Jazeera Updated Blog: Rocket fire after Gaza bombed

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Al Jazeera Updated Blog: Rocket fire after Gaza bombed

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Palestinians fire barrage of rockets after Israel bombs Gaza

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Exchange of fire comes after Israeli attacks kill at least 16 people, including children, in besieged Gaza Strip.

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BBC:  Israel and Gaza militants in heaviest fighting for months

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BBC:  Israel and Gaza militants in heaviest fighting for months

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Israel says Palestinian militants in Gaza have fired more than 460 rockets at it, and that its military has hit over 130 militant targets in Gaza, in the heaviest fighting in nine months.

Six people were killed and 45 injured in Gaza, local medics say.

Several were hurt rushing to shelters in Israel, where most rockets have been intercepted or fell in open areas.

It comes a day after 15 Palestinians were killed in Israeli strikes on Gaza, including three Islamic Jihad leaders.

The Islamic Jihad (PIJ), which is the second biggest militant group in the territory after Hamas, had sworn to avenge their deaths.

In a televised address on Wednesday night, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned that Israel's "campaign is not over".

"We have hit Islamic Jihad with the most significant blow it has ever suffered," he said, referring to the simultaneous killings of the three PIJ commanders in the early hours of Tuesday.

Hours before Mr Netanyahu spoke, Egyptian media reported that Egypt had brokered a ceasefire, but there was no immediate confirmation from the two sides. Soon afterwards, another rocket barrage was fired towards southern Israel and there were further strikes in Gaza.

An umbrella organisation representing armed factions in Gaza earlier warned that "if Israel increases its aggression, dark days await it".

Palestinians said the exchange of fire began on Wednesday morning with several loud explosions in southern Gaza, sending up large plumes of smoke.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said an aircraft targeted PIJ operatives travelling in a vehicle to a concealed rocket launcher in the Khan Younis area.

About an hour later, the IDF announced that it had started attacking underground rocket launchers belonging to PIJ across the territory in order to thwart planned attacks.

Palestinian media reported strikes in and around Gaza City, in the southern town of Rafah, and in the northern towns of Beit Lahiya and Beit Hanoun.

The Palestinian health ministry in Gaza reported that six people were killed in Israeli strikes.Four of them were members of the military wing of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, the group said, adding that two died in Khan Younis and the other two in Rafah.A 10-year-old girl was also killed in Gaza City in unclear circumstances.

As Israeli aircraft struck Gaza, militants began firing barrages of rockets from Gaza and rocket sirens sounded in communities in southern Israel.

Later, rockets were launched towards central Israel, triggering sirens in the Tel Aviv area, 80km (50 miles) from Gaza. In one video filmed in Old Jaffa, explosions could be heard as two rockets appeared to be intercepted overhead.

The Israeli military said four houses suffered direct hits - two in Sderot, which is only 1km (0.6 miles) from Gaza, and two in Ashkelon, 7km from Gaza. Another hit the roof of a kindergarten in Nirim, on the edge of Gaza to the south, and a yeshiva (religious school) in Netivot, 11km east of Gaza. There were no injuries directly from rocket fire.

The IDF said one in four rockets fired at it had fallen short and landed inside Gaza. It said Israel's Iron Dome air defence system had intercepted 153 rockets, three had hit urban areas in Israel and the rest landed in open areas.

The Joint Operations Room of armed groups in Gaza, which includes Islamic Jihad and Hamas, claimed in a statement that they had launched the rockets.

"The damage to the homes of civilians and faction fighters is a red line, and we will respond strongly to it. Resistance forces are ready for all options," it said.

The IDF launched Operation Shield and Arrow in the early hours of Tuesday with several waves of strikes across Gaza that killed 13 Palestinians.

Three were PIJ commanders who the IDF said were involved in recent attacks against Israeli civilians and were planning more. But the other 10 dead were civilians, including four women and four children.

Another two Palestinians were killed on Tuesday afternoon in a strike that the IDF said targeted militants planning to fire anti-tank missiles.

The strikes were the deadliest since three days of hostilities between Israel and PIJ last August, in which 49 Palestinians were killed in Gaza.

PIJ has been responsible for many of the rocket attacks on Israel in recent years and is sworn to Israel's destruction.

There was a serious flare-up last week, as PIJ and other groups fired more than 100 rockets into Israel over two days, following the death in an Israeli prison of a Palestinian hunger striker. The Israeli military carried out air strikes on sites it said were linked to Hamas in response.

Tensions also remained high in the occupied West Bank on Wednesday, after Israel carried out arrest raids overnight.

Two Palestinians were killed in the town of Qabatiya by Israeli forces, who said the pair fired at them. The IDF also said a soldier was also seriously wounded during a separate exchange of fire with Palestinian gunmen in Tubas.

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Israel and Gaza militants in heaviest fighting for months

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Israel says Palestinian militants in Gaza have fired more than 460 rockets at it, and that its military has hit over 130 militant targets in Gaza, in the heaviest fighting in nine months. Six people were killed and 45 injured in Gaza, local medics say.

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The Guardian: What are the Israeli protests about and what happens next?

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The Guardian: What are the Israeli protests about and what happens next?

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What are the Israeli protests about and what happens next?

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Plans to overhaul judicial system have sparked biggest protest movement in Israeli history

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Al Jazeera: Thousands join Israeli judicial protests amid soaring tensions

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Al Jazeera: Thousands join Israeli judicial protests amid soaring tensions

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Thousands join Israeli judicial protests amid soaring tensions

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Tens of thousands of people rally in Tel Aviv to protest against the government’s proposed judicial overhaul.

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The Guardian: Netanyahu reverses decision to fire Israel defence minister after protests

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The Guardian: Netanyahu reverses decision to fire Israel defence minister after protests

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As Israel faces a surge in violence on almost every front, the prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, has reversed his decision to fire the defence minister, Yoav Gallant, for warning that his judicial overhaul was harming the military.

In a televised speech late on Monday, Netanyahu said Gallant would stay in his position, two weeks after he dismissed the minister.

"I decided to put the differences we had behind us," he said. "Gallant remains in his position and we will continue to work together for the security of the citizens of Israel."

Gallant welcomed Netanyahu's move, posting on social media a picture of him with the premier and the message: "We continue together with full power for Israel."

Gallant's removal triggered an unprecedented surge of protest against the already unpopular plan to disempower the judiciary as many Israelis reached the conclusion that even their security could be sacrificed for Netanyahu's personal interests.

But Gallant, seen abroad as a key interlocutor in a government where extremists wield considerable power, never received a formal dismissal letter, remaining in office amid a surge of violence triggered by Israeli police raids on Jerusalem's al-Aqsa mosque.

In the last week, citizens of the country have been rattled by rocket fire from Gaza, Lebanon and Syria, a roadside shooting that killed three British-Israeli women in the West Bank, and a car ramming in Tel Aviv that killed an Italian tourist and wounded seven other people.

The security crisis has further shaken Netanyahu's popularity with a poll taken on Sunday showing that only 27% of respondents "rely on the government to handle the wave of terror".

In his televised address, Netanyahu tried to dispel doubts about his leadership, saying the Israeli air force had struck back hard and that troops would "reach and settle accounts with all the terrorists".

"I am working with determination and responsibility," he said. "We will repel the dangers and prevail over our enemies."

The premier said he was "restoring deterrence" that had allegedly been weakened by the previous government.

Referring to the growing number of army and air force reservists who had joined the protest movement, Netanyahu implied they too were responsible for emboldening Israel's foes. "Our enemies interpreted the calls to refuse service as weakness," he said. In fact the reservists had made clear they would still take active combat roles when needed.

According to the poll, only a fifth of the Israeli public approved of the premier's performance.

The survey of 699 Israelis by a respected pollster, Camil Fuchs, for Channel 13 showed that the Likud party-led coalition would be trounced today by the parties that held power before last November's elections by a 64 to 46 margin, with 10 mostly Arab legislators not falling in either camp.

The poll pointed to a surge in popularity for former defence minister Benny Gantz and his centre-right National Unity party. National Unity would win 29 seats, Yesh Atid, a centrist party currently heading the opposition, would gain 21 seats and Netanyahu's Likud party would crash from 32 to 20 seats.

The current coalition has 64 seats, including 14 held by two rightwing extremist parties, Religious Zionism and Jewish Power. Their popularity is also declining, with the poll giving them a combined 11 seats. Polls in late March had also shown the coalition losing power, but the new poll results amounted to an all-out "collapse" for the coalition in the words of Israeli analysts.

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Netanyahu reverses decision to fire Israel defence minister after protests

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As Israel faces a surge in violence on almost every front, the prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, has reversed his decision to fire the defence minister, Yoav Gallant, for warning that his judicial overhaul was harming the military. In a televised speech late on Monday, Netanyahu said Gallant would stay in his position, two weeks after he dismissed the minister.

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BBC: Al-Aqsa mosque: Violence as Israeli police raid Jerusalem holy site

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BBC: Al-Aqsa mosque: Violence as Israeli police raid Jerusalem holy site

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The hilltop site in Jerusalem is the most sacred place in Judaism and the third holiest in Islam. It is known to Jews as the Temple Mount, site of two Biblical temples, and to Muslims as Haram al-Sharif, the site of Muhammad's ascent to Heaven.

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Jerusalem: Clashes erupt at contested holy site

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The hilltop site in Jerusalem is the most sacred place in Judaism and the third holiest in Islam. It is known to Jews as the Temple Mount, site of two Biblical temples, and to Muslims as Haram al-Sharif, the site of Muhammad's ascent to Heaven.

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Israel conflict: Fears that Ramadan and Passover could end in serious bloodshed

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Israel conflict: Fears that Ramadan and Passover could end in serious bloodshed

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Israel conflict: Fears that Ramadan and Passover could end in serious bloodshed

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Al Jazeera: Palestinians barred from Al-Aqsa Mosque in Ramadan

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Al Jazeera: Palestinians barred from Al-Aqsa Mosque in Ramadan

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Many Palestinians barred from Al-Aqsa Mosque in Ramadan

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CNN: Dozens of rockets fired from Lebanon into Israel, IDF says

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CNN: Dozens of rockets fired from Lebanon into Israel, IDF says

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Dozens of rockets fired from Lebanon into Israel, IDF says

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Reuters: Israeli strikes target Hamas in Lebanon and Gaza after rocket attack

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Reuters: Israeli strikes target Hamas in Lebanon and Gaza after rocket attack

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JERUSALEM/GAZA, April 7 (Reuters) - Israel's military hit sites in Lebanon and Gaza early on Friday, in retaliation for rocket attacks it blamed on the Islamist group Hamas, as tensions following police raids this week on the Al-Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem threatened to spiral out of control.

Loud blasts rocked different areas of Gaza, as Israel said its jets hit 10 targets including tunnels and weapons manufacturing and development sites of Hamas, which controls the blockaded southern coastal strip.

At around 4.00 a.m., the military said it had also struck three Hamas infrastructure targets in southern Lebanon, where residents around the area of the Rashidiyeh refugee camp near the southern city of Tyre reported three loud blasts.

"We strongly condemn the blatant Zionist aggression against Lebanon in the vicinity of Tyre at dawn today," Hamas said.

Two Lebanese security sources said the strike hit a small structure on farmland near the area from which the rockets had been launched earlier.

The strike appeared to have left a large crater in farmland in the south, according to Reuters witnesses.

A member of Lebanon's Civil Defense at the scene on Friday morning said there were no casualties.

The strikes came in response to rocket attacks from Lebanon towards northern Israeli areas, which Israeli officials blamed on Hamas. The military said 34 rockets were launched from Lebanon, of which 25 were intercepted by air defence systems. It was the biggest such attack since 2006, when Israel fought a war with the heavily armed Hezbollah movement.

"Israel's response, tonight and later, will exact a significant price from our enemies," Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said following a security cabinet meeting.

As the Israeli jets struck in Gaza, salvoes of rockets were fired in response and sirens sounded in Israeli towns and cities in bordering areas. However there were no reports of serious casualties and only one rocket hit a target, damaging a house in the southern town of Sderot.

The crossborder strikes came amid an escalating confrontation over Israeli police raids at the Al-Aqsa mosque compound in Jerusalem during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, which this year coincides with the Jewish Passover holiday.

"We hold the Zionist occupation fully responsible for the grave escalation and the flagrant aggression against the Gaza Strip and for the consequences that will bring onto the region," Hamas said in a statement.

Although Israel blamed Hamas for Thursday's attack, which took place as Hamas head Ismail Haniyeh was visiting Lebanon, security experts said Hezbollah, the powerful Shi'ite group which helps Israel's main enemy Iran project its power across the region, must have given its permission.

"It's not Hezbollah shooting, but it's hard to believe that Hezbollah didn't know about it," Tamir Hayman, a former head of Israeli military intelligence, said on Twitter.

Lebanon's Prime Minister Najib Mikati issued a statement condemning any military operations from its territory that threatened stability but there was no immediate comment from Hezbollah. Earlier on Thursday, before the rockets were fired, senior Hezbollah official Hashem Safieddine said any infringement on Al-Aqsa "will inflame the entire region".

UNIFIL, the U.N. peacekeeping mission in Lebanon, said it had been in contact with the parties and said both sides had said they did not seek war but it said the situation risked escalation and urged all parties to halt their actions.

An Israeli military spokesman said the Israeli operation was over for the moment. "Nobody wants an escalation right now," he told reporters. "Quiet will be answered with quiet, at this stage I think, at least in the coming hours."

U.S. CONDEMNS ROCKET ATTACKS

Palestinian factions in Lebanon, which have a presence in the refugee camps, have fired sporadically on Israel in the past. But the border area has been largely quiet since the 2006 war with Hezbollah.

The U.S. State Department condemned the launch of rockets from Lebanon and earlier strikes from Gaza and said Israel had the right to defend itself.

