Violence continues in Gaza as Palestinians, Israelis trade fire

GAZA • Palestinians fired uninterrupted barrages of rockets into Israel, as its military pounded Gaza with air strikes through the early hours of yesterday, in a dramatic escalation of clashes in Jerusalem.

Explosions shook buildings throughout Gaza and rocket sirens sent Israelis in many southern towns scurrying for shelter.

Two Palestinians were killed and more than 100 wounded in air strikes, Palestinian officials said. Six Israelis were wounded by a rocket, medics said.

Nine children were among the 20 dead in Gaza on Monday and scores of rockets were launched into Israel, many of them intercepted by missile defences.

The firing by Gaza militants into the Jerusalem area for the first time since a 2014 war crossed what Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called a "red line".

The upsurge in violence came as Israel started celebrating Jerusalem Day on Sunday, marking its capture of East Jerusalem in the 1967 Arab-Israeli war.

It began with confrontations last Friday at Al-Aqsa Mosque in the heart of the walled Old City in the compound known to Jews as Temple Mount and to Muslims as the Noble Sanctuary - the most sensitive site in the Israel-Palestinian conflict.

The Palestine Red Crescent Society said more than 300 Palestinians were injured in clashes with Israeli police, who fired rubber bullets, stun grenades and tear gas in the compound. Police said 21 officers were hurt in the skirmishes.

Although the trouble died down after a few hours, there were other focal points of tension, such as the Sheikh Jarrah neighbourhood of East Jerusalem just north of the Old City, where several Palestinian families are facing eviction from homes claimed by Jewish settlers in a long-running legal case.

Hamas, the Islamist militant group that controls Gaza, had set an evening deadline for Israel to remove its police from Al-Aqsa and Sheikh Jarrah. When it expired, sirens wailed in Jerusalem and rockets hit the city's outskirts.

Israel views all of Jerusalem as its capital, including the eastern part annexed after the 1967 war in a move that has not secured international recognition.

Palestinians want East Jerusalem for the capital of a state they seek in Gaza and the Israeli-occupied West Bank.

Hamas and the smaller Islamic Jihad militant group have claimed responsibility for the rocket fire on Jerusalem.

The Israeli military said it struck targets that included militant operatives, attack tunnels and the home of a Hamas commander.

Of the 20 Palestinians killed on Monday, seven, including three children, were family members who died in an explosion in the town of Beit Hanoun, though it was unclear if it had been caused by an Israeli strike or a Palestinian rocket that had fallen short.

Meanwhile, Palestinians injured in clashes with Israeli police in the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound filled the halls of an East Jerusalem hospital on Monday. Several of those hit by rubber bullets had lost eyes.

Makassed Hospital director-general Adnan Farhoud said 100 patients arrived on Monday morning, and about 200 people after the unrest first began.

Yesterday, the United Nations human rights office said it was "deeply concerned" over the escalation of violence in the occupied Palestinian territories, East Jerusalem and Israel.

"We condemn all violence and all incitement to violence and ethnic division and provocations," said Mr Rupert Colville, spokesman from the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights.

He said Israeli security forces must allow the freedom of expression, association and assembly. "No force should be used against those exercising their rights peacefully," he said.

When use of force is necessary, it should comply fully with international human rights standards.

REUTERS, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE