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JERUSALEM (AP) — Israeli fighter jets and artillery have struck targets in Syria after rare rocket fire from their northeastern neighbors. Tensions between Jews and Muslims peaked at a shaky Jerusalem shrine with simultaneous religious ceremonies on Sunday.
Thousands of Jewish worshipers gather at the city’s Western Wall, the holiest place where Jews can pray, to hold a mass blessing prayer service by priests for the Passover holiday. I did. At the Al-Aqsa Mosque complex, a walled promenade above the Western Wall, hundreds of Palestinians prayed as part of the Islamic holy month of Ramadan.
Hundreds of Jews also visited Al-Aqsa’s compound on Sunday under heavy security, whistled and sung religious songs by Palestinians protesting their presence. By sunset, the ceremony passed without serious incident.
Such tours by religious and nationalist Jews have increased in size and frequency each year, leading many Palestinians to fear that Israel plans to one day take over or divide the site. viewed with suspicion by people. Israeli officials say they are allowing Jews to visit Muslim-controlled places but have no intention of changing a long-standing arrangement allowing them to pray in Muslim-controlled places. There is
However, the country is now ruled by the most right-wing government in its history, with ultranationalists calling for changes to the arrangements for senior positions.
Tensions escalated at Hitane Shrine last week After the Israeli police stormed the mosque. On several occasions, Palestinians demanded their right to pray through the night, barricading themselves with stones and firecrackers inside the Al-Aqsa Mosque. Until now, Israel was allowed only for the last 10 days of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.
Violence at the shrine has sparked rocket launches by Palestinian militants from the Gaza Strip and southern Lebanon since Wednesday, while Israeli airstrikes have targeted both areas.
In Lebanon, Hezbollah’s media office said militant group leader Hassan Nasrallah received a delegation led by Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh on Sunday. They described “the most important developments in occupied Palestine, the sequence of events at the Al-Aqsa Mosque, the escalating resistance in the West Bank and Gaza, and the general political situation in the region, the preparations for the Axis of Resistance.” situation, and the cooperation of its parties,” the statement said.
Haniye, who arrived in Lebanon last week just before a rocket was launched from southern Lebanon toward Israel, was due to make a public appearance in Beirut on Friday. However, it was canceled for security reasons after a strike between Lebanon and Israel. No group has officially claimed responsibility for the rocket attacks, but Israel has accused Hamas of being behind them.
Syrian militants launched rockets late Saturday and early Sunday Two salvos aimed at Israel and the Golan Heights annexed by Israel. A Damascus-based Palestinian group loyal to the Syrian government has claimed responsibility for the first rocket, saying it was in retaliation for the al-Aqsa attack.
In the first salvo, one rocket landed on the Golan Heights field. Fragments from another destroyed missile fell on Jordanian territory near the Syrian border, the Jordanian military said. In the second, he had two rockets cross the border into Israel, one was intercepted and the second landed in the open, according to the Israeli military.
Israel responded with artillery fire directed at areas of Syria from where the rockets were launched. The military then said Israeli fighter jets hit Syrian Army sites, including the Syrian 4th Division’s complex, radar and artillery posts.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan discussed the violence by phone with Israeli President Isaac Herzog late Saturday, telling Herzog that Muslims must not remain silent about “provocations and threats” against the Al-Aqsa Mosque. , Gaza and Lebanon should not be allowed to escalate any further.
Palestinian attacks in Israel kill three over weekend, adding to cross-border fighting and the occupied West Bank.
Hundreds, including National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gubir, attended the funerals of Maia and Lina Dee, British-Israeli sisters who died in a shooting in the West Bank on Friday.
They were buried after a moving ceremony at the Jewish settlement of Kfar Etzion in the West Bank. When the two bodies were brought into the room, one of the sisters threw herself down and embraced the covered bodies.
“None of us, or anyone in the whole world, will ever know so much grief. Amen,” said father Lee Dee.
Italian tourist Alessandro Parini, 35, is a lawyer from Rome who had just arrived in the city a few hours earlier with friends for a short Easter break. He died Friday after being allegedly hit by a car on Tel Aviv’s seaside promenade.
More than 90 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli fires so far this year, according to an Associated Press tally, and at least half of them belonged to extremist groups. killed 19 people in All but one were civilians.
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Associated Press writer Susan Fraser in Ankara, Turkey. Her girlfriend Abby Sewell from Beirut and Frances D’Emilio from Rome contributed to this report.
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