But it also expressed concern at the scenes in the Al-Aqsa mosque, where Israeli police were filmed beating worshippers during raids that officials said were to dislodge groups of young men who had barricaded themselves inside the mosque.

The Al-Aqsa compound in Jerusalem's Old City is Islam's third holiest site, where hundreds of thousands pray during Ramadan. Known to Jews as Temple Mount, the location of the two biblical Jewish temples, it is also Judaism's most sacred site, although non-Muslims are not allowed to pray there.

It has long been a flashpoint for tensions. Clashes there in 2021 helped to trigger a 10-day war between Israel and Gaza.

There has been widespread anger among Palestinians in the occupied West Bank and Gaza over the police actions as well as condemnation from across the Arab world.

Late on Thursday, police said there were also disturbances in a number of Arab cities in Israel itself, including Umm el-Fahem, Sakhnin and Nazareth.

PLUMES OF SMOKE

The worsening security situation adds a further complication for Netanyahu's religious-nationalist government, which has faced mass protests over its now-suspended plans to curb the powers of the Supreme Court.

However, opposition leader Yair Lapid said the government could count on cross-party support following the rocket attack and Netanyahu said Israelis stood behind the security forces.

"The internal debate in Israel will not prevent us from taking action against them wherever and whenever necessary. All of us, without exception, are united on this," Netanyahu said.

In the aftermath of Thursday's rocket attack, TV footage showed large plumes of smoke rising above the northern Israeli border town of Shlomi, with wrecked cars in the streets. Israel Airports Authority said it had closed the northern airports in Haifa and Rosh Pina.

"I'm shaking, I'm in shock," Liat Berkovitch Kravitz told Israel's Channel 12 news, speaking from a fortified room in her house in Shlomi. "I heard a boom, it was as if it exploded inside the room."

The Israeli military said mortar shells were also fired across the border.

Amid fears that the confrontation could spiral further following a year of rising Israeli-Palestinian violence, the U.N. Security Council held a closed door meeting to discuss the crisis.

"It's going to be important for everyone to do what they can to calm tensions," U.S. Deputy Ambassador to the United Nations, Robert Wood, told reporters on his way into the meeting.

Thursday's attack followed a number of rocket launches towards Israel from Gaza, most of which were intercepted. Israel responded to the launches with airstrikes on sites linked to Hamas, which it holds responsible for any attacks from the blockaded coastal strip.

Speaking from Gaza, Mohammad Al-Braim, spokesman for the Palestinian Popular Resistance Committees, praised the rocket strikes from Lebanon, which he linked to the Al-Aqsa incidents, but did not claim responsibility.

He said "no Arab and no Muslim would keep silent while (Al-Aqsa) is being raided in such a savage and barbaric way without the enemy paying the price for its aggression."

Additional reporting by Maya Gebeily, Laila Bassam and Timour Azhari in Beirut, Michelle Nichols at the United Nations, Daphne Psaledakis in Washington; Writing by James Mackenzie; Editing by Mark Heinrich, Frances Kerry, Grant McCool, Daniel Wallis and Lincoln Feast

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

Nidal Al-Mughrabi

Thomson Reuters

A senior correspondent with nearly 25 years' experience covering the Palestinian-Israeli conflict including several wars and the signing of the first historic peace accord between the two sides.

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Israeli strikes target Hamas in Lebanon and Gaza after rocket attack

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Israel's military hit sites in Lebanon and Gaza early on Friday, in retaliation for rocket attacks it blamed on the Islamist group Hamas, as tensions following police raids this week on the Al-Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem threatened to spiral out of control.

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CNN: Israel launches strikes in Lebanon and Gaza after rockets fired across border

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CNN: Israel launches strikes in Lebanon and Gaza after rockets fired across border

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Richard Allen Greene,Hadas Gold,Mostafa Salem,Tamara Qiblawi,Mia Alberti

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Attacks in West Bank, Tel Aviv as tensions remain high following Israeli strikes | CNN

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Separate attacks in the West Bank and Tel Aviv killed three people on Friday after Israel struck Palestinian militant targets in southern Lebanon and Gaza, concluding three days of rising tensions in the region following police raids on the al-Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem.

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Who fired rockets into Israel from southern Lebanon?

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Who fired rockets into Israel from southern Lebanon?

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Who fired rockets into Israel from southern Lebanon?

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While no group has claimed responsibility, Israel blames the Palestinian group Hamas in Lebanon for barrage of rockets.

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Al Jazeera: Israel launches artillery attacks on Syria after rocket fire

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Al Jazeera: Israel launches artillery attacks on Syria after rocket fire

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People check a damaged bridge following Israeli air strikes in Al Qulaylah, on the outskirts of Tyre, Lebanon on April 7, 2023 [Mahmoud Zayyat/AFP]

The Israeli military says it has launched artillery attacks on Syria after several rockets were fired from Syrian territory towards northern Israel, none of which caused damage or casualties.

The cross-border exchanges early on Sunday came as Israel escalates violence on multiple fronts, including in Gaza, Lebanon, occupied East Jerusalem and the occupied West Bank.

Keep reading

There was no immediate comment from the Syrian government.

The Israeli military said it had launched artillery attacks and a drone against the rocket launchers in Syria.

There were two rounds of rocket launches from Syrian territory in the early hours of Sunday, it said. The first involved three rockets, one of which landed in a field in the Israeli-annexed Golan Heights.

The second launch, which also involved three rockets, set off sirens in northern Israel. There were no reports of casualties. Jordan's army said debris from a rocket fell into its territory but caused no casualties or damage.

Lebanon-based Al Mayadeen TV said the rocket launches were claimed by the al-Quds Brigades, the armed wing of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad movement.

The rocket fire from Syria comes against the backdrop of soaring Israeli-Palestinian tensions triggered by Israeli police raids on the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound in which police fired stun grenades and rubber-coated steel bullets at Palestinian worshippers gathered for Ramadan prayers.

The site in Jerusalem's Old City, holy to both Muslims and Jews, who know it as Temple Mount, has been a longstanding flashpoint, notably over the issue of Jewish visitors defying a ban on non-Muslim prayer in the mosque compound.

The raids came at a time of heightened religious fervour - with Ramadan coinciding with the Jewish holiday of Passover and the Christian Easter celebrations. Violent scenes from the attacks outraged Palestinians observing the holy fasting month of Ramadan and prompted armed groups in Lebanon and the Gaza Strip to fire a barrage of rockets into Israel.

The Israeli military then bombed several sites that it said belonged to the Palestinian group Hamas in Gaza and southern Lebanon.

Gideon Levy, an Israeli journalist and author, told Al Jazeera that tensions between Israel and its neighbours were at a critical point.

"The situation is extremely explosive," he said.

"Unlike the former years, we are facing a very radical government, which is one hand quite powerful, and on the other very fragile, because the most radical parts of it are pushing for action that might turn out into a catastrophe," he said, referring to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's ultra-nationalist government.

"The scenes from the Al-Aqsa Mosque were scenes not seen in recent years in their brutality and I think that any small match can set fire now to the whole area. Hopefully, it will not happen, but nobody can guarantee this will not happen," he said.

Levy also noted Israel has been carrying out hundreds of attacks against what it says are Iran-linked groups in Syria, bombing ports and airports, including the main facility in Aleppo that had been a conduit for aid shipments since the deadly earthquakes that hit northern Syria and southern Turkey on February 6.

"There is no public argument about this [raids in Syria] in Israel and no information about it in Israel. Nobody knows why and what form and what is the price," Levy said.

"One thing is clear. Israel is violating Syrian sovereignty and Israel is playing with fire with Iran. How long will the Syrians and the Iranians tolerate this?"

The regional tensions also come as violence has also escalated in Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories.

In the northern occupied West Bank, Israeli security forces on Saturday shot and killed a 20-year-old Palestinian, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry.

Ahed Salim, 20, was hit in the chest and stomach by live fire in Azzun near Qalqilyah, the ministry said.

Earlier in the day, four Palestinians were also wounded when Israeli settlers hurled stones at their cars at a checkpoint at the entrance to the city of el-Bireh.

The Wafa news agency reported additional Israeli settler attacks on Palestinian homes and vehicles in the town of Deir Ballout.

Israel has also been on edge after a car-ramming in Tel Aviv on Friday that killed an Italian man and wounded five other tourists. The Tel Aviv attack came hours after a Palestinian man shot and killed two Israeli sisters and wounded their mother near an illegal Israeli settlement in the occupied West Bank.

Amid the escalation, Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant has extended a closure barring entrance to Israel for Palestinians from the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip for the duration of Passover, while police beefed up forces in Jerusalem on the eve of sensitive religious celebrations.

Mass prayers, however, were permitted at the Al-Aqsa Mosque on Friday and Saturday.

More than 2,000 police were expected to be deployed in Jerusalem on Sunday - when tens of thousands of Jews are expected to gather at the Western Wall at the Al-Aqsa compound for the special Passover priestly blessing.

Source: Al Jazeera and news agencies

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Israel launches artillery attacks on Syria after rocket fire

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Israeli army says six rockets were fired from Syria towards Israel, one of which landed in the annexed Golan Heights.

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Al Jazeera: History Illustrated: The war on Al-Aqsa

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Al Jazeera: History Illustrated: The war on Al-Aqsa

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History Illustrated is a weekly series of insightful perspectives that puts news events and current affairs into an historical context using graphics generated with artificial intelligence.⁠

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History Illustrated is a weekly series of insightful perspectives that puts news events and current affairs into an historical context using graphics generated with artificial intelligence.⁠

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Al Jazeera: Who are the Jewish groups who enter the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound?

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Al Jazeera: Who are the Jewish groups who enter the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound?

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Times of Israel: Israel strikes southern Syria after 6 rockets launched at Golan Heights within hours

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Times of Israel: Israel strikes southern Syria after 6 rockets launched at Golan Heights within hours

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The Israel Defense Forces says it is carrying out artillery strikes in southern Syria, targeting the area from which six rockets were launched at Israel.

The IDF does not immediately provide further details on the strikes.

Three rockets have been fired from southern Syria at Israeli towns in the Golan Heights, the Israel Defense Forces says.

According to the IDF, one of the projectiles is intercepted by the Iron Dome air defense system, while another landed in an open area near the towns of Natur and Avnei Eitan. The third projectile apparently fell short in Syria.

There are no reports of injuries or damage in the rocket attack, which comes hours after another three rockets were launched from Syria at the Golan.

Rocket sirens blare once again in the Golan Heights, hours after three rockets were fired toward Israel from Syria.

The military says alerts have sounded in Kibbutz Natur and Moshav Avnei Eitan in the southern Golan Heights.

Initial unconfirmed details indicate that three projectiles were launched into Israel, with two falling in open areas and the third being intercepted by the Iron Dome air defense system. No casualties are immediately reported.

Jordan rejects Israel's demand to evacuate Palestinians who have barricaded themselves in the Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem's Temple Mount, accusing Jerusalem of trying to "fabricate the facts" regarding the issue.

Israel says the Palestinians intend to attack Jews visiting the holy site in the morning, as well as masses expected to show up for the traditional Priestly Blessing prayer for Passover at the adjacent Western Wall.

Jordanian media cites a senior official saying the Israeli demand is an attempt to "put the responsibility on the Waqf for the dangerous escalation stemming from Israel's attacks on worshipers."

The unnamed official says Amman has refused to accept Israeli messages conveyed through mediators, adding that it will accept direct messages from Jerusalem if they include promises to "stop violating the status quo, stop the attacks on worshipers and cancel the restrictions on freedom of worship."

Israel urges Jordan's Waqf authorities to "immediately remove" Palestinians who have barricaded themselves inside the Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem's Temple Mount and are preparing to clash with police and Jews visiting the site and attending the traditional Passover Priestly Blessing at the adjacent Western Wall in the morning.

The Foreign Ministry issues a strongly worded statement in response to Jordan warning Israel to avoid a violent evacuation of those holed up inside the mosque and claiming this would only lead to greater violence.

"Those who desecrate the sanctity of the Al-Aqsa Mosque and barricade themselves inside it are a dangerous mob, radicalized and incited by Hamas and other terror organizations," the ministry says.

"We call on Jordan, through the Waqf guards, to immediately remove from the Al-Aqsa Mosque these extremists who are planning to riot tomorrow during Muslim prayers on the Temple Mount and the Priestly Blessing at the Western Wall."

Five people have been wounded in a shooting on Dov Yosef Street near the Gilo and Beit Safafa neighborhoods of Jerusalem, the Magen David Adom ambulance service says.

MDA says one of the victims is listed in serious condition, three are in moderate condition, and one is lightly injured.

Police say the background of the shooting appears to be criminal, and not a terror attack. MDA says it appears to be a fight between rival Arab clans.

הירי בגילה: ההערכה היא כי מדובר בסכסוך בין חמולות. בתיעוד - רגעי הקטטה@HGoldich pic.twitter.com/OhM4VY4Ivp

- כאן חדשות (@kann_news) April 8, 2023

Defense Minister Yoav Gallant spoke by phone this evening with his American counterpart, US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, his office says.

"Gallant briefed Secretary Austin on the recent wave of terror attacks in Israel, and the missiles fired by Palestinian terror groups from both Gaza and Lebanese territory, with the backing of Iran," a readout from Gallant's office says.

"He detailed the ongoing efforts of the defense establishment to thwart terrorism and respond effectively to any threat toward Israeli citizens and troops," the statement continues.

"Gallant also raised the defense establishment's efforts to enable freedom of prayer at the Temple Mount, which is hijacked by groups of extreme rioters," he says, referring to recent clashes between police and Palestinians at the Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem.

"He concluded by thanking Secretary Austin for his friendship and partnership and solidarity with Israel's right to defend itself," the statement adds.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has invited opposition leader Yair Lapid for a security briefing, his office says in a brief statement.

The update would come as tensions soared across the region, with a rocket attack from Syria tonight; a barrage of rockets from Lebanon on Thursday; tit-for-tat rocket fire from the Gaza Strip and Israeli strikes over the past week; clashes at Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem's Temple Mount; deadly terror attacks in Israel and the West Bank; as well as a suspected Iranian drone launched from Syria earlier in the week.

A suspected infiltration alarm is sounding in the southern West Bank settlement of Asael, following reports of gunfire heard in the area.

The Home Front Command instructs residents to remain in their homes and lock their doors and windows until further notice.

There are no reports of injuries in the shooting. Security forces are scanning the area.

Hundreds of people are barricading themselves inside Jerusalem's Al-Aqsa Mosque Saturday night and preparing for confrontations with the Israel Police, according to multiple media reports.

Police had said earlier they expected the unrest, with the Hamas terror group claiming that Jews were going "to assail the Western Wall" tomorrow - as part of Passover's priestly blessing - while claiming Al-Aqsa is in danger.

Jordan is warning Israel to avoid a violent evacuation of those holed up inside the mosque, saying this will only lead to greater violence.

Scenes of violent clashes inside the mosque earlier this week are believed to have instigated further violence in Israel and the West Bank and were followed by rocket barrages from both Gaza and south Lebanon.

A young Palestinian man was shot dead by Israeli forces in the West Bank, Palestinian health officials say.

According to the Palestinian Authority Health Ministry, 20-year-old Ayed Azzam Salim was shot by soldiers near the town of Azzun.

There is no immediate comment from the Israel Defense Forces on the incident.

#صورة الشهيد عايد عزام سليم الذي أستشهد متأثراً بإصابته برصاص جيش الاحتلال عند مدخل بلدة عزون شرق قلقيلية. pic.twitter.com/2g5MzgD0IE

- Newpress | نيو برس (@NewpressPs) April 8, 2023

The Israel Defense Forces says three rockets were launched from Syria at the Golan Heights a short while ago.

One of the rockets crossed the border and landed in an open area near the northern Israeli town of Meitsar.

The other two projectiles apparently fell short in Syria, with some reports suggesting one landed in Jordan.

The Iron Dome air defense system was not used as the projectiles were headed for an unpopulated area, the IDF says.

The Israel Defense Forces says an incoming rocket alert was activated in an open area near the northern Israeli town of Meitsar in the Golan Heights, close to the border with Syria.

The IDF says the cause is still under review.

Hebrew-language media reports say at least two rockets were fired from Syria.

Local residents say they heard explosions.

There are no immediate reports of injuries or damage.

The Israel Defense Forces says it will be further bolstering forces in the West Bank, the Jordan Valley, and the so-called seam zone - an area of land between the West Bank security barrier and Israel - following recent terror attacks.

The forces are set to be deployed starting Sunday, the IDF said. It was not immediately clear how many troops would be deployed.

On Friday, IDF chief Herzi Halevi ordered to bolster forces in the Central Command after a deadly terror attack in the Jordan Valley.

The IDF will also assist police in the Tel Aviv area, following orders by Defense Minister Yoav Gallant. The number of troops set to be deployed to the Police Central District has yet to be determined.

Sisters 20-year-old Maia Dee and 15-year-old Rina Dee, who were killed in a shooting attack in the West Bank on Friday, will be buried tomorrow afternoon at the cemetery of the Kfar Ezion settlement.

In a statement, the Gush Etzion regional council says the procession will begin at 4:15 p.m. in the settlement of Efrat, where the sisters lived.

Mourners will march to the Kfar Ezion cemetery, where the Dee sisters will be buried at 5 p.m.

"Residents are asked to stand with flags on the side of the road and accompany them on their final journey," the statement says.

The sisters' mother, Lucy, 48, remains hospitalized in critical condition after being wounded in the attack.

Anti-overhaul protests in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem tonight both begin with a minute's silence for the three terror victims killed in two separate attacks on Friday.

Sisters 20-year-old Maya Dee and 15-year-old Rina Dee from the West Bank settlement of Efrat were killed in a shooting attack near the settlement of Hamra in the northern West Bank.

Hours later, Italian national Alessandro Parini, a 35-year-old lawyer from Rome, was killed in a ramming attack in Tel Aviv.

דקה דומיה בבית הנשיא. pic.twitter.com/EhtcX7Oqyc

- The Black (@beersehva) April 8, 2023

Police Commissioner Kobi Shabtai and National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir are clashing over a potential ban for Jewish visitors to the Temple Mount in Jerusalem during the final days of the holy Muslim month of Ramadan.

According to Channel 12 news, police chief Kobi Shabtai supports preventing Jewish visits to the Mount from Wednesday through the last 10 days of Ramadan, as has been standard practice in the past to prevent friction with Muslim worshipers.

Ben Gvir, a far-right advocate of Jewish rights on the Mount, says he opposes the move, asserting that it "will be a surrender to terrorism."

Tomorrow is expected to be particularly sensitive in Jerusalem, where thousands of Jewish worshipers are expected to take part in the traditional priestly blessing at the Western Wall as part of the Passover holiday.

Jerusalem District Police Commander Doron Turgeman said in an assessment earlier today the Hamas terror group is "threatening the priestly blessing with the claim that Jews are going 'to assail the Western Wall' while claiming Al-Aqsa is in danger."

Turgeman says police will act to "allow freedom of worship and enable Muslims to pray [at Al-Aqsa]... The ones harming worship are Hamas and other inciting elements."

Two sisters from the West Bank settlement of Efrat who were shot dead in a terror attack on Friday are named as 20-year-old Maia Dee, and 15-year-old Rina Dee.

Their mother Lucy, 48, remains hospitalized in critical condition, the Hadassah Hospital Ein Kerem says.

The United Kingdom Foreign Office confirmed Friday that the three were British nationals. Family members from the UK are reportedly heading to Israel tonight.

In the Friday attack near the settlement of Hamra in the northern Jordan Valley, the Palestinian gunmen first opened fire at the Israeli-owned car before it crashed into the highway's shoulder. The terrorists then opened fire at the car again, killing the two sisters and critically wounding their mother. Troops scanning the area found 22 7.62mm shell casings, typically used by a Kalashnikov rifle.

Crowds begin to gather in Jerusalem for the weekly protest against the government's contentious judicial overhaul.

The rally outside the President's Residence is set to start at 8:45 p.m. to allow Shabbat-observant protesters to attend.

Speakers will include former Blue and White MK Tehila Friedman, whose 11-minute maiden speech in parliament in 2020 - a tearful plea for unity in Israel and against hatred - went viral.

Tens of thousands of people are currently gathered in Tel Aviv for a weekly rally against the government's judicial overhaul plans.

Images show massive crowds at the coastal city's Kaplan Street.

ההפגנה נכון ל 20:10
המפגינים פורשים שלט עם דיוקנו של נתניהו כפרעה עם הכיתוב "Let my people go" pic.twitter.com/l478ApHrc7

- Tomer Appelbaum (@tomerappelbaum) April 8, 2023

Thousands of people are gathering on Kaplan Street in Tel Aviv for a weekly protest against the government's judicial overhaul plans.

Channel 12 news is live-streaming footage from the rally below.

Defense Minister Yoav Gallant has ordered the Israel Defense Forces to bolster police forces in the Central District, following a series of terror attacks in Israel and the West Bank.

The number of troops that will be assisting police in central Israel will be decided by law enforcement and military officials, Gallant's office says.

Additionally, Gallant has ordered the IDF to extend a closure on West Bank and Gaza Strip crossings for Palestinians.

The closure, during the first days of the Passover holiday, was initially meant to last from 5 p.m. Wednesday until Saturday evening, with another closure on the last day of Passover beginning on April 11 and lasting until April 12.

Following an assessment, Gallant ordered the closure to be extended until midnight between April 12 and 13.

The closure will also prevent West Bank and Gazan Palestinians from entering Israel for prayers at Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem. Israel had announced it was easing restrictions for the holy Muslim month of Ramadan, to allow some Palestinians into Israel without permits.

National Security Adviser Tzachi Hanegbi in an interview with Channel 12 news says the Israeli military's response against targets of the Hamas terror group in the Gaza Strip and Lebanon following rocket fire from both areas, was "not weak."

"If it was weak, we would've seen a response by Hamas and Hezbollah on the significant strikes in Gaza and Lebanon. The targets in Lebanon were chosen in a way that won't force a response," Hanegbi says.

"We struck in Lebanon and there wasn't a response," he says. "The same thing in Gaza, there was a significant attack against a number of targets. They did not react, which shows the deterrence is there," Hanegbi claims, despite Palestinian terrorists launching 44 rockets at Israel following the airstrikes.

"Those who assume that the account is closed, are assuming wrong," he says.

"We know the account is still open over a number of brazen and daring developments," Hanegbi adds, apparently referring to a bombing attack in northern Israel last month, which Israel suspects Hezbollah was involved in.

Hundreds of people are beginning to gather on Tel Aviv's Kaplan Street for the 14th week in a row of protests against the government's planned judicial overhaul.

Previous weeks have seen nearly 200,000 people participate in the rally in Tel Aviv.

שבת 14 להפגנות נגד המהפכה המשפטית. קפלן (19:15)
???? אור אדר pic.twitter.com/j4aJt71XCH

- אדם קוטב | adam kutub (@adam_kutub) April 8, 2023

Anti-overhaul protesters are holding a "silent march" in the central city of Rehovot, Channel 12 news reports.

The march is held in memory of three people killed in suspected terror attacks on Friday, in Tel Aviv and in the West Bank.

"צעדה שקטה" ברחובות לזכר הנרצחים: המחאות מתקיימות בצל הפיגועים | אלה החסימות https://t.co/SjFE9ZEWKh pic.twitter.com/cTK2WN8QOZ

- החדשות - N12 (@N12News) April 8, 2023

The Lebanese Army says it has located several more rockets prepared for launch in southern Lebanon.

In a tweet, the Lebanese Army says units located launchers and a number of unlaunched rockets in the Qlaileh area.

On Thursday, around three dozen rockets were launched into Israel from Lebanon, in attacks blamed on the Hamas terror group.

Since then, the Lebanese Army has found several rockets prepared for launch across southern Lebanon.

عثرت وحدة من الجيش في سهل القليلة على منصات صواريخ وعدد من الصواريخ التي كانت قد أعِدّت للإطلاق منذ أيام، ويجري العمل على تفكيكها.#الجيش_اللبناني #LebaneseArmy pic.twitter.com/gEDBnCZkMT

- الجيش اللبناني (@LebarmyOfficial) April 8, 2023

People in Tel Aviv gather and lay flowers at the site where Alessandro Parini, an Italian tourist, was killed in a car-ramming attack last night.

Authorities said Parini was killed and seven other Italian and British citizens were wounded when an Arab Israeli man rammed his car into them near a promenade in the coastal city.

A spokesperson for the Shin Bet security agency tells The Times of Israel that the car-ramming is being investigated as a terror attack.

The Magen David Adom ambulance service is calling on the public to donate blood at the site of last night's suspected terror attack in Tel Aviv, near Charles Clore Park.

MDA spokesman Zaki Heller says the call is "due to the shortage of blood units over the holidays."

The blood drive will be open till 9:30 p.m., he says.

"Magen David Adom calls on the public to come and donate," Heller adds.

In last night's car-ramming attack in Tel Aviv, an Italian tourist, Alessandro Parini, was killed, and seven others were wounded.

Blood drive happening right now at the site of last night's terror attack in Tel Aviv.

The blood drive is open until 21:30 this evening. pic.twitter.com/XYciwgwoWf

- Magen David Adom (@Mdais) April 8, 2023

Police close main roads in central Tel Aviv as a major anti-government rally is set to begin in the coastal city this evening.

Several more large demonstrations are anticipated in other cities around the country, including outside the President's Residence in Jerusalem and near a shopping area in Haifa.

Tens of thousands of people are expected at the main protest on Kaplan Street in Tel Aviv.

Organizers say the protests will go ahead as planned in the wake of several deadly terror attacks and violence, but that they have agreed to a police request to cancel a march through the city streets.

Hundreds of thousands of people have been holding huge protests in Tel Aviv and nationwide against the government's judicial overhaul plans every Saturday for the last 14 weeks, with demonstrations carrying on after the coalition paused the legislation to allow a period of dialogue on its highly divisive efforts to weaken the justice system.

קפלן. מוכנים.
ממתינים לכם! pic.twitter.com/HNepYhnVhM

- ishay hadas ישי הדס crime minister (@ishayhadas) April 8, 2023

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Israel strikes southern Syria after 6 rockets launched at Golan Heights within hours

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The Israel Defense Forces says it is carrying out artillery strikes in southern Syria, targeting the area from which six rockets were launched at Israel. The IDF does not immediately provide further details on the strikes. Three rockets have been fired from southern Syria at Israeli towns in the Golan Heights, the Israel Defense Forces says.

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AP News: Attacks in Israel, West Bank kill 3 in worsening violence

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AP News: Attacks in Israel, West Bank kill 3 in worsening violence

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JERUSALEM (AP) - Palestinian assailants carried out a pair of attacks on Friday, killing three people and wounding at least six as tensions soared after days of fighting at Jerusalem's most sensitive holy site, officials said. Earlier in the day, retaliatory Israeli airstrikes had hit Lebanon and the Gaza Strip, sparking fears of a broader conflict.

Israeli authorities said an Italian tourist was killed and five other Italian and British citizens were wounded when a car rammed into a group of tourists in Tel Aviv, Israel's commercial hub.

In a separate incident, two British-Israeli women were shot to death near a settlement in the occupied West Bank.

