A rocket fired from the Gaza Strip crashed into Israel on Wednesday, the second in almost 48 hours but the first to reach Israeli soil, as authorities tried to defuse the situation after days of tension in Jerusalem.
“A rocket was fired from the Gaza Strip towards Israeli territory,” the army said in a message, while local police explained that the projectile crashed into a field in the Israeli city of Sderot without causing any injuries.
This is the second rocket fired from Gaza into Israel this week, but the first in months to hit Israeli territory.
On Monday, a rocket fired from Gaza was intercepted by Israel’s “Iron Dome” anti-missile shield.
After that launch, which was not claimed, Israeli aircraft bombed positions allegedly belonging to the Islamist movement Hamas.
Tensions remain high in Israel and the Palestinian Territories, especially following this weekend’s clashes between Palestinian protesters and Israeli police at the Temple Mount in Jerusalem, the third holiest site in Islam and the holiest in Judaism. under its name of Temple Mount.
The presence of Jews – who can visit the esplanade under specific conditions and hours, but cannot pray there by tacit agreement – and of police officers at the site during Ramadan was considered by the Palestinians and various countries of the region as a provocative measure.
Israeli police on Wednesday night prevented hundreds of Jewish nationalist protesters from approaching the Muslim quarter of Jerusalem’s Old City to prevent clashes that could spark an escalation between Israel and Palestinian movements.
Police blocked the protesters, who included many supporters of far-right MP Itamar Ben Gvir, who had been banned by Prime Minister Naftali Bennett from entering the area earlier in the day.
For his part, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres is “deeply concerned about the deteriorating situation in Jerusalem,” his spokesman said Wednesday in New York.
On Friday and Sunday, clashes between Palestinian protesters and Israeli police caused more than 170 injuries on the Esplanade of the Mosques, coinciding with the celebrations of the Muslim month of Ramadan and Pesach, the Jewish Passover.
