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Israeli security on high alert for “day of rage”
Israeli security forces are preparing for clashes with Palestinian protesters for a second consecutive Friday following last week’s Jerusalem announcement by US President Donald Trump.
The IDF will deploy extra soldiers across the West Bank, Gaza border and in Jerusalem, following relative calm in Jerusalem last week, police are not planning to impose any age restrictions on Muslim worshipers going to pray on the Temple Mount.
Yesterday nearly 100,000 Palestinians gathered in Gaza City to mark the 30th anniversary of the founding of Hamas. Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh told the rally that “there is no such thing as the State of Israel, so it cannot have a capital called Jerusalem. We will work on forcing the American administration to reverse its unjust decision. We salute the beginning of rage, intifada and revolution”.
Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories, Maj. Gen. Yoav Mordechai told the BBC Arabic-language service that “Israel does not want an escalation,” adding that if Hamas “doesn’t want an escalation, it must stop the fire [of missiles] completely, and as soon as possible”.
Twenty-four missiles have been fired from Gaza towards Israel in the past week. At least 13 made it into Israeli territory but were either intercepted by the Iron Dome anti-missile system or landed in open areas. One landed in Sderot last Saturday and damaged a kindergarten but caused no injuries.
Defence Minister Avigdor Lieberman visited Sderot yesterday and said: “I hope that the residents of Gaza will force their leadership to invest all their efforts and money in improving the economy in the Gaza Strip and not on digging tunnels, producing rockets and firing at Israel.”
“Because by doing so, they are endangering the population of the Gaza Strip. In any event, I have instructed the IDF to be ready for all possible scenarios,” the Defence Minister said.
IDF Spokesman Brig. Gen. Ronen Manelis has warned Hamas its “only option is to stop the rocket fire,” and that the Israeli military will not tolerate anything less than “complete quiet” on its border with the Gaza Strip. “We’ve seen in the past three and a half years that Hamas, when it wants to, knows how to prevent rocket fire coming from Gaza,” Manelis said.