The spasm of violence in Israel and the West Bank heightened fears of an even more intense surge, with the rare convergence of the holy Muslim month of Ramadan, the Jewish Passover holiday and Easter currently underway.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he was calling up all reserve forces in Israel's border police, a paramilitary force usually deployed to suppress Palestinian unrest, "to confront the terror attacks."

The additional border police would be activated Sunday and join other units that have recently been deployed in Jerusalem and Lod, a town in central Israel with a mixed Jewish and Palestinian population.

Israel had unleashed rare airstrikes on Lebanon and bombarded the Gaza Strip on Friday morning, but later in the day there were signs that both sides were trying to keep the border hostilities in check. The fighting subsided after dawn, and midday prayers at the Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem - a flashpoint for violence in recent days - passed peacefully.

The round of violence erupted after Israeli police raided the mosque earlier in the week, sparking unrest in the contested capital and outrage across the Arab world. Militants fired an unusually large rocket barrage at Israel from southern Lebanon on Thursday - some of the heaviest and most serious cross-border violence since Israel's 2006 war with Lebanon's Hezbollah militants - as well as from Gaza.

In the Tel Aviv car-ramming late Friday, the alleged attacker rammed his vehicle into a group of civilians near a popular seaside park, police said. Israel's rescue service said a 30-year-old Italian man was killed, while five other British and Italian tourists - including a 74-year-old man and a 17-year-old girl - were receiving medical treatment for mild to moderate injuries.

Police said they shot and killed the driver of the car and identified him as a 45-year-old Palestinian citizen of Israel from the village of Kafr Qassem.

A video circulating on social media showed the car hurtling along a sidewalk for several hundred yards (meters) before crashing out of control.

Italian Premier Giorgia Meloni's office expressed "closeness to the family of the victim" and "solidarity with the Israel for the vile attack." She identified the man killed as Alessandro Parini from Rome.

The shooting in the West Bank meanwhile killed the two sisters, who were in their 20s, and seriously wounded their 45-year-old mother near an Israeli settlement in the Jordan Valley, Israeli and British officials said. The family lived in the Efrat settlement, near the Palestinian city of Bethlehem, said Oded Revivi, the settlement's mayor.

Medics said they dragged the unconscious women from their smashed car, which appeared to have been pushed off the road.

No groups claimed responsibility for either attack. But the Hamas militant group that rules Gaza praised both incidents as retaliation for Israeli raids earlier this week on the Al-Aqsa mosque - the third-holiest site in Islam. On Tuesday, police arrested and beat hundreds of Palestinians there, who responded by hurling rocks and firecrackers at officers.

Friday's airstrikes on neighboring Lebanon targeted Hamas militant sites, the Israeli military said, accusing the group of firing the nearly three dozen rockets that slammed into open areas and towns in northern Israel on Thursday. The bombardment seemed designed to avoid drawing in Hezbollah, the Iran-backed Shiite group that Israel considers its most immediate threat.

There were no reports of serious casualties from the airstrikes, but several people in the southern Lebanese town of Qalili, including Syrian refugees, said they were lightly wounded.

"I immediately gathered my wife and children and got them out of the house," said Qalili resident Bilal Suleiman, who was jolted awake by the bombing.

A flock of sheep was killed when the Israeli missiles struck a field near the Palestinian refugee camp of Rashidiyeh, according to an Associated Press photographer. Other airstrikes hit a bridge and a power transformer in nearby Maaliya, and damaged an irrigation system.

In the Gaza Strip, Israel's military pounded what it said were Hamas weapons production sites and underground tunnels. A children's hospital in Gaza City was among sites sustaining damage, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry.

After the retaliatory strikes, Israelis living along the southern border returned home from bomb shelters. Most missiles that managed to cross into Israeli territory hit open areas, but one landed in the town of Sderot, sending shrapnel slicing into a house.

There were no reports of casualties on either side of the southern border.

The Israeli military said everyone wanted to avoid a full-blown conflict. "Quiet will be answered with quiet," said spokesman Lt. Col. Richard Hecht. A Qatari official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the emirate was mediating.

Even as a fragile calm took hold along the Lebanese and Gaza borders, the West Bank remained volatile. Violence has surged to new heights there in recent months, with Palestinian health officials reporting the start of 2023 to be the most deadly for Palestinians in two decades.

Nearly 90 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli fire in the West Bank since the start of the year, at least half of them affiliated with militant groups, according to an Associated Press tally. During that time, 17 people have been killed in Palestinian attacks on Israelis - all but one of them civilians.

"It's just a matter of time, and not much time, until we settle the score," Netanyahu said as he toured the site of the deadly shooting in the West Bank with Defense Minister Yoav Gallant. "We acted in Lebanon, we acted in Gaza, we beefed up forces in the field."

Al-Aqsa has long been a nexus of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and the skirmishes between Palestinian worshippers and Israeli police at the holy compound this week spiraled into a regional confrontation. The mosque sits on a hilltop sacred to both Muslims and Jews. In 2021, an escalation triggered by clashes there spilled over into an 11-day war between Israel and Gaza's Hamas rulers.

Before dawn prayers Friday, chaos erupted at an entrance to the esplanade as Israeli police wielding batons descended on crowds of Palestinian worshippers who chanted slogans praising Hamas as they tried to squeeze into the site. Later, people leaving prayers staged a large protest on the limestone courtyard, raising their fists, shouting against Israel and waving Hamas flags. Israeli police said they forced their way into the compound in response to "masked suspects" who threw rocks toward officers at a gate.

Israeli authorities control access to the area but the compound is administered by Islamic and Jordanian officials.

The unrest comes at a delicate time for Jerusalem's Old City, which was suffused with religious fervor and teeming with pilgrims from around the world. The Christian faithful retraced the route Jesus is said to have taken for Good Friday and Jews celebrated the weeklong Passover holiday, while Muslims prayed and fasted for Ramadan.

___

Associated Press writer Abby Sewell in Beirut, Jill Lawless in London, Frances D'Emilio in Rome and Joseph Krauss in Ottawa, Canada, contributed to this report.

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Attacks in Israel, West Bank kill 3 in worsening violence

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Israeli officials say Palestinian assailants carried out a pair of attacks on Friday, killing three people and wounding at least seven. Tensions remained high after days of fighting at Jerusalem's most sensitive holy site. Earlier in the day, retaliatory Israeli airstrikes had hit Lebanon and the Gaza Strip, sparking fears of a broader conflict.

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Amnesty International Report on the Apartheid situation in Israel

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Amnesty International Report on the Apartheid situation in Israel

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In May 2021, Palestinian families in Sheikh Jarrah, a neighbourhood in occupied East Jerusalem, began protesting against Israel's plan to forcibly evict them from their homes to make way for Jewish settlers. Many of the families are refugees, who settled in Sheikh Jarrah after being forcibly displaced around the time of Israel's establishment as a state in 1948. Since Israel occupied East Jerusalem and the rest of the West Bank in 1967, Palestinians in Sheikh Jarrah have been continuously targeted by Israeli authorities, who use discriminatory laws to systematically dispossess Palestinians of their land and homes for the benefit of Jewish Israelis.

In response to the demonstrations in Sheikh Jarrah, thousands of Palestinians across Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPT) held their own protests in support of the families, and against their shared experience of fragmentation, dispossession, and segregation. These were met with excessive and deadly force by Israeli authorities with thousands injured, arrested and detained.

The events of May 2021 were emblematic of the oppression which Palestinians have faced every day, for decades. The discrimination, the dispossession, the repression of dissent, the killings and injuries - all are part of a system which is designed to privilege Jewish Israelis at the expense of Palestinians.

This is apartheid.

Amnesty International's new investigation shows that Israel imposes a system of oppression and domination against Palestinians across all areas under its control: in Israel and the OPT, and against Palestinian refugees, in order to benefit Jewish Israelis. This amounts to apartheid as prohibited in international law.

Laws, policies and practices which are intended to maintain a cruel system of control over Palestinians, have left them fragmented geographically and politically, frequently impoverished, and in a constant state of fear and insecurity.

WHAT IS APARTHEID?

Apartheid is a violation of public international law, a grave violation of internationally protected human rights, and a crime against humanity under international criminal law.

The term "apartheid" was originally used to refer to a political system in South Africa which explicitly enforced racial segregation, and the domination and oppression of one racial group by another. It has since been adopted by the international community to condemn and criminalize such systems and practices wherever they occur in the world.

The crime against humanity of apartheid under the Apartheid Convention, the Rome Statute and customary international law is committed when any inhuman or inhumane act (essentially a serious human rights violation) is perpetrated in the context of an institutionalised regime of systematic oppression and domination by one racial group over another, with the intention to maintain that system.

Apartheid can best be understood as a system of prolonged and cruel discriminatory treatment by one racial group of members of another with the intention to control the second racial group.

Amnesty International has created a free 90-minute course called "Deconstructing Israel's Apartheid Against Palestinians". To learn more about the crime of apartheid in international law, what apartheid looks like in Israel/OPT, and how it affects Palestinians' lives, sign up to our course on Amnesty International's human rights education academy.

WHY IS AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL CAMPAIGNING AGAINST APARTHEID?

I do not know why the entire world is watching what is happening and letting Israel get away with it? It is time the world stopped spoiling Israel
Nabil el-Kurd, one of the residents under threat of forced eviction in the East Jerusalem neighbourhood of Sheikh Jarrah

Apartheid is not acceptable anywhere in the world. So why has the world accepted it against Palestinians?

Human rights have long been side-lined by the international community when dealing with the decades-long struggle and suffering of Palestinians. Palestinians facing the brutality of Israel's repression have been calling for an understanding of Israel's rule as apartheid for over two decades. Over time, a broader international recognition of Israel's treatment of Palestinians as apartheid has begun to take shape.

Yet, governments with the responsibility and power to do something have refused to take any meaningful action to hold Israel accountable. Instead, they have been hiding behind a moribund peace process at the expense of human rights and accountability. Unfortunately, the situation today is one of no progress towards a just solution and worsening human rights for Palestinians.

Amnesty is calling for Israel to end the international wrong, and crime, of apartheid, by dismantling measures of fragmentation, segregation, discrimination, and deprivation, currently in place against the Palestinian population.

The Palestinian experience of being denied a home is at the heart of Israel's apartheid system. That's why, as a first step towards dismantling this system, we are calling on Israel to end the practice of home demolitions.

Palestinian families need people to stand with them against injustice and discrimination, by taking action to help them protect their homes.

Israel is not a state of all its citizens... [but rather] the nation-state of the Jewish people and only them
Israel's then prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu (message posted online in March 2019)

ISRAEL'S SYSTEM OF OPPRESSION AND DOMINATION OF PALESTINIANS

Since the establishment of the State of Israel in 1948, successive governments have created and maintained a system of laws, policies, and practices designed to oppress and dominate Palestinians. This system plays out in different ways across the different areas where Israel exercises control over Palestinians' rights, but the intent is always the same: to privilege Jewish Israelis at the expense of Palestinians.

Israeli authorities have done this through four main strategies:

FRAGMENTATION INTO DOMAINS OF CONTROL

In the course of establishing Israel as a Jewish state in 1948, Israel expelled hundreds of thousands of Palestinians and destroyed hundreds of Palestinian villages, in what amounted to ethnic cleansing.

Since then, successive governments have designed laws and policies to ensure the continued fragmentation of the Palestinian population. Palestinians are confined to enclaves in Israel, the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, and the refugee communities, where they are subject to different legal and administrative regimes. This has had the effect of undermining family, social and political ties between Palestinian communities and suppressing sustained dissent against the apartheid system; it also helps to maximise Jewish Israeli control over land and maintain a Jewish demographic majority.

Millions of Palestinians remain displaced as refugees and continue to be physically isolated from those residing in Israel and the OPT through Israel's continuous denial of their right to return to their homes, towns and villages.

DISPOSSESSION OF LAND AND PROPERTY

Since 1948, Israel has enforced massive and cruel land seizures to dispossess Palestinians of their land and homes. Although Palestinians in Israel and the OPT are subjected to different legal and administrative regimes, Israel has used similar land expropriation measures across all areas - for example, since 1948, Israel has expropriated land in areas of strategic importance that include significant Palestinian populations such as the Galilee and the Negev/Naqab, and used similar measures in the OPT following Israel's military occupation in 1967. In order to maximize Jewish Israeli control over land and minimize the Palestinian presence, Palestinians have been confined to separate, densely populated enclaves. While Israeli policies have allowed for the discriminatory allocation of state land to be used almost exclusively to benefit Jewish Israelis both inside of Israel and in the OPT.

SEGREGATION AND CONTROL

Successive Israeli governments have pursued a strategy of establishing domination through discriminatory laws and policies which segregate Palestinians into enclaves, based on their legal status and residence.

Israel denies Palestinian citizens their rights to equal nationality and status, while Palestinians in the OPT face severe restrictions on freedom of movement. Israel also restricts Palestinians' rights to family unification in a profoundly discriminatory manner: for example, Palestinians from the OPT cannot gain residency or citizenship through marriage, which Jewish Israelis can.

Israel also places severe limitations on Palestinians' civil and political rights, to suppress dissent and maintain the system of oppression and domination. For example, millions of Palestinians in the West Bank remain subject to Israel's military rule and draconian military orders adopted since 1967.

DEPRIVATION OF ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL RIGHTS

These measures have left Palestinians marginalized, impoverished and economically disadvantaged across Israel and the OPT.

Decades of discriminatory allocation of resources by Israeli authorities, for the benefit of Jewish Israeli citizens in Israel and Israeli settlers in the OPT, compound these inequalities. For example, millions of Palestinians inside of Israel and East Jerusalem live in densely populated areas that are generally underdeveloped and lack adequate essential services such as garbage collection, electricity, public transportation and water and sanitation infrastructure.

Palestinians across all areas under Israel's control have fewer opportunities to earn a living and engage in business than Jewish Israelis. They experience discriminatory limitations on access to and use of farmland, water, gas and oil amongst other natural resources, as well as restrictions on the provision of health, education and basic services.

