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☆ Shooting attack in Jerusalem, clashes in West Bank
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-18 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

[1/3] Israeli security force members search and patrol the area following a shooting incident in East Jerusalem, April 18, 2023. On Monday, Israel's domestic security service said it had uncovered an attempt by Lebanese Hezbollah and Iran's Revolutionary Guards' Quds Force to recruit Palestinian operatives in the West Bank. U.S.-brokered peace talks aimed at establishing a Palestinian state in the West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem collapsed almost a decade ago and show no sign of revival. Israel annexed East Jerusalem after the 1967 Middle East War when it also captured Gaza and the West Bank, in a move not recognised internationally. Palestinians want East Jerusalem as their own future capital.

☆ Orthodox Christians await Holy Light in Jerusalem under heavy police restrictions
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-15 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

JERUSALEM, April 14 (Reuters) - Thousands of Palestinian Christians and pilgrims from around the world filled Jerusalem's Old City on Saturday to celebrate the Orthodox Holy Light ceremony, under a heavy Israeli police presence that has drawn anger from churches. Additional checkpoints around the Old City will also restrict access to the area around the church. Israel annexed East Jerusalem, which includes the walled Old City and its holy sites, after a 1967 Middle East War in a move not recognised internationally. Palestinians seek East Jerusalem as the capital of a future independent state in the occupied West Bank and Gaza. The Holy Sepulchre lies at the heart of the Old City's Christian Quarter in East Jerusalem.

By Tuesday evening, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office announced it would prohibit non-Muslims from entering the holy site for the rest of Ramadan. “I see these visits as a raid on our holy site,” he said. That status quo is slowly being chipped away, says Sheikh Rani Abusibr, an Imam of nearly twenty-years at Al-Aqsa. There was a heightened security presence at the holy site when Easter, Ramadan, and Passover celebrations overlapped. Without the status quo arrangement being enforced, there are fears that an already tumultuous region could spiral out of control.

☆ Israeli curbs on Orthodox Church crowds in Jerusalem for Easter draw ire
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-12 | by ( James Mackenzie | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

JERUSALEM, April 12 (Reuters) - Israeli police will curb the number of worshippers in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem for safety reasons during Orthodox Easter ceremonies on Saturday, drawing anger from church leaders who said they would not cooperate. However, the decision to limit access on Saturday to the Holy Fire, the most important Easter celebration for the Eastern Orthodox Church, angered church leaders who saw it as part of what they consider long-standing efforts by Israel to restrict the rights and freedoms of the local Christian community. Additional checkpoints around the Old City will also restrict access to the area around the church. But it reflected complaints from Christians that they are being gradually but systematically shut out of the Old City by Israeli authorities, who they say are upsetting longstanding status quo arrangements between the three communities. Additional reporting by Henriette Chacar and Emily Rose; Editing by Bernadette BaumOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ Two more die as Israel-Palestinian unrest simmers, political faultlines widen
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-10 | by ( Mohamad Torokman | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +5 min

[1/5] Relatives react during the funeral of a Palestinian who was killed during an Israeli raid, near Jericho in the Israeli-Occupied West Bank, April 10, 2023. In a sign of Israel's fracturing political faultlines, thousands of Israelis marched towards Evyatar, an evacuated outpost in the West Bank, in support of the expansion of settlements. "I had just left my house when I saw military forces and people throwing stones," said Fayez Balhan, the teen's father. Israeli forces are still trying to track the assailant down. Palestinians want an independent state in the West Bank and Gaza with East Jerusalem as its capital - territories Israel captured in a 1967 war.

☆ Israeli PM reverses course on sacking defence minister
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-10 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

JERUSALEM, April 10 (Reuters) - Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Monday he would leave Defence Minister Yoav Gallant in place given an escalating security crisis, reversing a decision to fire the minister that triggered protests and raised alarm abroad. The attacks, after a night of cross-border strikes in Gaza and Lebanon, added to heightened Israeli-Palestinian tensions following Israeli police raids in Jerusalem's Al-Aqsa mosque this week. "I'm not disturbed by the poll," Netanyahu told reporters. The prime minister said relations with the United States, which appeared strained over the government's planned judicial overhaul, remained "stronger than ever" and the two countries enjoyed security and intelligence cooperation. Netanyahu also addressed the issue of not yet being invited to an official visit at the White House in his latest stint as prime minister.

