Clashes erupted on Friday as Muslims packed the Al-Aqsa mosque to pray on the last Friday of the month of Ramadan. Palestinians hurled stones, bottles and fireworks at police forces who in return fired rubber bullets and stun grenades. More than 200 people are wounded, the majority being Palestinians. Part of the violence stemmed from the legal effort by Jews to evict several Palestinian families from their homes, in the east Jerusalem neighborhood of Sheikh Jarrah.
This eviction is supported by a 1970’s law which permits Jews to reclaim property that they or their families owned in Jerusalem (now fully ruled by the state of Israel) prior to the division of the city after Israel’s establishment in 1948 (provided that they can prove ownership of the land). What promotes even more violence is that Palestinians cannot claim rights to property they once owned in Jerusalem or other parts of Israel.
This court decision has been appealed and was supposed to led to another hearing on Monday (10th). The Justice Secretary, Benny Gantz, has post-poned the hearing. That was decided because of mounting violence and because on the Sunday took place « Jerusalem day », a holiday in Israel to celebrate the reunification of the city after the Six-Day War (June 1967). It typically features a parade of flag-waving Israelis throughout the city, including its Arab neighborhoods. Despite concerns over more violence, the parade took place.
This led Palestinians and Israeli police to face off again overnight Saturday, Sunday and Monday in east Jerusalem, especially in the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood. Hamas, the Gaza ruling party, considered by many foreign power as a terrorist organization, threatened to amp up the fight. It gave Israel an ultimatum : if Israeli forces are not out of the Temple Mount by Monday 6PM, they will act. A few minutes after 6PM, 200 rockets were launched from the Gaza strip towards Israel, most on them to the South but 7 of them towards Jerusalem.
Now, we need to talk about the Iron Dome. You see, thankfully, very few of the 200 rockets launched landed on the ground and hurt people. Israel has put in place several years ago an anti-missile defense system. Basically, when Hamas sends rockets, Israel sends missile to intercept them. This Iron Dome is active in urban areas. If a rocket finds its way to a crop field, Israel will not waste one of its missiles to intercept it.
Moreover, when rockets are sent to your location, an emergency siren sounds off in your area. On Monday, 7 rockets headed to Jerusalem, the siren went off. In this moment, people need to find a solid shelter quickly. In Jerusalem, you have 1:30 minutes to find a shelter before the rockets are entering the zone. Of course, on Monday, there was in the end no need because they were stopped by the Iron Dome. But it is very important to find some place safe when the alarm goes off and stay safe until it stops.
As of the moment I am writing this (Saturday 15 of May evening ; Happy birthday brother btw) the Monday rockets were the only ones that targeted Jerusalem. I sadly cannot say the same for the rest of Israel.
Monday evening, Israel responded and bombed parts of Gaza using airstrikes. The Monday events led to an escalation. More and more rockets were send from Gaza in the following days and more and more airstrikes were executed. I receive a notification on my phone every time a siren goes off anywhere in Israel signaling the imminent arrival of rockets. Even though, pretty much all the big cities in Israel have received some rockets this week, only few parts of Israel have been hit quite like the South. It is the nearest urban parts for Hamas to hit. I feel like they South Israeli inhabitants can constantly hear sirens since a few days. War creates casualties. Thousands of people from both sides have suffered small injuries. Hundreds of Palestinians died, as well as close to 10 Israelis. Hamas rockets are not as precise as Israeli missiles and Gaza does not have a defense system. This explain the difference in casualties.
Hamas raining rockets on Israel are one danger. Home riots are another. In the middle of the week, riots that were mostly concentrated in Jerusalem started happening in the rest of Israel. The city of Lod, with a large percentage of Arabs, has been recently described by the Times of Israel as nearing a « civil war ». There, a curfew has been enforced and some military troops have been moved there to keep the situation peaceful. Some casualties, Jewish and Arabs, resulted from those riots too. These violences also happen in the West Bank with Arabs trying to hurt Israeli military. These also create casualties on both side.
Here I am on Saturday night writing this article. Since I came back from Tel Aviv last Sunday I only went to the city once on Thursday night. We went there with some friends to get drinks. Normally, Thursday evening means last night before the weekend, so lots of people go out in the city center. The recent riots resulted in an almost empty city on that night. Nothing happened to us, thankfully, but we realized that inhabitants of Jerusalem take the current riots and unique act of violence very seriously indeed.
Hamas has reportedly asked for a cease fire (even though they started the fire). Israel has so far refused saying that Hamas has not yet paid the price. It is important to mention that Hamas targets Israeli civilians. On the other hand, the IDF says it targets Hamas terrorists and their hiding places. Moreover, the poor quality of aim of the rockets used by Hamas resulted in several of them falling and exploding within the Gaza borders killing a number of Palestinians. Furthermore, when the IDF (Israel Defense Forces) wants to target a building with civilians and some weapons reserves in it, they warn the inhabitants to get out before they destroy the building. Sadly, civilian casualties happened and some of them were children on both sides of the conflict.
I hope the Israel government will accept a cease fire. You cannot win by playing the same game as your enemy, you win by proving that you are better and able to take the high ground. This conflict has had so many casualties and remains difficult to fully understand. Those who say that it is « black and white » simple are just plain wrong and motivated by corrupted beliefs. Previous and current conflicts are complicated but the most difficult part will be to find and preserve a long term peaceful solution. May God help them !
Photo from the Times of Israel. On the rights, rockets sent from Gaza. On the left, the Iron Dome in action.
Video of the Iron Dome in action with a Star Wars soundtrack.