In addition, Israeli authorities have appropriated the vast majority of Palestinians' natural resources in the OPT for the economic benefit of Jewish citizens in Israel and in the illegal settlements.

LIFE UNDER APARTHEID

DENIED A HOME: DEMOLITIONS AND FORCED EVICTIONS

Palestinians are systematically subjected to home demolitions and forced evictions, and live in constant fear of losing their homes.

For more than 73 years, Israel has been forcibly displacing entire Palestinian communities. Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians' homes have been demolished, causing terrible trauma & suffering. More than 6 million Palestinians remain refugees, the vast majority of whom live in refugee camps including outside of Israel/OPT. There are over 100,000 Palestinians in the OPT and another 68,000 inside of Israel at imminent risk of losing their homes, many for the second or third time.

Palestinians are caught in a Catch-22 situation. Israel requires them to obtain a permit to build or even erect a structure such as a tent, but - unlike Jewish Israeli applicants - rarely issues them a permit. Many Palestinians are forced to build without permits. Israel then demolishes Palestinian homes on the basis that they were built "illegally". Israel uses these discriminatory planning and zoning policies to create unbearable living conditions to force Palestinians to leave their homes to allow for the expansion of Jewish settlement.

Mohammed Al-Rajabi, a resident of Al-Bustan area in Silwan, whose home was demolished by Israeli authorities on 23 June 2020 on the basis that it was built "illegally", described to Amnesty International the devastating impact on his family:

This is extremely hard to deal with. It might be difficult to put into words... and I sensed that it was harder on my kids than on us. They were really excited for us to have this new home. I'm going to keep the photos from that day and show them to my children when they grow up, so they do not forget what happened to us. I will tell them, 'you see what kind of memories I have to pass on to you?' My plan was for them to have a warm family home close to their loved ones and family members. Now I'm passing on the memories of their first childhood home being destroyed
Mohammed Al-Rajabi, a resident of Al-Bustan area in Silwan

FRAGMENTED LOVE: SEPARATION OF PALESTINIAN FAMILIES

Israel has enacted discriminatory laws and policies that disrupt family life for Palestinians. Since 2002, Israel has adopted a policy of prohibiting Palestinians from the West Bank and Gaza from gaining status in Israel or East Jerusalem through marriage, thus preventing family unification.

Israel has long used discriminatory laws and policies to separate Palestinians from their families. For example, Palestinians from the West Bank and Gaza cannot gain legal status in Israel or occupied East Jerusalem through marriage, denying their rights to family unification. This policy has forced thousands of Palestinians to live apart from their loved ones; others are forced to go abroad, or live in constant fear of being arrested, expelled or deported.

These measures explicitly target Palestinians, and not Jewish Israelis, and are primarily guided by demographic considerations that aim to minimize Palestinian presence inside Israel/OPT.

Sumaia, was born and raised in Lod in central Israel. She married her husband, who is from the Gaza Strip, in 1998 and he moved to live with her in Lod. In 2000, Sumaia and her husband began the process of applying for family unification, so they could live together legally. The family unification process took 18 years, during which the couple lived in fear and anxiety. Sumaia told Amnesty International:

The government is controlling every detail of our lives, they are in our bedroom, in our homes. One of the most extreme cases was when they arrested my husband in 2004 while I was giving birth to one of my daughters...while I was in the delivery room they arrested him
Sumaia

UNDER SIEGE

Over the past 14 years, more than 2 million Palestinians in the Gaza Strip have been living under Israel's illegal blockade. Along with four major military offensives, the blockade has had catastrophic consequences for the people of Gaza.

The blockade is a form of collective punishment. It forces Gaza's population - the majority of whom are refugees or their descendants who fled in 1948 - to live in increasingly dire conditions. There are severe shortages of housing, drinking water, electricity, essential medicines and medical care, food, educational equipment and building materials. In 2020, Gaza had the world's highest unemployment rate, and more than half of its population was living below the poverty line.

On 30 March 2018, Palestinians in Gaza launched the Great March of Return, a series of weekly mass demonstrations along the fence between Gaza and Israel.

They were demanding their right to return to their villages and towns in what is now Israel, as well as an end to Israel's blockade on Gaza. The response was brutal: by the end of 2019, Israeli forces had killed 214 civilians, including 46 children, and injured more than 8,000 others with live ammunition. A total of 156 of those injured had to have limbs amputated. More than 1,200 patients require long-term, complex and expensive therapy and rehabilitation, and tens of thousands more require psycho-social support -none of which are widely available in Gaza.

The blockade prevents Palestinians from accessing adequate healthcare, in particular life-saving and other emergency medical treatment only available outside Gaza. The Israeli authorities often delay these permits and sometimes fail to provide them at all.

Adham Al-Hajjar, 36, is a freelance journalist and lives in Gaza City. On 6 April 2018, while he was covering the Great March of Return demonstrations, Israeli snipers positioned along the fence separating Gaza from Israel shot him. He is unable to get the medical help he needs in Gaza because of the debilitated health services there.

The bullet that entered my leg did not just enter and leave my body. It entered and stopped everything; it stopped my life. Just because a soldier pulled the trigger without thinking of how it would devastate my life. Did he or she ever think about what this would cause? I am walking around as a dead man, everything in my life froze from the moment that bullet entered my leg
Adham Al-Hajjar

CRIMINAL PATTERNS

Israel has been systematically committing serious human rights violations against Palestinians for decades. Violations such as forcible transfer, administrative detention, torture, unlawful killings and serious injuries, and the denial of basic rights and freedoms have been well documented by Amnesty and others. It is clear that Israel's apartheid system is being maintained through committing these abuses-which have been perpetrated with almost total impunity.

They form part of a widespread and systematic attack against the Palestinian population, carried out within the context of Israel's institutionalised regime of systematic oppression and domination over Palestinians, and therefore constitute crimes against humanity of apartheid.

DISMANTLING THE SYSTEM

There is no place for apartheid in our world. It is a crime against humanity, and it has to end.

Israeli authorities have enjoyed impunity for too long. The international failure to hold Israel to account means Palestinians are still suffering every single day. It's time to speak up, to stand with Palestinians and tell Israel that we will not tolerate apartheid.

For decades, Palestinians have been calling for an end to the oppression they live under. All too often, they pay a terrible price for standing up for their rights, and they have long been calling for others around the world to help them.

Let this be the beginning of an end to Israel's system of apartheid against Palestinians.

Join us in the fight for justice, freedom, and equality for all.

The Palestinian experience of being denied a home is at the heart of Israel's apartheid system. That's why, as a first step towards dismantling this system, we are calling on Israel to end the practice of home demolitions.

Palestinian families need people to stand with them against injustice and discrimination, by taking action to help them protect their homes.

Further Reading

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Palestinians are systematically subjected to home demolitions and forced evictions, and live in constant fear of losing their homes. For more than 73 years, Israel has been forcibly displacing entire Palestinian communities. Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians' homes have been demolished, causing terrible trauma & suffering.

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France 24: Israel orders air strikes on Gaza following rocket fire in wake of deadly West Bank raid

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France 24: Israel orders air strikes on Gaza following rocket fire in wake of deadly West Bank raid

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Israel orders air strikes on Gaza following rocket fire in wake of deadly West Bank raid

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Gaza militants fired rockets and Israel carried out air strikes across the Israel-Gaza frontier on Thursday, a day after 11 Palestinians were killed during an Israeli raid in the occupied West Bank,…

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The BBC: Eleven Palestinians killed during Israeli raid in Nablus

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The BBC: Eleven Palestinians killed during Israeli raid in Nablus

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Israeli troops have killed at least 11 Palestinians and wounded dozens more during a raid in the occupied West Bank, Palestinian health officials say.

Explosions and gunfire sounded as troops entered the old city of Nablus on Wednesday morning, sparking armed clashes with Palestinian gunmen.

The Israeli military said it killed three wanted militants holed up inside a house who refused to surrender.

Several of those killed outside were civilians, including two elderly men.

The Palestinian health ministry said 72-year-old Adnan Saabe Baara was one of them. Video footage purportedly showed his body in a street next to bags of bread, in what is usually a busy market area.

A 61-year-old man, Abdul Hadi Ashqar, and a 16-year-old boy, Mohammad Shaaban, were also shot dead, the ministry said.

Another elderly man, Anan Shawkat Annab, 66, who suffered from tear-gas inhalation, died in hospital on Wednesday evening.

Six members of the Lions' Den and other militant groups were killed during the raid, the Lions' Den said in a Telegram post.

The number of dead is one more than that of an Israeli military raid last month in Jenin, which was the deadliest in the West Bank since 2005.

What makes this raid even more significant is the huge numbers wounded, with the Palestinian health ministry saying more than 80 people have suffered bullet wounds. Five different hospitals in Nablus are currently treating them.

Senior Palestinian official Hussein al-Sheikh condemned what he described as a "massacre", while a spokesman for Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said he held Israel's government responsible for "this dangerous escalation, which is pushing the region toward tension and an explosion".

The militant group Hamas, which controls the Gaza Strip, warned that it was "monitoring the escalating crimes conducted by the enemy against our people in the occupied West Bank and is running out of patience".

The raid lasted four hours and took place in the middle of morning, when the narrow streets of the old city are often packed with families and people shopping.

Resident Khalil Shaheen described hearing an explosion, which woke him up.

"I looked out the window and saw special forces with dogs, and they were connecting wires, which I assume are for TNT [explosives], God knows," he said.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said it "upgraded" its operation after forces were shot at by Palestinian gunmen. Its troops fired shoulder-launched missiles at the building where the wanted militants were hiding, which caused it to partially collapse.

It said it acted when it did because it had real-time information - thought to be a geolocated Facebook post - on the location of one of the militants.

"We saw the threat and we had to go in and finish the work," IDF spokesman Lt Col Richard Hecht said in a briefing to reporters.

But Palestinian videos posted on social media also show young men in the street, who appear unarmed, apparently being fired at while running away, with one falling to the ground as gunshots are heard. The IDF described the footage as "problematic" and said it was being reviewed.

Two of the militants in the encircled building were Muhammad Junaidi, a commander in Palestinian Islamic Jihad, and another senior militant figure, Hussam Isleem.

The IDF said they and the third militant, Walid Dkhail, were suspected of carrying out previous shooting attacks, including one in the West Bank last October that killed an Israeli soldier, and of planning more attacks in the near future. Two other suspects were arrested in Nablus last week.

During the raid, Isleem recorded a WhatsApp audio message that was shared on social media, saying: "We're in trouble, but we won't surrender ourselves. We won't hand over our weapons. I'll die as a martyr. Keep carrying weapons after us."

Isleem's house had been raided by Israeli forces earlier this month and his family interrogated. His father told Palestinian media afterwards that forces told him his son should hand himself in or he would be killed.

Both Isleem and Junaidi were active in the Lions' Den - a new militant group that emerged in Nablus over the last year amid a collapse in control by the official Palestinian Authority security forces.

As with a similar group in the nearby city of Jenin, the young gunmen used TikTok and Telegram to spread a message of armed resistance against the Israeli occupation to a new generation of Palestinians.

Israel has targeted parts of both cities in waves of search, arrest and intelligence-gathering raids, saying it is trying to stem the spate of deadly attacks against Israelis.

So far this year, more than 60 Palestinians - including militants and civilians - have been killed, while 11 people have been killed in Palestinian attacks targeting Israelis.

Wednesday's deadly raid in Nablus is a further sign that recent attempts led by the US to ease tensions are failing.

This week, the Palestinian Authority abandoned its push for a vote at the UN Security Council on a resolution which would have censured Israel's new nationalist government over its plans to expand Israeli settlements in the West Bank.

As part of an apparent understanding, Israel then said it would not announce new settlements in the coming months. According to sources quoted in the Israeli media, Israel was also to lower the intensity of its raids into Palestinian cities.

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Eleven Palestinians killed during Israeli raid in Nablus

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More than 80 people also suffer bullet wounds after troops surround a house with militants inside.

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Al Jazeera: Tensions high in West Bank after deadly Israeli settler rampage

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Al Jazeera: Tensions high in West Bank after deadly Israeli settler rampage

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A settler rampage took place late on Sunday in the villages of Huwara, Zaatara, Burin and Asira al-Qibliya, all south of Nablus [Shadi Jarar'ah/Al Jazeera]

Ramallah, occupied West Bank - Israeli settlers have carried out at least 300 attacks, including shootings and arson, in a rampage through Palestinian villages in the Nablus area of the occupied West Bank, Palestinian officials say, in what has been described as a "pogrom".

A 37-year-old Palestinian man identified as Samih al-Aqtash was shot in the stomach on Sunday night by settlers protected by the Israeli army in the village of Zaatara south of Nablus. He died of his injuries. The father of five returned home five days ago after volunteering to help earthquake survivors in Turkey.

At least 390 Palestinians were injured in the settler rampage across the villages of Huwara, Zaatara, Burin and Asira al-Qibliya - all south of Nablus, the Palestinian Red Crescent said, adding that the majority were wounded from tear gas fired by the Israeli army as well as smoke inhalation from widespread fires set by the settlers.

Palestinian media reported stabbings and attacks with metal rods and rocks. The Palestinian Ministry of Health said one person was in hospital after being beaten in the head with a rock, causing fractures to the skull. Another person suffered a beating with a metal rod to the face.

Saddam Omar, a resident of Huwara, described the violence as "barbaric".

"Yesterday we witnessed a new level of colonising settler crimes, where they aggressively attacked everything," he told Al Jazeera on Monday.

"I mean literally shops, people, supermarkets, houses, trees, cars, car garages," he said. "They tried to enter the houses. They burned almost everything."

Omar added that the settlers "were 100 percent protected by the Israeli army".