☆ Israel’s Efforts to Expand Arab Relations Slow Over Recent Turmoil
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-09 | by ( Dion Nissenbaum | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

JERUSALEM—Israeli police raids on Jerusalem’s holiest mosque, army operations against West Bank militants and anti-Palestinian comments by officials have drawn condemnation from Arab leaders—putting a chill on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ’s effort to deepen ties with Middle East neighbors. When Mr. Netanyahu returned to office in December, he said it would be a priority to establish diplomatic relations with Saudi Arabia, after Israel normalized ties in 2020 with the United Arab Emirates and three other Muslim-majority nations in deals known as the Abraham Accords.

☆ Israeli sisters killed in shooting attack laid to rest
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-09 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

KFAR ETZION, West Bank, April 9 (Reuters) - The family of two Israeli sisters who were killed in a shooting attack in the occupied West Bank shared tearful eulogies on Sunday with a room full of weeping mourners, while their mother who was wounded remained in a coma. Hours after the sisters were killed, an Italian tourist was killed in a ramming attack in Tel Aviv. The attacks added to heightened Israeli-Palestinian tensions following Israeli police raids in Jerusalem's Al-Aqsa mosque last week. Since the beginning of the year, at least 18 Israelis and foreigners have been killed in attacks in Israel, around Jerusalem and in the West Bank. In the same period, Israeli forces have killed more than 80 Palestinians, most of them fighters in militant groups but some of them civilians.

☆ Pope appeals to Russians on Ukraine, decries Middle East violence, in Easter message
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-09 | by ( Philip Pullella | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

VATICAN CITY, April 9 (Reuters) - Pope Francis appeared to ask Russians to seek the truth about their country's invasion of Ukraine in his Easter message to the world on Sunday and appealed for dialogue between Israelis and Palestinians following recent violence. Honour units of Vatican Swiss Guards and Italian Carabinieri police - both in ceremonial dress - stood at attention. "Help the beloved Ukrainian people on their journey towards peace, and shed the light of Easter upon the people of Russia," he said. As he has done every Easter, Francis called for peace in the Middle East, his appeal made more urgent by recent violence in Jerusalem and cross-border exchanges of fire involving Israel, Lebanon and Syria. The government, which has suspended diplomatic relations with the Vatican, banned outdoor Holy Week processions this year.

☆ After tense night, thousands pray at Jerusalem's Western Wall
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-09 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

REUTERS/Ammar AwadJERUSALEM, April 9 (Reuters) - Dawn Ramadan prayers at the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound ended peacefully on Sunday after days of heightened tension at the flashpoint Jerusalem site, as a mass Passover benediction at the adjacent Western Wall began. Small groups of Jewish visitors under heavy police guard walked through the mosque compound, known in Judaism as Temple Mount, as thousands of worshippers gathered for the Passover's special "Priestly Blessing" at the Western Wall below. At Al-Aqsa, the special Tarawih Ramadan prayer on Saturday night ended peacefully despite fears violence would erupt there once more. After a year of escalated Israeli-Palestinian violence, tensions are running especially high as Ramadan and Passover coincide, with a focus on the Al-Aqsa compound in Jerusalem's walled Old City. Clashes there between police and worshippers helped spark a 10-day war Israel-Gaza war in 2021.

☆ Why sympathy for the Palestinians among Americans is shifting and at an all-time high
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-08 | by ( Isobel Van Hagen | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +10 min

Sympathy toward the Palestinians among US adults is at a new high of 31%, according to Gallup data. Social media is changing the way Americans perceive the conflict between Israelis and Palestinians. The police used tear gas and fired stun grenades as young Palestinians threw firecrackers back, according to multiple reports. But while the cycles of violence in the long-running conflict between Israelis and Palestinians remain unchanged, the way Americans perceive the conflict is altering. Gallup Poll conducted between conducting the poll between Feb 1-23, 2023.

☆ Israeli strikes target Hamas in Lebanon and Gaza after rocket attack
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-07 | by ( ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +4 min

GAZA CITY - Flames rise from the area after Israeli warplanes launched airstrikes on the central part of the Gaza Strip, on April 07, 2023. "We strongly condemn the blatant Zionist aggression against Lebanon in the vicinity of Tyre at dawn today," Hamas said. The strikes came in response to rocket attacks from Lebanon towards northern Israeli areas, which Israeli officials blamed on Hamas. As the Israeli jets struck in Gaza, salvoes of rockets were fired in response and sirens sounded in Israeli towns and cities in bordering areas. An Israeli military spokesman said the Israeli operation was over for the moment.

