Israel strikes Lebanon and Gaza as leader warns enemies will 'pay heavy price'
The Israeli military has launched strikes in both Lebanon and the Gaza Strip after the Prime Minister warned the nation's enemies would pay a "heavy price".
Tensions are rising in the region following two days of unrest at Jerusalem's most sensitive holy site and a rare rocket attack from neighbouring Lebanon.
The fighting comes during a delicate time - when Jews are celebrating the Passover holiday and Muslims are marking the Ramadan holy month. Similar tensions spilled over into an 11-day war between Israel and Gaza's Hamas rulers in 2021.
The current round of violence began Wednesday after Israeli police twice raided the Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem's Old City.
Israeli police stormed the mosque (Twitter)
Dozens of people were seen tied up on the floor (Twitter)Forces fired stun grenades at the hundreds of men, women and children who were assembled there for prayer, witnesses said. The official Palestinian news agency Wafa reported dozens of worshippers were injured in the raid which saw police arrest over 400 people, many of whom were restrained using zip ties.
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Israeli authorities control access to the area but the compound is administered by Islamic and Jordanian officials.
The incident led to rocket fire from Gaza on Thursday and, in a significant escalation, an unusual barrage of nearly three dozen rockets from Lebanon into northern Israel.
As Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu convened his Security Cabinet late Thursday, the military struck what it said were four sites in Gaza belonging to Hamas. Following the nearly three-hour meeting, Netanyahu's office put out a short statement saying a series of decisions had been made.
Israeli Iron Dome anti-missile system intercepts rockets launched from the Gaza Strip (MOHAMMED SABER/EPA-EFE/REX/Shutterstock)"Israel's response, tonight and beyond, will extract a heavy price from our enemies," Netanyahu said in the statement. It did not elaborate.
But almost immediately, Palestinian militants in Gaza began firing rockets into southern Israel, setting off air raid sirens across the region. Loud explosions could be heard in Gaza from the Israeli strikes, as outgoing rockets whooshed into the skies toward Israel.
The airstrikes came after militants in Lebanon fired some 34 rockets into Israel, forcing people across Israel's northern frontier into bomb shelters and wounding at least two people.
The Israeli military said the rocket fire on its northern and southern fronts was carried out by Palestinian militants in connection to this week's violence at the Al-Aqsa Mosque, where Israeli police stormed into the building with tear gas and stun grenades to confront Palestinians barricaded inside on two straight days.
Fire and smoke rise following an Israeli airstrike on the central Gaza Strip on Friday (AP)The violent scenes from the mosque ratcheted up tensions across the region.
The Israeli military said it launched strikes in Lebanon early Friday, and a Lebanese TV station reported explosions in the southern port city of Tyre. The military did not not provide immediate details.
The rare attack from Lebanon raised fears of a wider conflagration as Israel's bitter enemy, the Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah, holds sway over much of southern Lebanon.
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After rockets were fired from Lebanon, the Israeli military retaliated with airstrikes on Gaza (MOHAMMED SABER/EPA-EFE/REX/Shutterstock)In a briefing with reporters, Lt. Col. Richard Hecht, an Israeli military spokesman, said the army drew a clear connection between the Lebanese rocket fire and the recent unrest in Jerusalem.
"It's a Palestinian-oriented event," he said, adding that either the Hamas or Islamic Jihad militant groups, which are based in Gaza but also operate in Lebanon, could be involved. But he said the army believed that Hezbollah and the Lebanese government were aware of what happened and also held responsibility.
The mosque - the third-holiest site in Islam - stands on a hilltop revered by Jews as the Temple Mount, the holiest site in Judaism. The competing claims to the site have repeatedly spilled over into violence over the years. No faction in Lebanon claimed responsibility for the salvo of rockets.
Gaza sends air defence missiles towards Israeli jets during the strike (APAImages/REX/Shutterstock)A Lebanese security official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorised to speak to media, said the country's security forces believed the rockets were launched by a Lebanon-based Palestinian militant group, not by Hezbollah.
Lebanon's caretaker prime minister, Najib Mikati, condemned the firing of rockets from Lebanon, adding that Lebanese troops and U.N. peacekeepers were investigating and trying to find the perpetrators. Mikati said his government "categorically rejects any military escalation" and the use of Lebanese territories to stage acts that threaten stability.
Hezbollah, which has condemned the Israeli police raids in Jerusalem, did not respond for a request for comment on the rocket fire. Both Israel and Hezbollah have avoided an all-out conflict since a 34-day war in 2006 ended in a draw.
(AFP via Getty Images)Netanyahu could be constrained by his own domestic problems.
For the past three months, hundreds of thousands of Israelis have been demonstrating against his plans to overhaul the country's judicial system, claiming it will lead the country toward authoritarianism.
Key military units, including fighter pilots, have threatened to stop reporting for duty if the overhaul is passed, drawing a warning from Defense Minister Yoav Gallant that Israel's national security could be harmed by the divisive plan.
Netanyahu said he was firing Gallant, but then backtracked as he put the overhaul on hold for several weeks.
Thousands of Israelis have taken to the streets in recent weeks to protest the overhaul of the country's judicial system (Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)Critics could also accuse him of trying to use the crisis to divert attention from his domestic woes. Netanyahu said that the domestic divisions had no impact on national security and that the country would remain united in the face of external threats.
In Jerusalem, the situation remained tense at Al-Aqsa. For the previous two nights, Palestinians barricaded themselves in the mosque with stones and firecrackers. Worshippers have been demanding the right to pray overnight inside the mosque - which authorities typically only permit during the last 10 days of the monthlong Ramadan holiday.
They also have stayed in the mosque in protest over threats by religious Jews to carry out a ritual animal slaughter at the sacred site for Passover. Israel did not try to prevent people from spending the night in the mosque early Friday - apparently because it was the weekend, when Jews do not visit the compound. But tensions could re-ignite Sunday when Jewish visits resume.
The recent strikes came after a violent incident at a contested mosque in Jerusalem (MOHAMMED SABER/EPA-EFE/REX/Shutterstock)Israel bars ritual slaughter on the site, but calls by Jewish extremists to revive the practice, including offers of cash rewards to anyone who even attempts to bring an animal into the compound, have amplified fears among Muslims that Israel is plotting to take over the site.
In this week's violence, Israeli police fired stun grenades and rubber bullets to evict worshippers who had locked the doors of the building. Palestinians hurled stones and fireworks at officers.
After a few hours of scuffles that left a trail of damage, police managed to drag everyone out of the compound. Police fiercely beat Palestinians and arrested over 400 people.
The violence at the site has resonated across the region, with condemnations pouring in from Muslim leaders.
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