At least 30 Palestinian homes and 100 cars were set on fire by settlers, Ghassan Daghlas, the Palestinian Authority's head of settlement monitoring for the northern West Bank, told Al Jazeera. There were no burn injuries to residents.

Daghlas said the attack was "unprecedented in terms of size and the short amount of time in which it took place," adding that the Israeli army was a "partner" in the attacks.

Israel on Monday deployed hundreds more soldiers to the West Bank. Huwara, the main southern entrance into Nablus, was closed.

On Monday afternoon, dozens of armed settlers gathered in Huwara under Israeli army protection, raising fears of another attack.

It truly is an Israeli state-sponsored #pogrom in Huwara tonight.
20 Palestinian houses set on fire. Countless cars were burnt. Ambulances & firetrucks were attacked with stones. 98 reported injuries among Palestinians, including people who were stabbed or hit with metal rods. pic.twitter.com/lHIOwVXRPW

- Jalal (@JalalAK_jojo) February 26, 2023

Widespread condemnation

The settlers carried out their rampage shortly after two Israeli settlers were killed in a shooting by a Palestinian man in Huwara. The settlers were two brothers in their 20s who lived in the illegal settlement of Har Bracha south of Nablus.

The violence has been widely condemned by local and international politicians, NGOs and human rights groups.

"Scenes of burning houses and cars, assault on citizens, preventing fire trucks from reaching burned houses and assaulting ambulances transporting patients and injured - all these crimes must face international intervention soon to hold the occupation authorities and stop them," Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh said in a statement.

"We hold the occupation authorities fully responsible for these heinous crimes, which reflect a systematic policy practiced by the Israeli government, whose ministers demonstrate their support for those crimes in violation of international laws," he said, adding that a ministerial committee will be formed to compensate the people affected.

The Ramallah-based Al Haq rights groups said the attack was the "result of decades long impunity enjoyed by Israel & settlers for international crimes committed against Palestinians".

The horrific events carried out by Israel's illegal Jewish settlers against Palestinian communities near Nablus yesterday is the result of decades long impunity enjoyed by Israel & settlers for international crimes committed against Palestinians #EndImpunity #Huwarra https://t.co/6q1IZbK0tC

- Al-Haq الحق (@alhaq_org) February 27, 2023

Sami Abu Shahadeh, a Palestinian politician in the Israeli parliament, said: "The Zionist pogrom taking place in Huwara is a consequence of the Israeli government's Jewish supremacist political platform."

The Israeli rights groups Peace Now and B'Tselem also described the attacks as a settler "pogrom" supported by the Israeli government.

A number of foreign governments, including the United States and France, also issued condemnations on the attacks.

Rising settler attacks

Israeli settler attacks have consistently been rising for the past six years. Attacks on villages in the Nablus area, where there is a heavy settler concentration, have been increasing and becoming more organised over the past year.

Many of these incidents have been recorded on video that shows the attacks taking place under the protection or in coordination with the Israeli army, sometimes with soldiers and settlers shooting side by side.

In a statement on December 15, the United Nations said, "2022 is the sixth year of consecutive annual increase in the number of Israeli settler attacks in the occupied West Bank."

"Disturbing evidence of Israeli forces frequently facilitating, supporting and participating in settler attacks, makes it difficult to discern between Israeli settler and state violence. Armed and masked Israeli settlers are attacking Palestinians in their homes, attacking children on their way to school, destroying property and burning olive groves, and terrorising entire communities with complete impunity," the statement said.

In recent weeks, matters on the ground have become particularly tense after Israel carried out several large-scale raids in Palestinian cities, killing dozens of Palestinians.

On Wednesday, Israeli forces killed 11 Palestinians and wounded more than 100, the majority with live ammunition, during a raid on Nablus. It was the largest Palestinian death toll in a single Israeli military operation since 2005.

Less than a month prior, the Israeli army killed 10 Palestinians during an attack on the Jenin refugee camp, including two children and a 61-year-old woman.

The Israeli army and settlers have killed 67 Palestinians since the start of 2023, including 13 children. The Palestinian Ministry of Health said the death toll is the highest in the past 22 years.

The developments on Sunday in Nablus happened during talks between Palestinian Authority and Israeli officials at the Red Sea port of Aqaba. Representatives from the US and Egypt also attended the meeting, which was condemned and rejected by many Palestinians.

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Tensions high in West Bank after deadly Israeli settler rampage

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Ramallah, occupied West Bank - Israeli settlers have carried out at least 300 attacks, including shootings and arson, in a rampage through Palestinian villages in the Nablus area of the occupied West Bank, Palestinian officials say, in what has been described as a "pogrom".

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The BBC: Settlers rampage in West Bank villages after Israelis killed

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The BBC: Settlers rampage in West Bank villages after Israelis killed

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Israeli settlers have attacked Palestinian villages in the northern occupied West Bank, after two settlers were shot dead by a Palestinian gunman.

One Palestinian man was killed and more than 100 others were injured in the overnight violence near Nablus, the Palestinian health ministry said.

Dozens of cars and houses were also burnt, according to a local official.

It followed the killings of the two Israelis - brothers from a nearby settlement - along a highway.

The Israeli military said it was continuing to search for the Palestinian who shot Hillel Yaniv, 22, and Yagel Yaniv, 20, and that it had moved in extra troops.

Earlier on Sunday, Israeli and Palestinian officials had pledged to de-escalate tensions at a summit in Jordan.

Videos posted hours after the summit ended showed a large crowd of Israeli settlers entering the village of Hawara, about 4 miles (6km) south of Nablus, lighting fires and throwing stones.

A Palestinian official who monitors settlements in the Nablus region, Ghassan Daghlas, told Palestinian Wafa news agency that 30 houses were damaged by stones or burned down, and that 15 vehicles were torched.

Settlers also set a barn and three vehicles on fire in nearby Burin, as well as a house and a water tank in Asira al-Qabaliyya, he said.

The Palestinian health ministry said 37-year-old Sameh Aqtash died after being shot in the stomach during an attack by settlers in Zaatara.

This part of the West Bank falls under full Israeli control, and Palestinians criticised Israeli security forces for failing to protect them.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said he held the Israeli government fully responsible for what he called "the terrorist acts carried out by Israeli settlers, under the protection of the Israeli occupation forces".

Israel's Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, appealed for calm and urged settlers to allow the Israeli military and security forces to focus on finding the gunman who killed the two Israelis.

"I ask that when blood is boiling and the spirit is hot, don't take the law into your hands," he said in a video statement.

Settlers had called for a march to Hawara in order to "seek revenge" for the deadly attack on the brothers, who lived in the settlement of Har Bracha, which is 1.2 miles (2km) south of Nablus.

The two men were driving through Hawara when a Palestinian man rammed their car and then shot them both several times.

No Palestinian militant group has so far claimed they were behind the attack, but the gunman was reportedly wearing a shirt bearing the insignia of the Nablus-based Lions' Den.

Members of the group were the targets of an Israeli raid in Nablus last Wednesday in which 11 Palestinians, including several civilians, were killed - the deadliest such operation in the West Bank since 2005.

Israeli forces have been carrying out waves of search, arrest and intelligence-gathering raids in Nablus and the nearby city of Jenin, saying they are trying to stem the spate of deadly attacks against Israelis by Palestinians.

Since the start of this year, more than 60 Palestinians - militants and civilians - have been killed by Israeli forces. On the Israeli side, 13 people have been killed in attacks - all civilians, except for a paramilitary police officer.

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Settlers rampage in West Bank villages after Israelis killed

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Israeli settlers have attacked Palestinian villages in the northern occupied West Bank, after two settlers were shot dead by a Palestinian gunman. One Palestinian man was killed and more than 100 others were injured in the overnight violence near Nablus, the Palestinian health ministry said.

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France 24: Israeli-Palestinian conflict: How to end escalating violence after Jenin raid? 

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France 24: Israeli-Palestinian conflict: How to end escalating violence after Jenin raid? 

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Israeli-Palestinian conflict: How to end escalating violence after Jenin raid? • FRANCE 24 English

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CNN: Traumatized and afraid, Jenin residents are still reeling from Israeli raid

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CNN: Traumatized and afraid, Jenin residents are still reeling from Israeli raid

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Mohammed Abu al-Hayja was sleeping alongside his wife and two young daughters last month when loud gunfire woke them up. Minutes later, Israeli soldiers rammed down his door and burst through his apartment.

"They spread through the house in seconds," 29-year-old al-Hayja told CNN. "Two soldiers came up to me, told me to get up, one told me, 'Leave your daughter with her mother,' and then he took me and cuffed my hands behind my back."

Al-Hayja's traumatic run-in with Israeli security forces happened as they carried out what they described as a counterterrorism operation in the center of the Jenin refugee camp on January 26. The building they targeted is just a few meters from his home.

"The security forces operated to apprehend a terror squad belonging to the Islamic Jihad terror organization," the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF), the Israeli Security Agency and the Israel Border Police said in a joint statement, hours after the raid.

Ten Palestinians were killed in Jenin, including an elderly woman, according to Palestinian officials. Another Palestinian was killed in what Israel Police called a "violent disturbance" near Jerusalem hours later, making it the deadliest day for Palestinians in the West Bank in over a year, according to CNN records. As violence spiraled in the region, at least seven people were killed and three injured in a shooting near a synagogue in Jerusalem a day later according to Israeli police.

In Jenin, Al-Hayja recalls the events of January 26 clearly, explaining that after being handcuffed an Israeli soldier took him to the bathroom and made him kneel down, before wrapping a towel around his head.

Restrained, blindfolded and stuck in his bathroom, al-Hayja then started hearing gunfire from inside his apartment. "I could hear it, and if I concentrated I could hear one of the soldiers talking to my wife," he says.

Al-Hayja says he was able to convince the soldiers to let him go to his wife. Still blindfolded, he crawled to his living room, as bullets flew above him.

Israeli soldiers had removed one of his couches and set up a firing position by the window to provide cover for their units engaging Palestinian gunmen nearby. Using apartments like al-Hayja's to provide cover fire is "standard operating procedure," a spokesman for the Israeli military told CNN.

Representatives of the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) visited Jenin in the days after the incident and spoke to al-Hayja and his family. "Their children were noticeably traumatized," Adam Bouloukos, director of UNRWA Affairs in the West Bank told CNN. "This kind of invasion violates not only international law but common decency."

As Israeli soldiers fired, the Palestinian gunmen fired back, holes from their bullets dotting the family home's doors and walls. Al-Hayja showed CNN a bag of spent bullet casings he says the Israeli soldiers left behind. "They fired a crazy number of bullets," he added.

While they did, al-Hayja and his wife lay on the floor clutching their young daughters for more than three hours. Their oldest daughter is 2-and-a-half, the youngest 18-months-old. "Honestly, I thought I had maybe 1% chance of making it out alive," he said.

Moments later an explosion rocked the apartment. He later found out that Israeli soldiers had mounted a second firing position in his bedroom.

They sawed off the window bars and fired a rocket at the building the gunmen were in, with scorch marks smudging al-Hayja's ceiling.

"I said to myself, we are going to die," he said.

A traumatized community

From atop al-Hayja's building, the sprawling Jenin refugee camp spreads toward the horizon and up the hills. What were once temporary tents, is now a more permanent-looking slum of sandstone houses, cobbled on top of each other.

Down below, lies the building targeted by Israeli soldiers. The structure was so damaged after the raid that local officials decided it was safer to bulldoze it down. On the rubble, people have placed banners with the faces of some of those killed - "martyrs," they read - and a lone Palestinian flag.

While this operation was one of the deadliest in years, for residents here, such Israeli incursions occur all too often. Posters remembering other people killed in confrontations with Israeli security forces over the years line walls across the neighborhood.

The IDF says these raids are targeted, aimed at terrorists, and that they open fire when those they are searching for fire at them.

But people in Jenin see it differently. "The Israelis raid the camp and they fire at anything that moves," paramedic Abdel-Rahman Macharqa told CNN.

The 31-year-old has seen multiple gun battles in Jenin and says the situation is becoming increasingly riskier, even for those who save lives, like him.

"They [Israeli soldiers] have fired at me five times," Macharqa said. "We don't feel safe, even in uniform."

"When we say goodbye to our wives and children to come to work, we know we could become martyrs," he added.

Macharqa witnessed part of the raid in Jenin as it unfolded on January 26. The paramedic tried to help one of the three civilians whom Israeli officials say were killed there, along with seven gunmen.

"They opened fired on him and he was hit three times," he recalled. Macharqa said he pulled the man away and attempted to resuscitate him, but he died.

"We deserve to live," Macharqa said. He feels frustrated, not just by Israeli actions, but also what he sees as the passive attitude and double standards of the international community.

"Israelis claim he is a terrorist, but Ukrainians, when they defend themselves from the Russian invasion is that terrorism?," he asked.

'Born into the war'

On the day of the raid, Ziad Miri'ee peaked out of his door after he heard gunfire. He saw an Israeli soldier firing through his car to hit a young man from his neighborhood.

"Our neighbors over there tried to pull him out (of the street)," he said. "The kid died."

Miri'ee, 63, says he was one of the Jenin camp's oldest residents, but he also believes the situation has been getting worse.

"In 2002, when they raided the camp and bulldozed the houses it was much easier than the three-and-a-half hours of last week's raid," he said. At the time, during the second intifada, Israeli forces occupied the camp, destroying around 400 homes.

"2002 was a child play compared to the incident here last week. We couldn't step a meter outside the house because the bullets were coming in," he said.

Miri'ee believes the situation is bound to get even worse, as frustration with the occupation grows, the lack of future on the horizon is driving more and more young people to join the ranks of militant organizations such as the Islamic Jihad.

"Yes, there's more [fighters] from this generation," he says. "This generation was born into the war."

Upstairs from Miri'ee, al-Hayja is still shaken by the traumatic experience. Inside his home there's no room for bravado, just concern over the safety of his daughters.

