The Israel Defense Forces says two rockets were launched at the northern Israeli town of Metula earlier this evening.
According to the IDF, troops scanning an area near the town located two rockets, following a barrage of mortars that also landed there.
The attack caused no injuries or damage.
Earlier today, 34 rockets were launched from southern Lebanon at the Western and Upper Galilee area.
Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh says Palestinians “will not sit with their arms crossed” in the face of Israeli “aggression” against the Al-Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem.
Speaking in Beirut after a barrage of rockets was fired from Lebanon toward Israel, Haniyeh says “our Palestinian people and the Palestinian resistance groups will not sit idly by” in the face of Israel’s “savage aggression” against Al-Aqsa.
Haniyeh calls on “all Palestinian organizations to unify their ranks and intensify their resistance against the Zionist occupation.”
The Israel Defense Forces says two rockets were launched at the northern Israeli town of Metula earlier this evening.
According to the IDF, troops scanning an area near the town located two rockets, following a barrage of mortars that also landed there.
The attack caused no injuries or damage.
Earlier today, 34 rockets were launched from southern Lebanon at the Western and Upper Galilee area.
Bracing for rocket attacks, Rishon Lezion opens bomb shelters in city
The central city of Rishon Lezion says it is opening public bomb shelters, anticipating rocket attacks from the Gaza Strip.
“Rishon Lezion is not currently within the alert range of the Home Front Command, and despite this, I instructed tonight to open all the shelters throughout the city, so that Rishon Lezion will be prepared for any situation or escalation if there is one,” says Mayor Raz Kinstlich.
“We don’t know if the situation will escalate and I’m not ready to take unnecessary risks,” he adds.
The Israel Defense Forces has not issued any special instructions to residents following rocket attacks from Gaza and Lebanon. The IDF is expected to respond to the recent rocket fire, following a security cabinet meeting.
Police: 2 arrested in Umm al-Fahm for throwing rocks, setting tires alight
Police say that two suspects have been arrested during clashes with security forces in Umm al-Fahm.
According to police, dozens of people who gathered threw rocks at police and lit tires on fire in the city.
Unrest has been reported in other Arab-majority cities in Israel on the backdrop of rising violence in Jerusalem as well as with Lebanon.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says that ongoing internal debates in Israeli society will not prevent the country from responding firmly and significantly to escalating violence.
Speaking at the start of an emergency security cabinet meeting in Jerusalem following rocket fire from Lebanon, Netanyahu says that he has made clear in recent days to Israel’s enemies that “the internal debate among us will not prevent us from acting against them anywhere and at any time. We are all — with no exception — united on this.”
Netanyahu reiterates that Israel has “no intention to change the status quo on the Temple Mount — we are calling for a calming of tensions, and we will act firmly against extremists who are deploying violence there.”
The Biden administration blocked the UN Security Council from issuing a statement on the latest uptick in violence between Israelis and Palestinians, a senior Israeli official tells The Times of Israel.
The Security Council held an emergency session today to discuss the recent violence in Jerusalem, and several members pushed for the top UN panel to issue a statement condemning Israel over the police beating of Muslim worshippers at Al-Aqsa on Monday night, according to a UN diplomat for a county on the panel.
Some members were also pushing for the statement to include a condemnation of rocket fire at Israel from Gaza and Lebanon, the UN diplomat says.
However, Israel pushed countries against issuing any statement, fearing that it would be used to draw an equivalency between its actions and those of terror groups, the senior Israeli official says.
The southern coastal city of Ashkelon says it is opening public bomb shelters, anticipating further rocket attacks from the Gaza Strip.
Recent days have seen rocket attacks on southern Israel. Earlier today, 34 rockets were launched from Lebanon at northern Israel, in an attack blamed on the Gaza-based Hamas terror group.
Amid the escalation in violence, President Isaac Herzog says Israel will take action to ensure the security of its citizens, and called for the international community to condemn the recent rocket fire.
“The State of Israel will act on all levels to maintain its security and the security of its citizens. I demand that the international community strongly condemns the gross violation of international law, so as not to give support to terrorism and the injury of innocent people,” Herzog says.
Herzog says he spoke with local officials in the north and south of the country, and offered them support on behalf of the whole nation.
In addition to today’s rocket and mortar fire from Lebanon, which Israeli officials have blamed on the Hamas terror group, southern communities have also been targeted with projectiles fired from the Gaza Strip over the past two days.
Likud MK Yuli Edelstein, head of the Knesset’s Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee blames Iran for the rocket fire from Lebanon, and calls for a hit to the “head of the snake.”
“Iran is responsible for Hezbollah, Hezbollah is responsible for what is happening in Lebanon,” Edelstein says in a statement.
“We must not chase tails, but hit the head of the snake,” Edelstein says.
“The enemy is now watching Israel and its response, and therefore there must be a powerful and determined response, to make it clear to everyone that despite the internal debate – Israel is here and Israel is as strong as ever,” says Edelstein, who was one of the few voices from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud party to publicly call for a halt to the government’s contentious judicial overhaul.
“Terror is subdued by force – not by containment,” says Edelstein.
Gantz to Netanyahu: Announce that Gallant stays as defense minister; ignore the extremists in your cabinet
Gantz says the opposition “will back every responsible and determined action by the government to restore calm and strengthen deterrence.”
He urges Netanyahu to announce that Yoav Gallant will be staying on as defense minister “with no buts… and no conditions.”
This is “essential to operational success and national security,” he says.
And he urges the prime minister to ignore the extremists in his coalition while handling this crisis. “Netanyahu must act responsibly in handling this situation — he must not rely on the security cabinet… on irresponsible extremists… who will harm national security.”
He says Netanyahu needs to set up a smaller forum to run the situation because “lives are at stake.”
He tells Israel’s neighbors that Israel “maintains and protects freedom of worship — we’ve let more people come to [worship at] the Temple Mount [in recent weeks]. But we won’t let mosques become nests of terror.”
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