☆ Israel reinforces troops after violence along Lebanon, Gaza borders
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-07 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

JERUSALEM/GAZA, April 7 (Reuters) - Israel reinforced troops near its borders with Lebanon and Gaza on Friday following a flare-up in violence that threatened to spiral out of control after police raids this week on the Al-Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem. [1/4] Smoke and flames rise during Israeli airstrikes in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip, April 7, 2023. Before noon on Friday, however, Israel's military said residents near the Gaza frontier no longer needed to keep close to bomb shelters. "Who wants war? No one, but also we can’t stand these brutal assaults on worshippers in Al-Aqsa," he said.

Salvoes of rockets from Lebanon and Gaza struck north and south in Israel over the past day and the Israeli military replied with air strikes. Palestinian militant group Hamas, which rules Gaza, praised the shooting attack but stopped short of claiming responsibility. [1/3] Israeli troops stand guard at a shooting attack scene in the Jordan Valley, in the Israeli-occupied West Bank April 7,2023. With the international-led peace process long moribund, Palestinians' hopes of creating an independent state in the West Bank and Gaza, with East Jerusalem as its capital, have faded. Israel's new hard-right government is set on expanding Jewish settlements in the West Bank and includes members who rule out a Palestinian state.

☆ Gaza militants fire rockets into Israel, military says
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-06 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

GAZA, April 6 (Reuters) - Palestinian militants fired rockets into southern Israel for a second day on Thursday, the Israeli military said, after a police raid at a Jerusalem flashpoint holy site triggered crossborder fire and stoked fears of further escalation. There were no casualties reported in the early morning rocket attack from the blockaded Gaza Strip, controlled by Islamist militant group Hamas. On Wednesday, Israeli police raided the Al-Aqsa mosque compound in Jerusalem, a tinderbox of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. At least 12 Palestinians were injured and images of officers beating worshippers inside Islam's third holiest site circulated on social media. Militants in Gaza fired rockets into Israel soon after, drawing Israeli air strikes.

[1/4] Israeli policemen stand next to smoke from a fire following incoming rockets from Lebanon to Israel in Bezet, northern Israel, April 6, 2023. The Israeli military said 34 rockets were launched from Lebanon, of which 25 were intercepted by Israel's Iron Dome, anti-missile system. There was no claim of responsibility but an Israeli military official also said that Israel was working on the assumption that the attack was Palestinian-linked. "It's not Hezbollah shooting, but it's hard to believe that Hezbollah didn't know about it," Tamir Hayman, a former head of Israeli military intelligence said on Twitter. In response, Israel has hit targets in Gaza linked to Hamas, which it holds responsible for any attacks from the blockaded coastal strip.

☆ Israeli police raid Jerusalem's Al-Aqsa mosque during Ramadan
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-05 | by ( Jillian Kumagai | ) www.reuters.com time to read: 1 min

The death toll from a violent storm that whipped up tornadoes in the southern and midwestern regions of the United States rose to at least 32 over the weekend, according to officials and media reports.

☆ Israeli police attack worshippers in Jerusalem's Al Aqsa
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-05 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

[1/4] Israeli border policemen set up a fence near Al-Aqsa compound also known to Jews as the Temple Mount, while tension arises during clashes with Palestinians in Jerusalem's Old City, April 5, 2023. REUTERS/Ammar AwadJERUSALEM, April 5 (Reuters) - Israeli police attacked dozens of worshippers in Jerusalem's Al-Aqsa Mosque compound before dawn on Wednesday, witnesses said, in what Israeli police said was a response to rioting. It said in a statement that Israeli forces were preventing its medics from reaching the mosque. Friction at the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound, known to Jews as the Temple Mount, has set off violence in recent years. Videos circulating on social media, which Reuters could not immediately verify, showed fireworks going off and police beating people inside the mosque.

☆ Israeli raid at Al-Aqsa mosque risks igniting violence, Arab League says
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-05 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

[1/2] Israeli security forces take position at the Al-Aqsa compound, also known to Jews as the Temple Mount, while tension arises during clashes with Palestinians in Jerusalem's Old City, April 5, 2023. REUTERS/Ammar AwadCAIRO, April 5 (Reuters) - The Arab League on Wednesday strongly condemned an Israeli police raid on Al-Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem, saying it put regional stability at risk. In a statement issued after an emergency meeting on the incident, the League condemned what it called "crimes committed by the Israeli occupation forces against defenceless Muslim worshippers" in the mosque. The pre-dawn raid risked "igniting a spiral of violence that threatens security and stability in the region and the world", it added. Arab League Secretary General Ahmed Aboul Gheit had earlier condemned the raid in a separate statement.

