Israeli forces retaliate against rockets fired from Syria

Jerusalem – Israeli forces say their forces hit targets in Syria after six rockets were fired from Syrian territory toward Israel in two separate rounds, in a rare attack from Israel’s northeastern neighbor. Stated.

After a second barrage of three rockets, Israel said it initially responded with shelling of Syrian areas from where the rockets were fired. It said it had hit Syrian Army sites, including four divisional complexes, radar and artillery posts.

The rocket launches come days after Israeli police raided the city’s most sensitive holy site as violence escalated on multiple fronts over tensions in Jerusalem.

In a second barrage launched early Sunday morning, two rockets crossed the border into Israel, one was intercepted and the second landed in an open field, the Israeli military said. In Saturday’s first strike, a single rocket landed on a field in Israel’s annexed Golan Heights. Fragments from another destroyed missile fell on Jordanian territory near the Syrian border, the Jordanian military said.

There were no reports of casualties.

A Palestinian group loyal to the Damascus-based Syrian regime has claimed responsibility for the three missile launches on Saturday, Beirut-based Al-Mayadeen TV reported.

The report cited the Al-Quds Brigades, a militia distinct from the armed wing of the larger Palestinian Islamic Jihad of the same name, saying they fired rockets to retaliate for a police raid on the Al-Aqsa mosque. rice field.

In Syria, an adviser to President Bashar Assad described the rocket strikes as “part of the previous, current and ongoing response to a brutal enemy.”

Israel, which has vowed to stop Iranian trenches in Syria, has launched hundreds of strikes in government-controlled areas in recent years, but rarely admits to it. , Syrian officials believed there had been 10 attacks on Israel this year. Some of them have temporarily disabled airports in Damascus and Aleppo, killing not only Syrian soldiers and Iranian military advisers, but also civilians.

In the occupied West Bank, Israeli security forces shot dead a 20-year-old Palestinian in the town of Azun, Palestinian health officials said, sparking protests in the area. and threw explosive devices and opened fire on the Palestinians. The Palestinian Ministry of Health has identified the murdered Palestinian as Ayed Salim.

His death comes at a time of unusually high violence in the West Bank. More than 90 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli fires so far this year, at least half of whom belonged to extremist groups, according to an Associated Press tally.

Palestinian attacks on Israelis have killed 19 in the meantime – two British-Israelis shot dead near settlement in Jordan Valley on Friday, Italian tourist suspected of car crash in Tel Aviv All but one were civilians.

The rocket launch from Syria has sparked escalating tensions between Israel and Palestine, sparked by an Israeli police raid on the sacred complex that is home to Jerusalem’s most sensitive site, the Al-Aqsa Mosque. in the background. Palestinians marking the holy fasting month of Ramadan were outraged, prompting Lebanese militants and Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip to fire a heavy barrage of rockets at Israel.

In retaliation, Israeli fighter jets attacked sites allegedly linked to the Palestinian militant group Hamas in Gaza and southern Lebanon.

Hundreds of Palestinian worshipers barricaded a hilltop mosque in the center of Jerusalem’s Old City, which is sacred to both Muslims and Jews, as tensions rose in Jerusalem late Saturday. , sparked unrest at the holy site earlier this week as it attempted to evict worshipers trapped overnight with firecrackers and stones stockpiled at the mosque.

The recent escalation prompted Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant to extend the closure barring Palestinians from entering Israel from the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip for the duration of the Jewish holiday of Passover. urged. Meanwhile, the police bolstered their forces in Jerusalem on the eve of a sensitive religious event. celebration.

In another incident late Saturday in the city of Nablus in the north of the West Bank, the leader of a local independent armed group known as the Lions Den said the group had tipped Israeli forces on the location and movements of Israeli forces. He claimed to have executed an alleged collaborator. member of the group. Israeli security forces have targeted and killed several key members of the group in recent months.

Although it was not immediately possible to confirm the murder of a suspect, Palestinian media videos showed doctors and residents gathering around bloody bodies in the Lion’s Den-controlled old town. Traitors have no nation and no people,” Lions Den commander Odey Azizi said in a statement.

the movement is Growing Religious Zeal – Ramadan coincides with Passover and Easter celebrations. Home to major Jewish, Muslim and Christian holy sites, Jerusalem’s Old City is filled with visitors and religious pilgrims from all over the world.

Gallant said the closure imposed last Wednesday on the eve of Passover will remain in effect until the holiday ends Wednesday night. The order prevented Palestinians from entering Israel for work or praying in Jerusalem this week, but allowed mass prayers at the Al-Aqsa Mosque on Friday. ordered the Israeli military to be ready to assist the Israeli police. The military later announced it was deploying additional troops around Jerusalem and the West Bank.

More than 2,000 police were expected to be deployed in Jerusalem on Sunday, while tens of thousands of Jews were expected to gather at the Wailing Wall for a special Passover priestly blessing. The wall is the holiest place where Jews can pray and is located next to the grounds of the Al-Aqsa Mosque, where large numbers of people gather daily for prayer during Ramadan.

Jerusalem Police Chief Doron Tajman met with commanders on Saturday for a security assessment. He accused the Hamas militant group that controls the Gaza Strip of trying to incite violence ahead of Sunday’s priest’s blessing on false claims that Jews were planning to storm a mosque. .

“We allow freedom of worship, we allow Muslims to arrive,” he said, adding that the police “will act with determination and extreme caution,” ensuring that all religions celebrate safely. to be able to

The current wave of violence erupted earlier in the week after Israeli police stormed a mosque and fired tear gas and stun grenades to disperse hundreds of Palestinians who had barricaded themselves inside. Violent scenes from the 1980s caused unrest in the contested capital and outrage throughout the Arab world.