Hamas Fires Rockets From Gaza Toward Israel as Clashes Injure More Than 330

On May 14, 1948, the State of Israel was created, and the same date is marked as “Jerusalem Day,” with 1jour1actu describing how “exactly 70 years ago” Israel’s founding followed United Nations land grants after World War II.

“On Monday, violent clashes occurred in the Middle East, at the border between the Gaza Strip and Israel”

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In Gaza, the Al-Aqsa Mosque and Jerusalem tensions spilled into rocket fire, as Le Parisien said that “Hamas… fired a volley of rockets from Gaza toward Israel,” prompting the “immediate evacuation of the Western Wall and the esplanade.”

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Le Parisien also said that on Monday “more than a thousand rockets are said to have been fired from the Gaza Strip since Monday evening,” while the BBC framed the wider conflict’s origins around the founding of Israel on May 14, 1948 and the subsequent regional war.

In the week’s escalation, Le Parisien reported that the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound saw new clashes “injuring more than 330 this time,” and that Israeli raids killed “at least 20 people, including children and a Hamas commander, according to the organization.”

Le Parisien said the international community reacted with a “unified call for de-escalation,” quoting that the United States insisted that “all parties show restraint and refrain from any provocative actions or rhetoric.”

In the same chronology, Le Parisien described Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu pledging that Israel would “respond with force,” after a “red line” was crossed when rockets were fired from Gaza toward Israel.

Al Jazeera

Al Jazeera’s weekly wrap added a different emphasis on settler-led violence during Jerusalem Day week, reporting that tens of thousands of ultra-nationalist Israelis marched through the Old City chanting “death to Arabs” and “may your villages burn.”

Al Jazeera also reported that Israeli authorities barred men under 60 and women under 50 from entering Al-Aqsa that morning, while the Palestinian Authority’s Jerusalem Governorate counted “more than 2,200” incursions during the week, in “gross violation of the ‘status quo’.”

As violence continued, Le Parisien said Israeli justice announced the postponement of a hearing on the fate of eviction-threatened families, with “a new date” to be announced “within the next 30 days,” rekindling tensions in Sheikh Jarrah.

“Israel-Palestine conflict: 10 questions to understand the violence”

BBC

Al Jazeera reported that legislative and political moves were underway, including that “The Israeli coalition submitted a bill to dissolve the Israeli parliament, with elections required by late October,” and that opposition leader Avigdor Lieberman warned Netanyahu might launch a military operation for electoral purposes.

Al Jazeera also described how the death penalty law for Palestinians convicted of deadly acts of “terrorism” in the West Bank came into effect after Avi Bluth signed a military order, and it said the law was condemned by “United Nations experts and multiple governments” as discriminatory and potentially a war crime.

Against that backdrop, Al Jazeera said Israel’s government approved plans to build an Israeli military complex on the site of UNRWA’s demolished headquarters in Sheikh Jarrah, and it reported that Israeli authorities approved a plan to seize historic Palestinian properties in the Bab al-Silsila neighbourhood.