☆ Canadian PM urges Israel to change its approach after raid, clashes
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-05 | by ( Ismail Shakil | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

REUTERS/Ammar AwadOTTAWA, April 5 (Reuters) - Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Wednesday criticised the Israeli government's "inflamed rhetoric" and urged it to change its approach to the Palestinians amid an upsurge in violence. He also condemned the rocket attacks by Palestinian militants from Gaza. "We're extremely concerned with the inflamed rhetoric coming out of the Israeli government, we're concerned about the judicial reforms ... we're concerned by the violence around the al-Aqsa mosque," Trudeau said. "We absolutely, unequivocally condemn the rocket attacks from militants in Gaza. We need to see a de-escalation of violence," Trudeau added.

☆ Factbox: Where is Al Aqsa mosque and why is it so important in Islam?
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-05 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

April 5 (Reuters) - A Israeli police raid on Jerusalem's Al-Aqsa mosque on Wednesday has triggered a furious reaction from Palestinians across the occupied West Bank and the wider Arab and Muslim world. WHERE AND WHAT IS THE AL-AQSA MOSQUE? The Al-Aqsa compound has long been a flashpoint for deadly violence over matters of sovereignty and religion in Jerusalem. Under the longstanding "status quo" arrangement governing the area, which Israel says it maintains, non-Muslims can visit but only Muslims are allowed to worship in the mosque compound. Palestinians protested, and there were violent clashes that quickly escalated into the second Palestinian uprising, also known as the Al-Aqsa Intifada.

☆ Turkey's Erdogan condemns Israeli police raid on Al-Aqsa mosque
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-05 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

ISTANBUL, April 5 (Reuters) - Turkey's President Tayyip Erdogan on Wednesday condemned the Israeli police raid on Jerusalem's Al-Aqsa mosque, which led to clashes with worshippers, calling such acts in the mosque compound a "red line" for Turkey. The incident came during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan and on the eve of the Jewish Passover, stoking fears of further violence at the mosque compound, a flashpoint in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. "The name of this is the politics of repression, the politics of blood, the politics of provocation. Turkey can never remain silent and unmoved in the face of these attacks," Erdogan said. "Putting a hand on al-Aqsa mosque and trampling on the sanctity of the Haram al-Sharif is a red line for us."

☆ Cross-border fire in Gaza after Israeli police raid Al-Aqsa mosque
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-05 | by ( ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

Israeli police entered Jerusalem's Al-Aqsa mosque compound before dawn on Wednesday and clashed with worshippers, in what police said was a response to rioting that set off a furious reaction across the West Bank and cross border strikes in Gaza. Witnesses said Israeli tanks also shelled Hamas positions along the border fence in the southern part of the Gaza strip. Israeli police walk inside the Al-Aqsa mosque compound in Jerusalem, early on April 5, 2023 after clashes erupted during Islam's holy month of Ramadan. Ahmad Gharabli | Afp | Getty ImagesThe Palestinian Red Crescent said 12 Palestinians sustained wounds from rubber-tipped bullets and beatings in clashes with Israeli police. Videos circulating on social media, which Reuters could not immediately verify, showed fireworks going off and police beating people inside the mosque.

☆ Israel approves 'national guard' sought by far-right security minister
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-02 | by ( Dan Williams | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

It was not immediately clear who would have direct authority over the national guard. Having moderated some of his positions, he wields an expanded law-and-order portfolio in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's religious-nationalist governing coalition. Ben Gvir has described the planned national guard in media interviews as an update of the previous government's initiative. "Why does the State of Israel - which has an army, police, military intelligence, the Shin Bet, Mossad, National Security Council, Prisons Service, riot police, a SWAT team - need another national guard?" He said that the national guard would take months to get off the ground and that he was trying to fill police posts in parallel.

☆ Scuffles as Israeli police break up judicial overhaul protests
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-02 | by ( Reuters Editorial | ) www.reuters.com time to read: 1 min

PoliticsScuffles as Israeli police break up judicial overhaul protestsPostedScuffles broke out in Tel Aviv as Israeli police tried to clear the streets of protesters, after tens of thousands of people once again marched out in cities across Israel on Saturday (April 1), demanding a controversial judicial overhaul plan be scrapped entirely.

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