More than 20 Palestinians killed in Israeli strikes on Gaza after security forces’ crackdown on Jerusalem worshippers.
The Israeli military renewed its bombardment of the beleaguered Gaza Strip on Tuesday morning, targeting several areas after rockets were fired from the enclave.
The new attacks come hours after at least 24 Palestinians – including nine children – were killed in overnight Israeli air strikes on the strip after Hamas launched rockets from the coastal territory towards Israel, according to the health ministry in Gaza.
The rocket fire came after Gaza’s rulers Hamas issued an ultimatum demanding Israel stand down its security forces from the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound in occupied East Jerusalem after days of violence against Palestinians.
Israeli police stormed the compound on Monday for a third consecutive day, firing rubber-coated steel rounds, stun grenades, and tear gas at Palestinian worshippers inside the mosque in the final days of the holy month of Ramadan.
More than 700 Palestinians were hurt in Jerusalem and across the occupied West Bank over the past 24 hours.
Here are the latest updates:
Tense calm in East Jerusalem’s Old City
Despite signs of relative calm in the Old City, the Palestinian Red Crescent said at least 520 Palestinians have been wounded since Monday, including more than 200 who are hospitalised – five of whom are in critical condition.
Siraj, a 24-year-old Palestinian man, suffered a spleen injury being hit by a rubber-coated steel bullet a day earlier.
He sat in a wheelchair with his two legs bandaged at East Jerusalem’s crowded Makassed Hospital.
“They shot everyone, young and old people,” he told Al Jazeera, referring to Israeli police.
The hospital’s director, Adnan Farhoud, said most of those wounded suffered injuries to the head, chest and limbs.
Israel trying to ‘redeem its humiliation’ in Jerusalem by striking Gaza
Ali Abunimah, an author and the co-founder of the Electronic Intifada website, called out Israel’s actions in the occupied Palestinian territories.
Speaking to Al Jazeera from Amman, he said: “It’s “horrific to see Israel once again deciding to try to redeem its humiliation in Jerusalem by killing Palestinians, particularly children … in Gaza due to Israeli attacks targeting residential homes among many other sites.”
“What happened yesterday in Jerusalem was Israel suffered a humiliating defeat when Palestinian popular resistance, without the support of any governments, without the support of the Palestinian Authority … defeated Israel, forced them to cancel the settler march, and is continuing to resist the ethnic cleansing in Sheikh Jarrah,” Abunimah said.
“What Hamas and the other resistance factions were trying to say to Israel is do not think you can attack Jerusalem and attack Palestinians in the West Bank and count on the resistance not to respond to you.
“So that was a major strategic miscalculation by Israel because they thought that we can do as we please because we’ve divided the Palestinian people – there are little bits of them in the West Bank, little bits of them in Gaza,” he added.
Gaza health ministry announces new deaths
Health authorities in Gaza said three people died overnight, including an elderly woman and a man with special needs, taking the total number of those killed in Israeli raids to 24.
At least 103 people were wounded, it added.
Israel launches more air raids on Gaza
The Israeli army unleashed new air strikes on Gaza and said it struck “130 targets” there since last night “in response” to rockets fired from the strip.
Hamas said it launched dozens of rockets from Gaza after it earlier warned Israel to stop the violence against Palestinian worshippers at Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem.
In a statement issued early Tuesday, Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh said the rocket attacks would continue until Israel stops “all scenes of terrorism and aggression in Jerusalem and Al-Aqsa Mosque”.