Israel responded to the rocket fire from Lebanon – the largest in the last 17 years – with plane bombardments against Hamas targets in the Gaza Strip early Friday morning.
The attacks, which targeted underground tunnels and sites used for weapons production, were ordered after a late-night emergency meeting of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s security cabinet.
“Israel’s response, tonight and in the future, will have a high price for our enemies,” warned the Israeli president, stressing that “the internal debate in Israel will not prevent us from acting against our enemies.”
Israel’s attacks on Gaza caused property damage but no injuries, according to Hamas officials. Islamic Jihad, a smaller Palestinian group than Hamas, claimed responsibility for the rockets fired from Lebanon.
The violence has spread to the occupied West Bank, where a shooting attack in the Jordan Valley left two Israeli women dead and another seriously injured, the Hebrew army said. On the other hand, last night, an intentional hit-and-run on the Tel Aviv seafront caused the death of an Italian man, in his 30s, and the driver, who was killed when he got out of the vehicle, which overturned, brandishing a weapon. Four more people were injured, two seriously. The two cases are being investigated as “terrorist attacks.” The two fatalities are two sisters in their 20s, while the injured woman is her mother, 45, all of them settlers residing in the Efrat settlement, near Jerusalem.
No Palestinian group has claimed responsibility for the attack on the three settlers, but the Islamist group Hamas hailed it as “a natural response to the crimes of the occupation in Al Aqsa and the barbaric aggression against Lebanon and the unyielding Gaza.”
The escalation of tension between Israelis and Palestinians began on Wednesday with clashes between police and Muslim worshipers at the Al Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem and continued with major exchanges of fire with Palestinian militias in the Gaza Strip and southern Lebanon.
Since Wednesday, more than 60 projectiles have been fired into Israeli territory from Gaza and 36 from Lebanon, while Israel shelled Hamas targets both in the strip and on Lebanese territory yesterday.
All this took place yesterday on the third Friday of Ramadan – which coincides with Pesach (Jewish Passover) and Good Friday – a particularly tense day in Jerusalem, when hundreds of thousands of Muslims come to pray at the Al Aqsa mosque. , where yesterday morning there were minor incidents with the police.
The UN peacekeeping mission in Lebanon assured yesterday that both the nation of cedars and Israel have told them that they “do not want a war.”
“Both sides have said they don’t want a war. The actions (carried out) over the last day are dangerous and pose a risk of serious escalation,” the blue helmets warned in a statement.
The Lebanese Prime Minister, Najib Mikati, announced his opposition to his country being used to perpetrate attacks, such as the one attributed to the Palestinian Islamic Jihad against Israel.
“Lebanon absolutely rejects any military escalation emanating from its territory and the use of Lebanese territory to carry out operations that unbalance the existing stability,” he said during a meeting in Beirut with Italian Defense Minister Guido Crosetto. Mikati assured that “all the active forces in the south” of the country have communicated to the Government their opposition to the attack, as well as to “any escalation.” The leader did not specify which actors he was referring to with “all the forces” present in the southern region of Lebanon, which is controlled by the Shiite group Hezbollah, so his words seem to imply that the political and armed movement would also be against Palestinian actions.
Lebanon, however, announced that it will file a complaint with the UN Security Council for the Israeli attack on its territory, while Israel – through its military spokesperson – considers that “the Lebanese State is responsible for every aggression that emanates from from their territory.