"I don't interfere or get involved in these things, I just go from my work to my house and it all landed on my head," he said. "You are in your city and you are not safe, you are in your house and you are not safe."

"You are not safe from this occupier who occupies your land" he added. "You are not safe at all."

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international relations and national security

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Traumatized and afraid, Jenin residents are still reeling from Israeli raid | CNN

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Mohammed Abu al-Hayja was sleeping alongside his wife and two young daughters last month when loud gunfire woke them up. Minutes later, Israeli soldiers rammed down his door and burst through his apartment. "They spread through the house in seconds," 29-year-old al-Hayja told CNN.

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Vox News: Why violence in Israel and Palestine has spiked in the last 48 hours

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Vox News: Why violence in Israel and Palestine has spiked in the last 48 hours

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It's been a violent two days in Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories. On Friday evening in East Jerusalem, a Palestinian gunman killed at least seven Israelis in the most lethal attack in the city since 2008. Israeli officials described the shooting outside a synagogue as an act of terrorism. Earlier Friday, three rockets were shot from Gaza and Israeli jets attacked an underground Hamas bomb-making facility, according to the Israeli military.

A day prior, in the refugee camp of Jenin in the occupied West Bank, Israeli commandos raided an apartment building and the surrounding area, and killed nine Palestinians and wounded 20, in what a spokesperson for the Palestinian Authority called "a massacre." Israel said the site of the raid housed a terrorist cell of the Islamic Jihad group.

More than one Palestinian has been killed a day on average in the first month of 2023, on track to double the tragic rate of lethal violence in the occupied West Bank last year - which was already the highest on record since the United Nations began collecting this data, and double that of 2021.

Little is known about the Friday shooter or his motives; he was killed by police after attacking the synagogue.

The escalating cycle of violence comes as CIA director Bill Burns visits Israel and Palestine; Secretary of State Antony Blinken arrives there on Monday. "We underscore the urgent need for all parties to de-escalate, prevent further loss of civilian life, and work together to improve the security situation in the West Bank," State Department spokesperson Ned Price said in a statement Thursday.

But analysts described the increasingly deadly and volatile situation as a product of foreclosed hope and other structural factors, exacerbated by an extreme-right Israeli government taking power earlier this month. At the very least, things are unlikely to calm.

The situation for Palestinians was already bad and continues to get worse, says Mairav Zonszein, an International Crisis Group analyst. "With a new far right government committed to continued dispossession of Palestinians and expansion of settlements, with the Palestinian body politic in shambles and no international stakeholder taking proactive steps, the crisis is likely to continue escalating," she wrote in a message.

What we know about the attacks

It's unusual, if not unprecedented, for a Palestinian attacker to respond so quickly to an Israeli raid like the one on Thursday in Jenin, an Israeli analyst speaking on condition of anonymity told me. Though it's too soon to draw big conclusions about the particulars of each developing story, it is clear that the already dire situation could get very ugly.

On Friday evening outside a synagogue in the Israeli settlement of Neve Yaakov in East Jerusalem, a Palestinian militant shot at least 10 people and then was killed by police. The situation is still unfolding, and no militant Palestinian groups immediately claimed credit, but police have identified the shooter as a 21-year-old resident of East Jerusalem. The attack occurred on International Holocaust Remembrance Day. No information about the victims was immediately shared.

The Jerusalem police head pledged an " aggressive and significant" pursuit of anyone who abetted the attacker. "Israel will continue to act forcefully against the threat of terrorism. We will pursue and reach every terrorist who harms Israeli citizens," the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement.

A day earlier, a deadly Israeli raid on a Palestinian home in the Jenin refugee camp killed nine, among them an elderly woman named Majida Obaid. "Most injuries that arrived at the hospital today were in the head and chest area," read a Palestinian Ministry of Health statement Thursday on the raid, cited by the news site Mondoweiss. "This means that the shooting of live ammunition towards residents was with the intent to kill." Israeli forces also obstructed the movement of ambulances with gunfire, the hospital's head, Wissam Baker, told Al Jazeera.

Armed Palestinian resistance groups have been expanding in the occupied territories, including in Jenin, partially in response to the fractured nature of Palestinian leadership, the lack of opportunities for Palestinians, and the long-stalled negotiations that could lead to an sovereign state of Palestine. Over the past year, Israeli forces have responded to these new groups, notably Lion's Den, with intensive raids with high numbers of civilian deaths.

The State Department's top Middle East official, Barbara Leaf, told reporters Thursday that the lethal strike in Jenin had dismantled "a ticking time bomb of a threat - of a terrorist threat," apparently amplifying comments from a senior Israeli military official.

In response to the Israeli operation, Palestine Liberation Organization chair Mahmoud Abbas said he would cut off security coordination with the Israeli government. Some experts noted that's often been a talking point for Abbas, but one he has not always followed through on.

UN special rapporteur for human rights Francesca Albanese noted Israel's obligation as an occupying power to safeguard Palestinian civilians in the West Bank and emphasized the "deeply alarming high rate of apparent extrajudicial killings of Palestinians of 2022 continues in this new year."

Should we expect more violence under Israel's new government?

In November, Israelis elected the most extreme government in the country's history. More than 80,000 protesters demonstrated against the government's new members and their judicial moves that would weaken the authority of the country's supreme court. Even Moshe Ya'alon, a former defense minister who had served as a member of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's center-right Likud party, has called the new Israeli government "a dictatorship of criminals." But less attention inside Israel has been paid to the radical new governing coalition's drastic implications for Palestinian citizens of Israel and Palestinians living under occupation.

"The death toll over both in the West Bank and now in Jerusalem is in fact the entirely predictable result of an extremist Israeli government that is propagating violence," said Sarah Leah Whitson, executive director of the advocacy and research organization Democracy for the Arab World Now.

The Biden administration, for its part, has restrained its criticism of the government so far. Though the Biden administration still holds out the prospect of a two-state solution and an independent Palestinian state, those talks have been frozen since 2014, and more recently Israel has forged diplomatic relations with Arab states like the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, and Morocco, giving the government of Israel little incentive to advance any two-state outcome.

It's not entirely clear how Secretary of State Blinken will manage to deescalate tensions between Israelis and Palestinians during his upcoming trip. The priorities for the visit include "preserving the two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and the protection of human rights and democratic values," all which appear at risk of devolving further.

Tom Pickering, a career ambassador who previously served in Israel, is concerned that the rising violence could lead to a third Intifadah, or uprising, among Palestinians. "At the moment, the two-state outcome, as most people are fond of saying, is dead," he told me. "But there is a no-state outcome that's in the making" - that is, a status quo sought by the current Israeli government, in which a Palestinian state is no longer a viable possibility.

But the tragic violence of the past two days shows that's not much of a solution at all.

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Why violence in Israel and Palestine has spiked in the last 48 hours

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It's been a violent two days in Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories. On Friday evening in East Jerusalem, a Palestinian gunman killed at least seven Israelis in the most lethal attack in the city since 2008. Israeli officials described the shooting outside a synagogue as an act of terrorism.

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Israel-Palestinian conflict: Fears of wider flare-up after deadly Jenin raid

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Israel-Palestinian conflict: Fears of wider flare-up after deadly Jenin raid

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Israel-Palestinian conflict: Fears of wider flare-up after deadly Jenin raid

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What’s behind the raid on the West Bank city, which led to nine Palestinian deaths on Thursday?

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Nine Palestinians killed in Israeli raid in Jenin

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Nine Palestinians killed in Israeli raid in Jenin

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Nine Palestinians have been killed during an Israeli military raid in the occupied West Bank - the deadliest in years - Palestinian officials say.

A woman aged 61 was reported among the dead in the flashpoint town of Jenin.

The Israeli military said its troops went in to arrest Islamic Jihad "terror operatives" planning "major attacks".

The Palestinian presidency accused Israel of a "massacre" and later announced it had ended co-ordination with Israel on security matters.

A 10th Palestinian was meanwhile shot and killed during a confrontation with Israeli troops in the town of al-Ram, near Jerusalem, as residents protested against the Jenin raid, Palestinian officials said.

Overnight, Israel said it carried out airstrikes against Palestinian militants in Gaza after two rockets were fired into Israel. No group in Gaza has claimed responsibility for the rockets, both of which were intercepted by Israeli air defence systems.

The scale of the bombing in Gaza is not yet clear, although the AFP news agency said there were no reported injuries on either side.

Tensions have recently risen in the West Bank, as the Israeli military continues what it describes as an anti-terrorism offensive that began last year following a series of deadly attacks in Israel.

Heavy gunfire and explosions echoed across the crowded, urban Jenin refugee camp, as fierce battles between Palestinian militants and Israeli forces raged for three hours on Thursday morning.

The Palestinian health ministry identified three of those killed as Magda Obaid, 61, Saeb Izreiqi, 24, and Izzidin Salahat, 26. Twenty people were also wounded, four of them seriously, it said.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said its troops entered Jenin to arrest an Islamic Jihad "terror squad", who it accused of being "heavily involved in planning and executing multiple major terrorist attacks on Israeli civilians and soldiers".

It said forces surrounded a building and that three armed suspects were "neutralised" after they opened fire, while a fourth suspect surrendered. The IDF said troops were shot at by other Palestinian gunmen and returned fire, hitting targets. It added it was looking into "claims regarding additional casualties".

Islamic Jihad and Hamas said their fighters had targeted the troops with gunfire and improvised explosive devices.

The house which the IDF said was being used as a hideout by the Islamic Jihad cell was still smouldering where furniture inside caught fire.

The outer walls on the ground floor were reduced to rubble, leaving the taps and sink of a bathroom exposed. The upper floor was meanwhile pocked with bullet holes, while the stairwell contained a pool of blood.

Aisha Abu al-Naj, 73, who lives next door, told the BBC that her house shook during the raid and that she and her family feared for their lives.

"We were afraid. I saw the army and then I couldn't open or look through the window. It was a scary situation," she said.

"There were some young Palestinians next to our building who then came and surrounded it. They shot at them. And then there was a lot of people who were killed."

Magda Obaid's daughter said her mother also lived near the targeted house, and that she was shot in the neck as she peered out of her window to see what was happening.

The official Palestinian news agency Wafa reported that seven youths were shot and wounded while attempting to prevent the Israeli forces from entering Jenin, and that the troops "completely destroyed" the Jenin Camp Club.

Taxi driver Mohammed Ammori said he had been talking to a friend when Israeli troops pulled up beside a building close to the club in cars and a lorry.

"We heard gunshots. We fled into the Jenin club and we stayed under siege there for three hours."

He added: "After about an hour, military bulldozers destroyed cars on both sides of the road, then destroyed the club's wall."

Palestinian Health Minister Mai al-Kaila said Palestinian Red Crescent ambulances were initially unable to reach the wounded because Israeli troops restricted access to the scene.

The children's ward of a local hospital was also hit by Israeli tear gas, she said. The IDF told AFP news agency that there was activity not far away and that it was possible some tear gas entered through an open window.

As funerals took place, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas declared three days of national mourning in response to what his spokesman called a "massacre" happening "amidst international silence".

"This is what encourages the occupation government to commit massacres against our people in full view of the world," Nabil Abu Rudeineh said.

Jenin Deputy Governor Kamal Abu al-Rub told AFP that residents were living in a "real state of war" and that Israeli forces were "destroying everything and shooting at everything that moves".

Top Hamas official Saleh al-Arouri said that "the response of the resistance will not be late in coming".

Later, the Palestinian Authority declared that security co-ordination with Israeli authorities "no longer exists as of now". A statement said the decision was taken by the leadership "in light of the repeated aggression against our people, and the undermining of signed agreements".

United Nations Middle East envoy Tor Wennesland said he was "deeply alarmed and saddened" by the violence.

"Since the beginning of this year, we are continuing to witness high levels of violence and other negative trends that characterized 2022. It is crucial to reduce tensions immediately and prevent more loss of life," he added.

At least 30 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces in the West Bank so far this year, including militants and civilians, as the military continues operations there.

Last year in the West Bank more than 150 Palestinians were killed, nearly all by Israeli forces. The dead included unarmed civilians, militant gunmen and armed attackers.

A series of attacks by Palestinians and Israeli Arabs targeting Israelis, as well as militant gunfire at troops during arrest raids, meanwhile killed more than 30 people including civilians, police and soldiers.

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Nine Palestinians killed in Israeli raid in Jenin

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The heaviest death toll in years came as troops battled militants in the flashpoint West Bank town.

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Israeli forces kill nine Palestinians during West Bank raid

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Israeli forces kill nine Palestinians during West Bank raid

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An Israeli raid on the Jenin refugee camp in the occupied West Bank killed nine Palestinians including an elderly woman, Palestinian officials have said. They also accused the forces of using teargas inside a hospital's children's ward.

The health ministry said that in addition to the nine dead, multiple people were wounded.

In a separate statement, the Palestinian health minister, Mai al-Kaila, said: "Occupation forces stormed Jenin government hospital and intentionally fired teargas canisters at the paediatric department."

She described the situation in the refugee camp as "critical" and said Israeli forces were preventing ambulances from reaching the wounded.

Kaila called for an urgent meeting with the World Health Organization and the International Committee of the Red Cross over the events in Jenin.

Israel's army declined to comment when asked about the minister's teargas allegation. The military has said only that its "forces are operating in Jenin".

Jenin's deputy governor, Kamal Abu al-Rub, said residents were living in a "real state of war". He said: "The Israeli army is destroying everything and shooting at everything that moves."

The Palestinian presidency said Thursday's raid on Jenin was happening "under international silence". "This is what encourages the occupation government to commit massacres against our people in full view of the world," said Nabil Abu Rudeinah, a spokesperson for the Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas.

Thursday's fatalities bring the number of Palestinians killed in the West Bank so far this year to 29, including fighters and civilians, most of whom were shot by Israeli forces.

