Some 2,000 Jews ascended the Temple Mount in Jerusalem on Sunday to mark Tisha B’Av, the fast day that began the night before that commemorates the destruction of the two biblical temples.
The visits to Judaism’s holiest site took place amid an ongoing conflict between Israel and the Gaza Strip-based Palestinian Islamic Jihad, which fired rockets towards the holy city on Sunday morning, setting off sirens in surrounding areas.
Israel’s Iron Dome air defense system intercepted the projectiles.
Among the visitors to the Temple Mount on Sunday was Israeli lawmaker Itamar Ben-Gvir, head of the Otzma Yehudit Party, who told Kan Reshet Bet in a radio interview that Palestinian Islamic Jihad missiles “do not deter me.”
“We are in charge here,” he said, adding, “If we blink, they will continue. If we pound them, they will fold.”
Meanwhile, three Jews were detained on Sunday for violating the Israeli government’s prohibition against Jewish prayer on the Temple Mount, Kan reported. The report cited police sources as saying they had “no intention of allowing any provocations or disturbances in Jerusalem at the site.”
Police said that a number of Muslim worshippers near the Al-Aqsa Mosque, which is located on the Temple Mount, were also arrested for “disturbing the peace, being provocative … [and] making inciteful remarks.”
Some Muslim worshippers reportedly shouted at Ben-Gvir, “Allahu Akbar,” or “God is Greatest,” and “slaughter the Jew,” to which the parliamentarian retorted: “Am Yisrael Chai,” or “The People of Israel Lives.”
by Mudar Adnan Zahran, he is the secretary General of the Jordan Opposition Coalition and a Palestinian Arab leader.
Israel recently killed a military leader of the Iran-backed Islamic Jihad terror group in Gaza. Tayseer al-Jabari, who was killed by an Israeli airstrike on 5 August, was the key military commander for the said group and has been considered the group’s leader since 2019. The killing was the first step in what Israel named Operation Breaking Dawn to target Islamic Jihad operations and installations in Gaza.
The latest confrontation between Israel and Gaza’s terrorists does not have its origins in the Hamas-run Strip.
To some extent, it began in Jenin on Monday night, when the IDF arrested the West Bank leader of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) terror group, Bassem Saadi, 61. Repeatedly jailed by Israel over the years, Saadi had been establishing “a significant military force for the organization in [the northern West Bank] in general and in Jenin in particular” in recent months, according to the Shin Bet security service.
To a still wider extent, however, it can be traced to Iran, which has reportedly funneled tens if not hundreds of millions of dollars to PIJ in recent years to finance its recruiting and its weaponry in both Gaza and the West Bank.
For more than three days in the wake of Saadi’s arrest, facing what Israeli officials said Friday were “concrete” threats that PIJ was bent on avenging his capture by targeting Israeli civilians and soldiers near the Gaza border, Israel imposed a semi-lockdown on its residents near the Strip, bolstered its troop deployments, and warned Islamic Jihad via Egyptian mediators to stand down.
This is radar tracking of the barrage of rockets fired by the Islamic Jihad terrorist organization in Gaza last night.
— Israel Defense Forces (@IDF) August 7, 2022
This shows the site where the rocket landed—a place where Palestinian civilians, including children, were killed by a misfired rocket. pic.twitter.com/asBh1Whyht
Over 40 rockets from Gaza have landed in Gaza.
— United With Israel (@UniteWithIsrael) August 6, 2022
They mean to kill our innocent civilians and instead they're killing their own.
I mourn for the innocent people of Gaza who are being murdered by Palestinian Islamic Jihad. pic.twitter.com/8suCIVlNPi
Following the reports of the tragic events in Jabaliya, the IDF concluded an in-depth debrief. Based on all the IDF systems data, it appears that this event is the outcome of an Islamic Jihad rocket misfire. We did not conduct any activities in Jabaliya at the time of the event.
— Israel Defense Forces (@IDF) August 6, 2022
🚨 #BREAKING VIDEO: According to #Israeli press, an explosion in Jabaliya in the northern #Gaza Strip that killed at least four children was a failed rocket launch by #Islamic Jihad.
— StandWithUs (@StandWithUs) August 6, 2022
(Thread) pic.twitter.com/jVLnz07y2z
