Minister accuses defense leadership of ‘insurrection’
Heritage Minister Amichai Eliyahu of Otzma Yehudit is accusing the country’s defense leadership of a deep-state style conspiracy undermining the government’s ability to provide security for its citizens.
Asked on Twitter about his hardline law-and-order party’s propensity for making promises, when in fact the nation has slid into a deep security crisis, Eliyahu answers that his party will keep making promises.
“It’s complicated. When the country has leaders in the defense array who are acting on ‘insurrection’ footing, nobody can take that into account,” he tweets.
The comment draws swift fire from opposition leader Yair Lapid, who shoots back that Eliyahu should show receipts or be booted.
“We don’t have another IDF. The incitement against the defense community is out of control,” he says.
Temple Mount clash avoided when police realized worshipers not planning attack
Claims that Muslim worshippers were barricading themselves inside the Al-Aqsa Mosque overnight to be ready to attack Jewish visitors to the Temple Mount in the morning may have been unfounded, hence the police decision to not enter the compound to clear it out Sunday morning.
Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer tells CNN that “fortunately today, we didn’t have to go in, because the people who were in there did not go there according to our intelligence to perpetrate violence. And so therefore there were no incidents.”
After hours of reports that Muslims had barricaded themselves inside with weapons, police had been said early Sunday to be readying to go in to clear out the compound to allow Jewish visitors. Instead, police began allowing the Jewish visitors to enter, with police deployed to protect the groups Sunday morning.
According to Israel’s Channel 12 news, police did not raid the mosque after it was determined that those inside had not brought objects with them that could be used to carry out attacks.
The channel claimed that the group inside was nonetheless “evacuated in relative quiet” as Jewish visitors arrived. Previous reports had pointed to possible behind the scenes talks to convince the would-be rioters to stand down.
Pope calls for Israeli-Palestinian talks in Easter message
Pope Francis uses his traditional Easter address to call for renewed peace talks between Israelis and Palestinians, and for an end to the violence threatening to subsume the region.
Francis urges the “resumption of dialogue, in a climate of trust and reciprocal respect, between Israelis and Palestinians, so that peace may reign in the Holy City and in the entire region,” a reference to Jerusalem.
He also urges the international community to work to end the war in Ukraine and “all conflict and bloodshed in the world, beginning with Syria, which still awaits peace.” Francis also prays for those who lost loved ones in an earthquake that struck Syria and Turkey two months ago, claiming tens of thousands of lives.
Jordan condemns Israeli incursions onto Temple Mount
Jordan is condemning Jewish visits to the Temple Mount, warning of “catastrophic consequences” should Israel not cease what it says are violations of the status quo at the fragile holy site.
A statement from Jordan’s foreign ministry spokesman Sinan Majali carried by the country’s official Petra mouthpiece warns “that the Israeli police forces’ violation of the sanctity of the holy Al-Aqsa Mosque / Al-Haram Al-Qudsi Al-Sharif and assaulting worshipers again in an attempt to empty it of worshipers, in preparation for major incursions into the mosque, will push the situation towards more tension and violence, for which everyone will pay the price.”
A slightly different statement carried by Petra in Arabic makes clear that Jordan is condemning Jewish visits under Israeli police protection and notes that only Muslim prayer is permitted at the site. It claims exclusive jurisdiction for the Jordanian-funded Waqf, which administers the site.
“The Israeli government bears responsibility for the escalation in Jerusalem and in all the occupied Palestinian territories and for the deterioration that will worsen” if it does not halt incursions into the holy site or “terrorization” of worshipers, the statement reads.
Some 1,000 Jewish visitors have ascended the Temple Mount since the start of the Passover holiday last week, 842 on Sunday morning alone, according to an umbrella group of organizations lobbying for greater Jewish access to the site.
Hezbollah terror chief Hassan Nasrallah meets with a delegation led by Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Beirut, days after rocket fire from southern Lebanon and the Gaza Strip.
Lebanese media report the two terror chiefs discussed the “axis of resistance” and cooperation between their terror groups against Israel amid the escalation in violence.
Hezbollah has close ties with Hamas, which rules Gaza, and with the Palestinian Islamic Jihad terror group, which is also based in the coastal enclave.
The meeting came as tensions soared across the region, with barrages of rockets from Lebanon and Syria; tit-for-tat rocket fire from the Gaza Strip and Israeli strikes; clashes at Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem’s Temple Mount; deadly terror attacks in Israel and the West Bank; as well as a suspected Iranian drone launched from Syria earlier in the week.
Thousands attend the biannual priestly blessing at Jerusalem’s Western Wall plaza, despite a string of deadly terror attacks and rocket fire in recent days.
The blessing, a mass prayer event, which this year falls on Ramadan, is less attended than in previous years, when worshippers clad in prayer shawls packed the men’s section of the Western Wall area to capacity.
One male worshiper, Ohad David, a resident of the West Bank settlement of Givat Ze’ev, came alone to the blessing instead of with his three boys, as he had originally planned.
“There’s no question of abandoning the custom because of a few terror attacks, but there’s also no need to pretend the circumstances are ideal for bringing children to the Old City,” David, 42, says.
Police and soldiers are stationed throughout the Old City of Jerusalem as part of an emergency deployment.
Occurring on Passover and Sukkot, the traditional benediction sees male descendants of the Kohanim priestly caste gather to bless crowds.
The worshipers raise their hands as those conducting the blessing also cover their heads with prayer shawls.
Several hundred Jews have also visited the Temple Mount under heavy police guard.
The events are taking place amid simmering tensions after a spike in violence in recent days.
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