Last year was the deadliest year in the Palestinian territory since UN records began in 2005.

At least 26 Israelis and 200 Palestinians were killed across Israel and the Palestinian territories in 2022, the majority in the West Bank, according to an AFP tally from official sources.

Israel has occupied the West Bank since the 1967 six-day war.

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Palestinians say nine killed in Israeli raid on Jenin refugee camp

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An Israeli raid on the Jenin refugee camp in the occupied West Bank killed nine Palestinians including an elderly woman, Palestinian officials have said. They also accused the forces of using teargas inside a hospital's children's ward. The health ministry said that in addition to the nine dead, multiple people were wounded.

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Israeli air attacks hit Gaza, escalation fears after Jenin raid

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Israeli air attacks hit Gaza, escalation fears after Jenin raid

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Israeli troops have killed 10 Palestinians in one of the deadliest days in the occupied West Bank since Israeli raids intensified at the start of last year.

According to the Palestinian Ministry of Health, nine of the Palestinians killed were in the Jenin refugee camp, after Israeli forces raided the area.

The other Palestinian, a 22-year-old man, was shot by Israeli forces in the town of al-Ram, north of Jerusalem.

In the Jenin raid, which Palestinians have described as a "massacre", at least 20 others were wounded with live ammunition. Four of them were in critical condition.

The dead included an elderly woman, according to Palestinian officials. She was identified as Magda Obaid by the Jenin hospital authorities.

Israeli forces, who withdrew from Jenin after the killings, said they were looking into reports of the woman's death.

Meanwhile, Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigade - an armed militia affiliated with the Palestinian political party Fatah - said the dead included one of its fighters, Izz al-Din Salahat.

According to the health ministry, another person, Saeb Azriqi, 24, succumbed to his injuries in a hospital.

It said the situation on the ground was very difficult, with injured people continuously reaching hospitals, as it accused Israeli forces of obstructing ambulances and medics.

"There is an invasion that is unprecedented ... in terms of how large it is and the number of injuries," Wissam Baker, head of Jenin public hospital, told Al Jazeera.

"The ambulance driver tried to get to one of the martyrs who was on the floor, but the Israeli forces shot directly at the ambulance and prevented them from approaching him," Baker continued.

قوات الاحتلال تستهدف مركبة إسعاف بشكل مباشر في مخيم #جنين#الجزيرة pic.twitter.com/wxlk3btPH8

- الجزيرة فلسطين (@AJA_Palestine) January 26, 2023

[Translation: The [Israeli] occupation forces directly targeted an ambulance in the Jenin refugee camp.]
Israeli forces also fired tear gas canisters towards the hospital, affecting the children's division, Baker said. It caused suffocation injuries to children and others, he added.

Israel's army denied deliberately firing tear gas at the hospital. "No one shot tear gas on purpose at a hospital," an army spokesperson said. "But the activity was not far away from the hospital and it is possible some tear gar entered through an open window."

Nabil Abu Rudeineh, the spokesperson for the Palestinian Authority (PA), announced the authority would halt security coordination with Israel in the wake of the West Bank killings.

"As of now it will not be enforced," he told a press conference in Ramallah, adding the move was in response to repeated aggressions against Palestinians and violation of the international law by Israel.

"We salute those standing steadfast defending our homeland," the spokesperson said.

He also called for an International Criminal Court Investigation into Thursday's killings.

PA President Mahmoud Abbas declared a third-day mourning period, during which flags would be flown at half mast, the official Palestinian TV reported.

PM Shtayyeh seeks UN intervention

Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh released a statement calling on the United Nations and all international human rights organisations to "intervene urgently to provide protection for Palestinian people and stop the bloodshed of children, youth and women".

Saudi Arabia's foreign ministry condemned the Israeli raid on Jenin and called on the international community to stop Israel's escalating aggression, the Saudi Press Agency reported.

Saleh al-Arouri, a prominent leader of the Hamas movement governing the blockaded Gaza Strip, said the "response of the resistance will not be delayed".

Al Jazeera's Youmna el-Sayed, reporting from Gaza, said Palestinian factions, including Hamas, announced a day of mourning and declared a state of alert.

"They called on the international community to hold the 'occupation criminals' accountable for their crimes and finally called out on the people in Gaza to go out in the streets and show their rage against the massacre committed in Jenin," el-Sayed said.

Israeli operation

Justifying the operation, the Israeli military said special forces had been sent into Jenin to detain Islamic Jihad fighters suspected of planning and carrying out "multiple major terror attacks".

Israeli forces launched a large-scale raid and besieged the camp in the early hours with undercover forces, dozens of armoured vehicles and snipers. Armed clashes with Palestinian resistance fighters soon broke out.

The military added that several Palestinian fighters had been shot after they opened fire.

"During the operation, the security forces operated to surround the building in which the suspects were located. Two armed suspects were identified fleeing the scene and were neutralised by the security forces," Israeli officials said in a statement.

No injuries were reported among the Israeli forces.

United States State Department spokesperson Vedant Patel echoed Israel on Thursday as he described the attack as a "counterterrorism operation".

"We recognise the very real security challenges facing Israel and the Palestinian Authority and condemn terrorist groups planning and carrying out attacks against innocent civilians," Patel told reporters.

"We also regret the loss of innocent lives and injuries to civilians and are deeply concerned by the escalating cycle of violence in the West Bank."

Jenin is among areas of the northern West Bank where Israel has intensified raids over the past year in an attempt to crack down on growing armed Palestinian resistance.

Aleef Sabbagh, a political analyst specialising in Israeli affairs, said Thursday's operation in Jenin "should be understood as a signal - it is the first shot in a coming, larger Israeli operation".

"The lack of a response - neither Arab nor international - over what Israel is doing, is encouraging it to continue with its raids and killings," Sabbagh told Al Jazeera.

"The targeting of ambulances and hospitals, preventing aid to wounded people, the field executions - even the killing of Shireen Abu Akleh - there has been no accountability. If there is no real, strong response, Israel will continue to do what it wants without punishment."

Al Jazeera's Shireen Abu Akleh, a veteran correspondent covering the occupied Palestinian territories for more than 25 years, was shot dead in May last year while she was covering a raid on the Jenin refugee camp.

No one has yet been held accountable for her killing.

Al Jazeera's Senior Political Analyst Mawan Bishara said that "in the international arena, combating 'terrorism' has a magical sound to it. It's able to justify anything and everything even when it's totally incorrect".

While Israel justifies its actions on security grounds, the Palestinians "see that as a cynical ploy aimed at humiliating the Palestinian authority," the analyst said.

The raid took place in the so-called Area A, under Palestinian administrative and police control according to the terms of the Oslo agreement.

"These young people of the refugee camp are just trying to protect themselves; it's not like they're going out in Israel and shooting at Israelis," Bishara added.

The number of Palestinians killed by Israeli forces during raids in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem in January has risen to at least 29 people, including five children. At least 15 of those killed were from Jenin.

More than 170 Palestinians were killed in such raids in 2022, many of them civilians.

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Israel army kills 10 Palestinians, including elderly woman

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Israeli troops have killed 10 Palestinians in one of the deadliest days in the occupied West Bank since Israeli raids intensified at the start of last year. According to the Palestinian Ministry of Health, nine of the Palestinians killed were in the Jenin refugee camp, after Israeli forces raided the area.

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Al Jazeera: Netanyahu gov’t says West Bank settlement expansion top priority

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Al Jazeera: Netanyahu gov’t says West Bank settlement expansion top priority

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Several of Netanyahu's key allies, including most of the Religious Zionism party, are ultranationalist West Bank settlers [Oded Balilty/AP]

Benjamin Netanyahu's incoming hardline Israeli government has put settlement expansion in the occupied West Bank at the top of its list of priorities, a day before it is set to be sworn into office.

Netanyahu's Likud party released the new government's policy guidelines on Wednesday, the first of which promises to "advance and develop settlement in all parts of the land of Israel - in the Galilee, Negev, Golan Heights, and Judea and Samaria" - the Biblical names for the occupied Palestinian West Bank.

The commitment could put the new government on a collision course with Israel's closest allies, including the United States, which opposes settlement construction on occupied territories.

Israel captured the West Bank in 1967 along with the Gaza Strip and east Jerusalem.

The Palestinian Authority (PA) seeks the West Bank as the heartland of a future independent state. However, Israel has constructed dozens of Jewish settlements, illegal under international law, that are now home to about 500,000 Israelis.

Approximately 2.5 million Palestinians live in the occupied West Bank and have their movements severely restricted by the Israeli military, which operates separate roads designed to be used solely by Jewish settlers.

Netanyahu's new government - the most religious and hardline in Israel's history - is made up of ultra-Orthodox parties, a far-right ultranationalist religious faction and his Likud party. It is expected to be sworn in on Thursday.

Several of Netanyahu's key allies, including most of the Religious Zionism party, are ultranationalist West Bank settlers.

On Wednesday, incoming finance minister Bezalel Smotrich said in an op-ed published by the Wall Street Journal that there would be no "changing the political or legal status" of the West Bank, running contrary to years of advocating annexation of the entire territory.

He levelled criticism at the "feckless military government" that manages civilian affairs for Israeli settlers.

Smotrich, an illegal settler himself, is set to assume control over the military government in the occupied West Bank under his second role - a newly created position as a minister in the defence ministry.

Netanyahu is returning to power after he was removed from office last year, after serving as prime minister from 2009 to 2021. He will take office while on trial for allegedly accepting bribes, breach of trust and fraud, charges he denies.

Netanyahu's partners are seeking widespread policy reforms that could alienate large swaths of the Israeli public, raise tensions with the Palestinians, and put the country on a collision course with the United States and American Jews.

The administration of US President Joe Biden has said it strongly opposes settlement expansion and has rebuked the Israeli government for it in the past.

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Netanyahu gov't says West Bank settlement expansion top priority

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Benjamin Netanyahu's incoming hardline Israeli government has put settlement expansion in the occupied West Bank at the top of its list of priorities, a day before it is set to be sworn into office.

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The Guardian: Huge protest in Israel over rightwing government’s judicial changes

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The Guardian: Huge protest in Israel over rightwing government’s judicial changes

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An estimated 100,000 people took to the streets of Tel Aviv on Saturday night in what protestors described as a "fight for Israel's destiny" over sweeping judicial reforms proposed by the new far-right government.

Israel's longtime prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, returned to office last month at the helm of a coalition of conservative and religious parties that make up the most right-wing government in the country's history.

The new administration has accused Israel's supreme court of left-wing bias and overstepping its authority, and is seeking to curb the court's powers by giving the Knesset more control over judicial appointments and severely restricting its ability to overturn laws and government decisions.

The Tel Aviv protest, along with smaller demonstrations in Jerusalem, Haifa and Beersheba, were sparked by fears that the far-reaching proposals undermine democratic norms. Since Israel has no formal constitution, the supreme court plays an important role in keeping government ministers in check.

Netanyahu - himself on trial on corruption charges, which he denies - has defended the plans. His opponents say the proposed reforms could help the prime minister evade a conviction or even see the case dropped altogether.

Israeli opposition leader and former prime minister, Yair Lapid, as well as several other figures from across the country's political spectrum, addressed demonstrators in central Tel Aviv on Saturday as the crowd waved the blue and white national flag and held placards reading "No to dictatorship".

"We have here in the streets representatives of many groups who don't usually come out to protest, but they are here, even sworn rightwingers," said one speaker, the celebrated novelist David Grossman.

"This immensely diverse group is prepared to put aside its differences, and fight this existential fight ... In its 75th year, Israel is in a fateful struggle for its character, for its democracy and for the status of its rule of law."

A protester holds a placard in a demonstration in Tel Aviv on Saturday night. Photograph: Eyal Warshavsky/Sopa Images/Rex/Shutterstock

Noya Matlon, 24, a law student at Tel Aviv University, said: "The last big protest movement in Israel was about taking Netanyahu down, but it's not a matter of right and left any more. Everyone - Arabs, Jews, even people who agree we need some reforms to the judicial system - everyone is saying they are scared."

Musician Ollie Danon, 23, cancelled a show scheduled for Saturday night so he and audience members could join the protests instead. "There's a crisis in engagement in politics here after five elections in a short space of time. There was a sense it was just all about Bibi," he said, using Netanyahu's nickname.

"This is bigger than Bibi now, though; it's an emergency situation. I believe the supreme court does need reform. Its rulings usually support the occupation [of the Palestinian territories], and somehow now it's the left wing who are out protesting to defend it. It's all absurd."

Saturday's gatherings build on similar demonstrations over recent weeks, including one in Tel Aviv last weekend that drew 80,000 people, nationwide protests by students, and one outside a Tel Aviv court. Roee Neuman, one of the organisers, said that more street protests are planned, as well as strike action.

"I am optimistic things can change, even if I am not optimistic about the state of Israel at the moment. We are going to increase our efforts: we are coordinating strikes in sectors that would never normally get involved, like lawyers, doctors and the tech industry. We can block roads.

"It's difficult to predict what will happen, but I think if it starts hitting the economy they will have to listen."

In addition to the growing protest movement, the prime minister has faced pressure from Israel's attorney general following a ruling last week that disqualified key ally Aryeh Deri from holding a government post because of a conviction of tax offences.

Netanyahu was forced to fire the Shas party leader during Sunday's cabinet meeting, declaring as he did so that "the high court decision ignores the will of the nation".

The coalition also faced an early test on Friday in the form of a disagreement between cabinet members over dismantling a new Jewish settlement in the occupied West Bank.

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Huge crowds protest in Israel over rightwing government's judicial reforms

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An estimated 100,000 people took to the streets of Tel Aviv on Saturday night in what protestors described as a "fight for Israel's destiny" over sweeping judicial reforms proposed by the new far-right government.