Jerusalem’s Temple Mount complex was opened to Jews Sunday morning for the first time in 20 days, amid simmering tensions at the holy site that played a major role in sparking hostilities with the Hamas terror group in Gaza and violence across Israel.
The head of the Palestinian resistance movement thanked Iran for supplying military support and financial backing during the recent conflict with Israel in a televised address Friday.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says that he is “determined to continue this operation until its aim is met,” despite U.S. President Joe Biden’s effective call for a ceasefire.
Bedouin rioters targeted Israeli motorists with rocks and burning tires as Hamas militants fired rockets into Israel, killing two people, witnesses and officials said.
Reports late Tuesday that Israel and Palestinian terror groups in the Gaza Strip will cease fire on Thursday morning sparked a flurry of denials from all parties involved, while the White House continued applying behind-the-scenes pressure on Jerusalem to wind down the fighting.
Palestinians and Arab Israelis were participating in a general strike across Israel, the West Bank and Gaza on Tuesday in protest of Israeli policies toward Palestinians.
Israel came under heavy criticism on Saturday for striking a 12-story tower in Gaza housing the offices of foreign media affiliates such as the Associated Press, Al Jazeera and other news outlets. The United States government, AP and Al Jazeera each publicly expressed their concerns with the operation moments after the strike.
Rocket sirens continued to blare throughout the night in Ashkelon and Beersheba, with two separate barrages being aimed at each city, as Gaza terror groups continue their assault on Israel late into the night.
Two people were killed and 167 injured, including five seriously, when a bleacher collapsed under worshipers in a Givat Ze’ev synagogue during Shavuot festival prayers on Sunday evening.
Israeli troops attacked the Gaza Strip early Friday, backed by artillery, tanks, and warplanes, Israel’s military confirmed.
Israel appears to have lost control over the nationwide riots by Arab and Jews as dozens of people were wounded and many detained following a night of unprecedented civil unrest in the country.
Israel declared a state of emergency in the mixed Jewish-Arab city of Lod on Wednesday after Mayor Yair Revivo said a “civil war between Arabs and Jews,” was taking place there. The rioting, including the torching of three synagogues and the death of an Arab man, began on Monday after Arab residents took to the streets in support of Palestinians clashing with police on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem.
The United Nations says it fears a “full-scale war” amid ongoing deadly exchanges between Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip and the Israeli military.
Church leaders have expressed concern about the future of Jerusalem and its neighborhood as several people were killed Tuesday in nearly non-stop Palestinian rocket attacks on Israel and Israeli airstrikes on the Gaza Strip.
Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Monday that the Gaza terrorist had “crossed a red line” by firing dozens of rockets into Israel’s south.
Palestinian officials in the Gaza Strip claimed Monday that some 20 people were killed in fighting with Israel in one of the bloodiest clashes in years.
Archaeologists in Israel have uncovered a very rare bronze oil lamp that was buried at the foundation of a Roman-era building constructed in Jerusalem’s City of David almost 2,000 years ago, the Times of Israel (ToI) reported last week. The first of its kind discovered in Israel, the lamp is shaped like one half of an ugly, distorted face and may have been buried as an offering of good luck for the residents of the new building.
The UN Security Council will convene an emergency session on Monday morning to discuss the escalating violence in Jerusalem, including major clashes on the Temple Mount.
The Israeli Air Force struck a Hamas military site in the southern Gaza Strip in response to rocket fire earlier on Saturday night, according to the IDF Spokesperson’s Unit.
Israeli police burst into the Temple Mount compound on Friday evening after Palestinians threw rocks and bottles at officers, as widespread clashes in Jerusalem spread to the holy site following prayers held there on the last Friday of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.