After 40 Gaza Rockets, Israel Fears Jerusalem Clashes Will Lead to Full-blown Escalation
If the violence and tensions in Jerusalem
persist, Israel is likely to witness a deterioration across Israel and
the region, top Israeli security officials say, following a security
assessment meeting on Saturday.
Officials
are worried that the recent outbursts of violence in Jerusalem could
further escalate the flare-up with Gaza, tensions in the West Bank and
may even lead to numerous protests in Muslim countries.
Israeli intelligence officials have linked the violence in Israel’s capital to Friday night’s Gaza rocket barrage, and the subsequent rocket fire on Saturday night. They expressed concern that Israeli attacks on Gaza will strengthen the relationship between Hamas and Israeli Arabs.
The
Israeli army and Hamas have exchanged messages through intermediaries,
the gist of which is that if Hamas refrains from additional rocket fire,
Israel will not pursue further retaliation.
After the security assessment, Prime
Minister Benjamin Netanyahu instructed the officials to prepare for
every scenario. Netanyahu has also called for “a calming of tempers on
all sides.”
The army has concluded that restraint is necessary during this sensitive period. Muslims worldwide are observing Ramadan,
Gaza and the West Bank are seeing high coronavirus infections rates and
the Palestinian parliamentary elections are fast approaching. To avoid
sparking a broad escalation on multiple fronts, Israeli security
agencies are preaching restraint.
Meanwhile, the police are preparing for continued clashes in Jerusalem in the coming days and are concerned that confrontations may spread to Arab cities and mixed Jewish and Arab cities.
Over the weekend, Police Commissioner Kobi
Shabtai ordered to deploy reinforcements, for the second time, and on
Saturday night some 1,500 police officers were on duty in Jerusalem in
an attempt to quell riots, mainly in the eastern part of the city,
Damascus Gate and Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood.
Clashes broke out
at the Damascus and Herod's Gates, with at least ten Palestinians
arrested. Meanwhile, Palestinains clashed with Israeli Border Police at
the Qalandiya border crossing with the West Bank, north of Jerusalem.
